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This book provides a general history of baseball that connects developments in the sport with key themes in American history. Following each chapter are important readings that illustrate and document these connections and discussion questions that can be used in the classroom.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Baseball's Origins
Additional Readings: Spalding's Official Base Ball Guide 1908 and Bats, Balls, and Bullets: Baseball and the Civil War by George B. Kirsch
Chapter 2: Baseball Becomes a Business, 1876-1892
Additional Readings: Out at Home: Baseball Draws the Color Line by Jerry Malloy and Casey at the Bat
Chapter 3: Monopoly Baseball and the Rise of the American League, 1891-1908
Additional Readings: Race and Ethnicity in American Baseball: 1900-1919 by Steven A. Riess and Take Me Out to the Ball Game, 1908
Chapter 4: Baseball's Silver Age
Additional Reading: Anatomy of a Murder: The Federal League and the Courts by Gary Hailey
Chapter 5: The Roaring Twenties and Baseball's Golden Age
Additional Readings: The Babe on Balance by Marshall Smelser and The Judge Who Ruled Baseball by Bruce Watson
Chapter 6: Depression and World War II, 1931-1945
Additional Readings: The History of Women's Baseball by Kerry Candaele and Baseball and World War II: A Study of the Landis-Roosevelt Correspondence by James A. Percoco
Chapter 7: Boom, Bust, and Expansion, 1946-1960
Additional Reading: Blacks in Major League Baseball: The Experience of the First Generation, 1947-1961 by John Rossi
Chapter 8: Baseball's New Frontier, 1961-1977
Additional Readings: A Tale of Many Cities: The Westward Expansion of Major League Baseball in the 1950s by Lee Elihu Lowenfish and Walter O'Malley Was Right by Paul Hirsch
Chapter 9: The End of Baseball Innocence
Additional Reading: The Quest of Marvin Miller: A Briefcase for a Lance by Lawrence Richards
Chapter 10: Late Innings: Baseball Enters the New Century, 1994-2017
Additional Reading: Totally Juiced: Confessions of a Former MVP by Tom Verducci
Index
Bibliography
About the Author
About the author
Philadelphia's John P. Rossi, professor of history, LaSalle University, has written on baseball history for The International Journal of the History of Sport and The Phillies Report and periodically teaches a course on the relationship between baseball and American history.
Summary
This book provides a general history of baseball that connects developments in the sport with key themes in American history. Following each chapter are important readings that illustrate and document these connections and discussion questions that can be used in the classroom.
