About the Book:The 1936 Olympic Games played a key role in the development of both Hitlers Third Reich and international sporting competition.The Nazi Olympicsgathers essays by modern scholars from prominent participating countries and lays out the issues–sporting as well as political–surrounding the involvement of individual nations.The volume opens with an analysis of Germanys preparations for the Games and the attempts by the Nazi regime to allay the international concerns about Hitlers racist ideals and expansionist ambitions. Essays follow on the United States, Great Britain, and France–top-tier Olympian nations with misgivings about participation–as well as Germany’s future Axis partners Italy and Japan. Other contributions examine the issues involved for Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Throughout, the authors reveal the high political stakes surrounding the Games and how the Nazi Olympics distilled critical geopolitical issues of the time into a spectacle of sport.Table of Contents: Germany – the propaganda machine by Arnd Kreuger; United States of America – the crucial battle by Arnd Kreuger; Great Britain – the amateur tradition by Richard Holt; France – liberty equality and the pursuit of fraternity by William Murray; Italy – Mussolini’s boys at Hitler’s Olympics by Gigliola Gori; Japan – the future in the past by Tetsuo Nakamura; Finland – the promised land of Olympic sports by Leena Laine; Sweden – business as usual by Lars-Olof Wilander; Norway – Germany the Nazis and a small neighbour by Matti Goksjr; Denmark – living with reality by Jrn Hansen; Netherlands – in the shadow of big brother by Andr e Swijtink.