Publication date:
04 September 2018Length of book:
280 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersDimensions:
229x164mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9781538102886
For more than a hundred years, baseball has been woven into the American way of life. By the time they reach high school, children have learned about the struggles and triumphs of players like Jackie Robinson. Generations of family members often gather together to watch their favorite athletes in stadiums or on TV. Famous players like Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Hank Aaron, Cal Ripken, and Derek Jeter have shown their athletic prowess on the field and captured the hearts of millions of fans, while the sport itself has influenced American culture like no other athletic endeavor.
In Baseball and American Culture: A History, John P. Rossi builds on the research and writing of four generations of baseball historians. Tracing the intimate connections between developments in baseball and changes in American society, Rossi examines a number of topics including:
Complimented by supplementary readings and discussion questions linked to each chapter, this book pays special attention to the ways in which baseball has influenced American culture and values. Baseball and American Culture is the ultimate resource for students, scholars, and fans interested in how this classic sport has helped shape the nation.
In Baseball and American Culture: A History, John P. Rossi builds on the research and writing of four generations of baseball historians. Tracing the intimate connections between developments in baseball and changes in American society, Rossi examines a number of topics including:
- the spread of the sport from the North to the South during the Civil War
- the impact on the sport during the Depression and World War II
- baseball’s expansion in the post-war years
- the role of baseball in the Civil Rights movement
- the sport’s evolution during the modern era
Complimented by supplementary readings and discussion questions linked to each chapter, this book pays special attention to the ways in which baseball has influenced American culture and values. Baseball and American Culture is the ultimate resource for students, scholars, and fans interested in how this classic sport has helped shape the nation.
Author of the well-regarded The National Game, Rossi (emer., La Salle University) makes another contribution with his latest book, which combines sharp synthetic overviews, primary documents, and works by others delving into the sport. After examining baseball’s origins, Rossi easily courses through the late 19th century when baseball became a business, the emergence of both “monopoly baseball” and the American League, the period leading up to the Black Sox scandal, the Ruthian Golden Age of the 1920s, the era of the Great Depression and WW II, the rise and fall of fan bases along with expansion, the purported cessation of “baseball innocence,” and the past two decades when the game crashed and soared amid concerns about steroid use. Woven in are various readings, including two poems (“Casey at the Bat” and “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”), an exploration of the impact of race and ethnicity, an account of the Federal League, a much acclaimed treatment of the Babe, a study of Judge Landis, correspondence between the commissioner and FDR, a nuanced take on Walter O’Malley, another one on Marvin Miller, and confessions of a “juiced” former MVP.
Summing Up: Recommended. All readers.
Summing Up: Recommended. All readers.