Table of Contents

1. Introduction: The Sporting Barrier: Historical and Cultural Interpretations of the Four-Minute Mile  John Bale & P. David Howe  2. The Idea of the Record  Jim Parry  3. Bannister’s Feat in Austere Times: The Construction and Reproduction of a Sporting Trope  Alan Tomlinson  4. How Much of a Hero? The Fractured Image of Roger Bannister  John Bale  5. Roger Bannister’s American Image  Caroline Collins  6. The Four Minute Mythology: Documenting Drama on Film and Television  Garry Whannel  7. Inhibiting Progress: The Record of the Four-Minute Mile  Jim Denison  8. Amphetamine and the Four-Minute Mile  John Hoberman  9. Training Theory and Why Roger Bannister was the First Four-Minute Miler  Arnd Kruger  10. Habitus, Barriers and the [Ab]use of the Science of Interval Training in the 1950s  P. David Howe

About the Author

John Bale, University of Aarhus.

P.David Howe, Loughborough University.