A Brief History of American Sports

Front Cover
University of Illinois Press, 2004 - 290 pages
Elliott J. Gorn and Warren Goldstein show us where our games and pastimes came from, how they developed, and what they have meant to Americans. The great heroes of baseball and football are here, as well as the dramatic moments of boxing and basketball. Beyond this, the authors show us how sports fit into the larger contours of our past. A Brief History of American Sports reveals that from colonial times to the present, sports have been central to American culture, and a profound expression of who we are.

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Contents

Colonists at Play
1
English Sports
4
The Virginia Ethic
15
The New England Way
28
The Middle Colonies
35
Sports and the New Nation
40
Saints and Their Bodies Sport Through 1860
45
Victorian Culture and the Attack on Traditional Sports
47
Sports with a Mission Football and Basketball
151
Football Alumni and the Control of the University
162
Progressives Play and Basketball
167
Ue Great Unifier
175
Play Business and Space Sports and the Public Sphere
181
Sports Heroes and Mass Culture
186
Gender and Sport
195
Racial Integration
207

The Beginnings of Modern American Sports
62
Muscular Christians and Brawny Brahmins
79
Vigorous Manly OutofDoor Sports The Gilded Age
96
Sport and Society
103
Boxing and Baseball
112
Elite Sports
127
The Strenuous Life
136
SPORT AND ITS DISCONTENTS THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
149
I Money Television Drugs and the Win Dilemmas of Modern Sports
220
TwentiethCentury Amateurism
226
The Impact of Television
234
The Historical Roots of the Drug Problem in Sports
239
Epilogue
249
Bibliographic Essay
255
Index
275
Copyright

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About the author (2004)

Elliott J. Gorn, professor of history at Purdue University, is the co-author of A Brief History of American Sports (H&W, 1993) and author of The Manly Art: Bare-Knuckle Prize Fighting in America. He lives in Chicago.

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