"Stout's book, ostensibly the tale of a little-known and never-celebrated sporting event prevented and overshadowed by the ultimately successful military uprising that took place in Spain on 18 July 1936, is in fact an excellent case study of a host of historical - but also current - phenomena. These include: bureaucratic short-sightedness in the face of insidiously advancing fascism; the power of a mobilized Left to accomplish impressive feats of international anti-fascist coordination; regionalisms that continue to challenge unitary models of Spanish nationhood; and political instrumentalizations of sport. In our present age of Russian athletic doping; of multi-billion-dollar sports merchandise industries and the use of products like football shirts to make political statements ranging from representation of mid-2000s England as progressively multicultural to the existence of discrete Catalan and Tibetan national identities; and of rising support for and visibility of far-right political movements across Europe and in the United States; Stout's history of the 1936 Popular Olympics is patently highly relevant and tells a surprisingly big story." (Alejandro J. Gómez del Moral, University Lecturer, University of Helsinki).