Rights Contact Login For More Details
- Wiley
More About This Title Sports in American Life: A History, Second Edition
English
English
English
Preface xiv
Acknowledgments xx
1 The Emergence of Organized Sports, 1607–1860 1
Games in Colonial New England 2
Recreations in Southern Colonies 4
The Revolutionary Era and Beyond 8
The Democratization of Racing: The Trotters 10
Racing by Land and Sea 12
The Formative Years of Prizefighting 15
Baseball: The Creation of “America’s Game” 20
2 Baseball: "This Noble and Envigorating Game" 24
The Early Professional Era 25
Henry Chadwick and a Game of Numbers 29
Growing Pains 30
Early Years of the Professional Game 33
Emergence of the Modern Game 36
The 1880s: A Decade of Rancor 38
3 The Formative Years of College Football 41
The Early Years of College Athletics 42
Football American Style 43
Yale and the Creation of Football 44
Football Moves West 49
Football as Spectacle 51
Football in Crisis 54
4 The Modernization of American Sports, 1865–1920 60
Prizefighting Enters the Mainstream 61
Sports and Social Class 65
Strong Bodies and Devout Souls 68
America’s Greatest Athlete 72
Organized Play for the Modern Era 75
Interscholastic Sports 77
5 Baseball Ascendant, 1890–1930 79
The 1890s: Years of Discord 80
Ban Johnson and the American League 81
The Cyclone and the Georgia Peach 83
Masters of Strategy 85
The Federal League Challenge 88
Crisis: Gamblers Fix the World Series of 1919 90
The Babe 94
Baseball's Golden Age 98
6 Playing Nice: Women and Sports, 1860–1945 102
The Early Years of Women's Sports 103
The Demise of Women’s Athletics 107
Helen and Trudy: America’s First Women Sports Stars 109
Babe: The Texas Tomboy 111
Women Play Hardball: The Peaches and the Chicks 115
7 "An Evil To Be Endured": Sports on Campus, 1920–1950 118
The Essential Myth of Big-Time College Athletics 119
Football: Driving the Bus 121
Football's Golden Age: The Twenties 122
Knute Rockne and the Making of Notre Dame Football 125
The Second Challenge to Big-Time Football 130
Hoop Dreams 133
Hoop Nightmares 135
8 Sports in an Age of Ballyhoo, Depression, and War, 1920–1945 138
Gee-Whiz: Sports Journalism during the 1920s 139
Heroes for a Heroic Age 141
Boxing Gains Respectability 144
Baseball’s Long Slump 148
Seabiscuit: Sports Star for the Depression Era 153
Baseball during the War Years 155
9 America's Great Dilemma 157
The "Fight of the Century" 158
Separate and Unequal: The Negro Leagues 162
Out of the Cotton Fields of Alabama: Jesse and Joe 166
Jackie 171
In the Shadow of Jackie Robinson 175
Gentlepeople and Sanctimonious Hypocrites 177
The Baron and the Bear 180
10 Television Changes the Image of American Sports 185
The Formative Years of Sports Television 186
Tale of the Tube: Boxing 188
Professional Football Comes of Age 191
Pete and Roone 193
Super Sunday and Monday Night 196
ESPN: All Sports, All the Time 200
11 College Sports in the Modern Era 204
The Sanity Code Is Scuttled 205
Creation of a Cartel 206
Emphasis and De-Emphasis 207
Woody and the Bear 208
Criticism of Major College Sports 213
Revenue vs Reform: An Unresolved Contradiction 220
College Sports as Big Business 223
12 Play for Pay 227
A Tale of Two (Football) Cities 227
Urban Relocation, Redevelopment, and Promotion 230
The Economics of Organized Baseball 232
Baseball’s Labor Disputes 237
The Magic of Parity: The National Football League 240
The Wondrous World of Magic, Larry, and Michael 243
Always Turn Left: NASCAR Takes the Checkered Flag 247
Struggling To Be Major League 253
13 Do You Believe in Miracles? 255
The Cold War Shapes the Olympics 258
Television Transforms the Olympics 264
The Games Must Go On 268
To Boycott or Not To Boycott 271
The Triumph of Professionalism 273
Athens and Beyond 276
14 The Persistent Dilemma of Race 278
"I'm the Greatest" 280
Boycott, Backlash, and Beyond 284
Breakthrough: A New Era in American Sports 286
Hank Aaron Catches the Babe 293
Can White Men Jump? 295
Tiger 298
Sister Act: Venus and Serena 303
15 Playing Nice No Longer: Women's Sports, 1960–2010 308
Deceit and Deception: The NCAA and Gender Equity 309
Titanic Rivalry: Connecticut and Tennessee Basketball 314
Billie Jean Sparks a Revolution 319
Viva America! World Cup Winners 322
"You've Come a Long Way Baby!" Or Have You? 326
Title IX at Forty 328
16 "Only in America!" 331
Triumph of the Swoosh 332
The World of Jimmy the Greek 336
The Tragedy of Pete Rose 338
The Demise of Boxing 342
Iron Mike and the King of Boxing 344
Whatever It Takes 347
Under a Cloud: Barry Bonds Chases Hank Aaron 353
17 The Democratization of Sports 357
Community Cauldron: High School Sports 357
Youth Sports 361
Golf 's Golden Age: Arnie, the Super Mex, and the Golden Bear 366
The Comeback Kids 370
"Sidewalk Surfing" and the Rise of "X-treme" Sports 375
Epilogue 382
Notes 387
Index 407
English
"Richard O. Davies... is one of the most prolific scholars mining the rich history of American sport, and his textbook, Sports in American Life (2007), is the standard for undergraduate classes." (Western Historical Quarterly, Summer 2015)
"It's all here--the rise of sports in America, the emergence of athlete celebrities, the growth of the sports business empire, and our jaw-dropping fascination with the entire process. Embedded in Davies' narrative are important stories of race, gender, ethnicity, and economics. And behind it all breathes Davies' passion for his subject." - Randy Roberts, author of A Team For America: The Army-Navy Game that Rallied a Nation (2011)“I am a big fan of Davies' book. No text does a better job of discussing sports' central role in American society. The first edition worked extremely well with my students, and with added coverage on women and extreme sports, the second edition is stronger still.” – Alan Bloom, Valparaiso University
“Well-researched and effectively summarizes the significance of sport within the broader US history. Davies’ work also provides insight into the business of athletics, contextualizing how it interacts with politics and economics. A first-rate book to introduce students to this evolving and vibrant field!” – Jorge Iber, Texas Tech University
