Sport and the American Occupation of the Philippines is notable for making events come alive and for bringing important figures of history down from the pedestal to portray them as human beings whose lives and personalities are often flawed and multifaceted. The author manages to reveal interesting insights into many well-known individuals’ overall characters, as well as their contemporaries’ opinion of them, making the discussion very informative and engaging. . . Moreover, the author does not just highlight the specific sports that these important historical figures played or followed but also links their personalities to the sociopsychological and moral structures that are associated with sports. By turning politicians into fencers and generals into football players, Gems successfully presents the embeddedness of sports not only in history but also in the individual biographies of its main characters.