Baseball in Blue and Gray: The National Pastime during the Civil War

(Paperback)

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Description

During the Civil War, Americans from homefront to battlefront played baseball as never before. This work gives us a commentary of the growth and transformation of baseball. It shows that the game was a vital part of the lives of many a soldier and civilian - and that baseball's popularity had everything to do with surging American nationalism.

Reviews

"Kirsch examines the emerging organizational sophistication of urban and collegiate baseball on the home front, and he sketches out the social and racial contours of what was already often seen as the national game... A careful scholar, he savors using evidence to demolish myth."--Choice "The book is a pleasure to read, and deserves numerous votes for the current literary All-Star Game."--David Wee, American Historical Review "George P. Kirsch has written an interesting, readable book about the sport's growth during the Civil War that teaches readers how the game evolved into the national pastime."--Jeff Diamant, Newark Star-Ledger "Although baseball shares the public stage with other sports nowadays, it is still the professional sport most prominent in American historical consciousness. George B. Kirsch's book offers an intriguing look at the very early years of baseball, which were intertwined with the crucible of the Civil War... Overall, this is a solid examination of the subject and will be of interest to sports and baseball historians, in particular, but also those scholars and general readers interested in the social history of the Civil War."--John Sickels, Civil War History

Author Bio

George B. Kirsch is Professor of History at Manhattan College and the author of several books, including "The Creation of American Team Sports". He is the editor of two volumes of "Sports in North America: A Documentary History" and the general editor of the "Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States".