Grundy Pamela - American Sports

American Sports, now in its 8th edition, is a comprehensive, analytical introduction to the history of American sports from the colonial era to the present. Pamela Grundy and Benjamin Rader outline the complex relationships between sports and class, gender, race, religion, and region in the United States. Building on changes in the previous edition, which expanded the attention paid to women, African Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos, this edition adds numerous sidebars that examine subjects such as the Black Sox scandal, the worldwide influence of Jack Johnson, the significance of softball for lesbian athletes, and the influence of the point spread on sports gambling. Insightful, thorough, and highly readable, the new edition of American Sports remains the finest available introduction to the myriad ways in which sports have reinforced or challenged the values and behaviors of Americans as well as the structure of American society.

Pamela C. Grundy is an independent historian who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is the author of Learning to Win: Sports, Education and Social Change in Twentieth-Century North Carolina and Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of Womens Basketball (with Susan Shackelford).

Benjamin G. Rader is James L. Sellers Professor of History, Emeritus, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is the author of Down on Mahans Creek: A History of an Ozarks Neighborhood (2017) and Baseball: A History of Americas Game (4th edition, 2018).

Eighth Edition

From the Age of Folk Games to the Age of the Internet

Pamela C. Grundy

Benjamin G. Rader

University of Nebraska, Lincoln

In more than three decades of existence, American Sports has grown and developed along with the field of sports history that it seeks to encapsulate. It is a pleasure to offer this 8th edition. The 7th edition involved the first major overhaul of the text in many years. That rewrite focused on recasting parts of the narrative in order to more fully integrate new, rich scholarship on athletes and communities from the margins of mainstream athletic culture, especially African Americans, Native Americans, women, and Latinos. This edition augments that narrative through a series of sidebars that seek to clarify key issues and offer insights into subjects such as the meanings in a games rules, the worldwide impact of Jack Johnson, the enduring fascination with the Black Sox scandal, and the significance of softball for American lesbians and their communities.

Sports continues to offer a profoundly illuminating lens through which to view U.S. history and cultureone that grows in value as sports history literature expands. While sports has definite limits as a metaphor for American society, or for any other non-sporting endeavor, we are constantly astonished by the insights it can offer into issues such as gender, race, class, sexuality, family, nationalism, religion, political processes, grassroots activism, community identity, and democracy. It can be disconcerting to explore the ways that social and cultural dilemmas affect a realm so many people view as a pleasurable escape from the thorny challenges of daily life. But few arenas of American society have so much to teach. We hope this latest version of American Sports will help a new generation of students see the value in a careful, critical examination of our nations sporting history, and will encourage them to pursue further work in this area.

This work rests on the scholarship and advice of countless individuals, including Susan Cahn, Mary Jo Festle, Elliot Gorn, Jerma Jackson, John Kasson, Lawrence Levine, Patrick Miller, Daniel Nathan, Michael Oriard, Robert Peterson, Randy Roberts, Susan Shackelford, Jill Snider, Murray Sperber, Pat Summitt, Jules Tygel, David Wiggins, the indefatigable Larry Malley, and the great John McLendon. Rita Libertis insights into the text and thoughtful approach to historical issues have been especially helpful in preparing this edition. Thanks also to Eve Mayer and Ted Meyer at Routledge, who have made working on this first Routledge edition a smooth and satisfying experience.

Choctaw athletes competing in a centuries-old Native American ball game, as depicted by artist George Catlin in the 1840s.

George Catlin, Ball-Play of the ChoctawBall-Up . Oil on canvas, 18461850.

Learning Objectives

• 1.1 Discuss the different functions that sports served in Native American, European, and African cultures as well as the forces that shaped the sporting cultures that emerged in the early American Republic.
• 1.2 Explain how the ball games played by natives of North America and Mesoamerica reflected the worldviews of their participants.
• 1.3 Outline the components of European festive culture and the role they played in European societies.
• 1.4 Describe the aspects of European and African cultures that migrants attempted to reproduce in the Americas, along with the functions they served.
• 1.5 Summarize the characteristics of New Englands lawful sport, and explain how and why lawful sport differed from other forms of sport practiced in the Americas in the colonial era.
• 1.6 Articulate the ways that religious and political ideas impeded the development of sport in the early years of the American Republic.