Baseball and American Culture: A History

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Description

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 Warthe impact on the sport during the Depression and World War II baseballs expansion in the post-war yearsthe role of baseball in the Civil Rights movementthe 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

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 baseballs 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 OMalley, another one on Marvin Miller, and confessions of a juiced former MVP.



Summing Up: Recommended. All readers.

* Choice 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 *
Several excellent one volume histories of the game have appeared since the early 1990s that have attempted to synthesize the rapidly expanding knowledge base. John P. Rossis work is the latest and most up-to-date of this genre. Essentially, it is a textbook for courses in baseball history and includes discussion questions and supplementary readings, but it is written in a style and presented in an organizational format that should make it appealing to baseball fans and the general public as well. * The Inside Game: The Official Newsletter of SABR's Deadball Era Committee *
Rossi has put together an impressive and informative book. The scope of this work will prove helpful to readers, particularly to students new to baseball history, who will also appreciate Rossis efficient chapter narratives. He makes several insightful links between baseballs development and the major themes in American history. . . Rossis book is both enjoyable and useful. * NINE: A Journal of Baseball History & Culture *
Baseball and American Culture: A History is what it proposes to be: a history; in this case, in a remarkable single volume, thoughtful historical narrative by the author describing both game and nation, and for each chapter, well selected primary-source material, scholarly and popular essays (from The American Scholar and Smithsonian, for example), and documents of the period that illuminate. The synergy between the two topicsgame and nationconsistently enlightens. . . . My final pleasure in reading this book was gained by a respectful journey through the selective but well-chosen bibliography. Here is where you see the real evolution of writing about baseball. . . the superb professionals now giving us richly researched books that are readable and reliable. . . . baseball titles and subjects are now in the hands of very talented people. Professor Rossi and his generation may be retiring, but somehow, I do believe we are in The Golden Age of baseball writing. * Society *
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).