The National Game: Baseball and American Culture

(Paperback)

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Description

John Rossi offers not only an expert overview of baseball over the past 175 years; he shows how the game has reflected and contributed to changes in American society over time. The National Game chronicles baseball's popular successes and financial failures; its interleague wars and continuing struggles between owners and players; and its accommodations to radio and televisionwithout neglecting the colorful players and managers who have won the hearts of fans. A succinct, knowledgeable synopsis...recommended. Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post

As a part of popular culture, sport has made a deep impression in American life. And nowhere is this clearer than in baseball, the game that seems to transcend generations and has made its way into our language and literature. In The National Game, John Rossi offers not only an expert overview of baseball over the past 175 years; he shows how the game has reflected and contributed to changes in American society over that time. The country grew up playing baseball, Mr. Rossi notes, but the professional game took hold in the cities of the Northeast just as the nation was transforming itself from a rural to an urban society. Essentially a middle-class attempt to create a club sport, the game began early on to integrate immigrant groupsand over the years it became an important pathway to acceptance for all kinds of outsiders. The National Game chronicles baseball's popular successes and financial failures; its interleague wars and continuing struggles between owners and players; and its accommodations to radio and televisionwithout neglecting the colorful players and managers who have won the hearts of fans. For a readable, concise history of the game and its place in American culture, Mr. Rossi's book is hard to beat. With 10 black-and-white photographs

Reviews

For the real fan, this is an interesting and absorbing book. * Tampa Tribune *
Stimulating. * Library Journal *
Not only readable but satisfying to those who are interested in the broader historical context of the sport. * Virginia Quarterly Review *
Fresh and stimulating insights into the relationship between baseball and American culture. -- John Curtis * The San Diego Union-Tribune *
Succinct, knowledgeable...recommended without reservation as an introduction to baseball history. -- Jonathan Yardley * The Instrumentalist *

Author Bio

John Rossi teaches American history at La Salle University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has also written No Golden Age: Baseball from the End of World War II to the First Expansion, 1960.