Death and Money in the Afternoon

Bullfighting is largely perceived as either antiquated or barbarous, eliciting either romanticized images of a past era or disgust. But according to Adrian Shubert, what is most interesting and important about bullfighting is its history as the first commercialized sport in Western society. Before professional athletics became characterized by million dollar contracts and athletic shoe advertising, there was bullfighting. Based on wide-ranging research and engagingly written Death in the Afternoon tells the story of one of the very first mass leisure and spectator sports in the western world. And while telling the history of bullfighting, Shubert tells the social and cultural history of modern Spain in this fascinating study of the world of the bullfight.