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A history of drug use in sport 1876–1976: beyond good and evil

Edited by Paul Dimeo. . Published by Routledge, UK, 2007, pp 153, £80 (hardback), £23.99 (paperback). ISBN 978-0-415-35772-2

It is timely for the author and of interest for early readers that this book was published during the 2007 Tour de Farce (sorry, France). Paul Dimeo, who became interested in drug misuse in sport in 2002, uses his background as a sports sociologist to discuss a century of this topic, commencing in 1876 and extending beyond performance enhancing drugs to early social drugs. This book contains some interesting topics that are not contained in the majority of text on the subject. But readers of this journal who have a science background may find the book a tedious read because of the verbosity of the sociological jargon.

Oddly, Dimeo could find no heroes, only villains—even among those who pioneered the fight against drugs in sport. This …