Sports in American Life
A History
by Richard O. Davies
3rd Edition
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Book Details
| Print ISBN | 9781118912379 |
| eText ISBN | 9781118912546 |
| Publisher | Wiley-Blackwell |
| Publishing Year | 2017 |
| Edition | 3rd Edition |
| Language | English |
| Pages | 504 |
Richard O. Davies's Sports in American Life: A History, 3rd Edition, presents an interpretive history of how sports connect to broader themes across United States history.
The volume examines the social, economic, and cultural forces linking athletic competition with gender, race, and class. Its historical scope encompasses the rise of collegiate athletics, the development of professional sports, and the sharp increase in soccer's popularity.
Revised with a leaner and faster-paced narrative than previous versions, the 2017 edition adds a dedicated section addressing controversies surrounding head injuries and concussions caused by contact sports.
Table of Contents
Chapter Introduction: Introduction
- • Sports in American Culture
- • Sports and American History
- • Notes
Chapter 1: The Emergence of Organized Sports, 1607–1860
- • Games in Colonial New England
- • Recreations in Southern Colonies
- • The Revolutionary Era and Beyond
- • The Democratization of Racing: The Trotters
- • Racing by Land and Sea
- • The Formative Years of Prizefi ghting
- • Baseball: The Creation of “America’s Game”
- • Notes
Chapter 2: Baseball: “America’s Game”
- • The Early Professional Era
- • Henry Chadwick and a Game of Numbers
- • Growing Pains
- • Early Years of the Professional Game
- • Emergence of the Modern Game
- • The 1880s: A Decade of Rancor
- • Notes
Chapter 3: Sports and the Emergence of Modern America, 1865–1920
- • Prizefi ghting Enters the Mainstream
- • Sports and Social Class
- • Strong Bodies and Devout Souls
- • America’s Greatest Athlete
- • Organized Play for the Modern Era
- • Interscholastic Sports
- • Notes
Chapter 4: The Emergence of King Football, 1869–1920
- • The Early Years of College Athletics
- • Football American Style
- • Yale and the Creation of Football
- • Football Moves West
- • Football as Spectacle
- • Football in Crisis
- • Notes
Chapter 5: The National Pastime: Baseball, 1890–1930
- • The 1890s: Years of Discord
- • Ban Johnson and the American League
- • The Cyclone and the Georgia Peach
- • Masters of Strategy
- • The Federal League Challenge
- • Crisis: Gamblers Fix the World Series of 1919
- • The Babe
- • Baseball’s Golden Age
- • Notes
Chapter 6: Playing Nice: Women and Sports, 1860–1945
- • The Early Years of Women’s Sports
- • The Demise of Women’s Sports
- • Helen and Trudy: America’s First Women Sports Stars
- • Babe: The Texas Tomboy
- • Women Play Hardball: The Peaches and the Chicks
- • “The Instinctive Urge to Compete”
- • Notes
Chapter 7: Sports in the Age of Ballyhoo, Depression, and War, 1920–1945
- • Gee Whiz: Sports Journalism during the 1920s
- • Heroes for a Heroic Age
- • Growing Pains: The National Football League
- • Boxing Gains Respectability
- • Baseball’s Long Slump
- • Seabiscuit: Sports Star for the Depression Era
- • Baseball during the War Years
- • Notes
Chapter 8: Sports on Campus, 1920–1950
- • The Essential Myth of Big-Time College Athletics
- • Football: Driving the Bus
- • Football’s Golden Age: The Twenties
- • Knute Rockne and the Making of Notre Dame Football
- • The Second Challenge to Big-Time Football
- • Hoop Dreams
- • Hoop Nightmares
- • Notes
Chapter 9: America’s Great Dilemma
- • The “Fight of the Century”
- • Separate and Unequal: The Negro Leagues
- • Out of the Cotton Fields of Alabama: Jesse and Joe
- • Jackie
- • In the Shadow of Jackie Robinson
- • Gentlepeople and Sanctimonious Hypocrites
- • The Baron and the Bear
- • Notes
Chapter 10: “The Thrill of Victory, the Agony of Defeat”: Television Revolutionizes Sports
- • The Formative Years of Sports Television
- • Tale of the Tube: Boxing
- • Professional Football Comes of Age
- • Pete and Roone
- • Super Sunday and Monday Night Madness
- • ESPN: All Sports, All the Time
- • Notes
Chapter 11: The Big Business of College Sports
- • The Sanity Code Is Scuttled
- • Creation of a Cartel
- • Emphasis and De-emphasis
- • Woody and the Bear
- • The Wizard of Westwood
- • Madness in March
- • The NCAA as Enforcer
- • Intercollegiate Athletics: Education or Big Business?
- • Turmoil, Realignment, and a Playoff System
- • The Futility of Reform
- • Trouble in Happy Valley
- • Notes
Chapter 12: Play for Pay: Professional Sports in America
- • A Tale of Three Cities
- • Urban Relocation, Redevelopment, and Promotion
- • The Economics of Organized Baseball
- • Baseball’s Labor Disputes
- • The Magic of Parity: The National Football League
- • The Wondrous World of Magic, Larry, and Michael
- • Always Turn Left: NASCAR Takes the Checkered Flag
- • Beyond the Bright Lights: Hockey and Soccer
- • Notes
Chapter 13: Do You Believe in Miracles?
- • The Cold War Shapes the Olympics
- • Television Transforms the Olympics
- • The Games Must Go On
- • To Boycott or Not to Boycott
- • The Triumph of Professionalism
- • Athens and Beyond
- • Notes
Chapter 14: The Persistent Dilemma of Race
- • “I’m the Greatest”
- • Boycott, Backlash, and Beyond
- • Breakthrough: A New Era in American Sports
- • Hank Aaron Catches the Babe
- • Can White Men Jump?
- • Tiger
- • Sister Act: Venus and Serena
- • Notes
Chapter 15: Playing Nice No Longer: Women’s Sports, 1960–2015
- • Deceit and Deception: The NCAA and Gender Equity
- • Titanic Rivalry: Connecticut/Tennessee Basketball
- • Billie Jean Sparks a Revolution
- • Viva America! World Cup Winners
- • “You’ve Come a Long Way Baby!” Or Have You?
- • Title IX at Forty
- • Notes
Chapter 16: “Only in America!”
- • Triumph of the Swoosh
- • The World of Jimmy the Greek
- • The Tragedy of Pete Rose
- • The Demise of Boxing
- • Iron Mike and the King of Boxing
- • Whatever It Takes
- • Under a Cloud: Barry Bonds Chases Hank Aaron
- • Notes
Chapter 17: The Democratization of Sports
- • Community Cauldron: High School Sports
- • Youth Sports
- • Golf ’s Golden Age: Arnie, the Super Mex, and the Golden Bear
- • A Tale of Two American Cyclists
- • “Sidewalk Surfing” and the Rise of “X-treme” Sports
- • Notes
Chapter Epilogue: Epilogue
- • Notes
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