Mark Dyreson

Revolt Against Destiny is a wide-ranging and thought-provoking cultural and intellectual history of the United States. The appreciation for irony and paradox, the recognition of both grand meta-narrative and conflicting social realities, and the quest to capture the complexities of public discourse that animate this book have had an enormous influence on my attempts to explore the roles that sport has played in American culture. I also witnessed the making of this book. Paul Carter was my major professor at the University of Arizona and published this work in 1989, the year I completed my Ph.D. under his supervision. In his spare office in Tucson we often debated the ideas that rest at the core his unique interpretation of American history. I am forever grateful that he included me in the process of writing this book and the lessons I learned from him have helped me enormously in my own writing.