Baseball and American Culture: A History

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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: 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 baseballs expansion in the post-war years the role of baseball in the Civil Rights movement the sports 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.

Reviews

Rossi. . . succeeds in producing a highly readable, quickly-paced narrative that adeptly juxtaposes baseball alongside several classic themes in U.S. history. The book should be well-received by students, scholars, or fans new to thinking about sport and American history as interrelated. * Sport in American History *
The higher education community is just plain lucky to have John Rossi as a member. Rossis book enlightens readers and provides an authentic narrative of American history, our vices and virtues, through the prism of American baseball. Hes a scholar, a historian, and a consummate narrator. Above all, he is a disciplined scholar who knows how to tell a story. He makes history what it should be: alive. -- Solomon Gittleman, professor, Tufts University, and author of Reynolds, Raschi and Lopat: New York's Big Three and Great Yankee Dynasty of 1949-1953

Author Bio

John P. Rossi is professor emeritus of history at La Salle University in Philadelphia. His baseball writings have appeared in such journals as The Society of American Baseball Research and the International Journal of the History of Sport. Rossi co-wrote the Cambridge Introduction to George Orwell (2012), and his baseball books include A Whole New Game: Off the Field Changes in Baseball, 1946-1960 (1999) and The 1964 Phillies: The Story of Baseballs Most Memorable Collapse (2005).