Baseball in Blue and Gray (eBook)

The National Pastime during the Civil War

George B. Kirsch (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2013
168 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4008-4925-3 (ISBN)

Infos

George B. Kirsch is Professor of History at Manhattan College and the author of several books, including The Creation of American Team Sports. He is the editor of two volumes of Sports in North America: A Documentary History and the general editor of the Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States.

---

During the Civil War, Americans from homefront to battlefront played baseball as never before. While soldiers slaughtered each other over the country's fate, players and fans struggled over the form of the national pastime. George Kirsch gives us a color commentary of the growth and transformation of baseball during the Civil War. He shows that the game was a vital part of the lives of many a soldier and civilian--and that baseball's popularity had everything to do with surging American nationalism. By 1860, baseball was poised to emerge as the American sport. Clubs in northeastern and a few southern cities played various forms of the game. Newspapers published statistics, and governing bodies set rules. But the Civil War years proved crucial in securing the game's place in the American heart. Soldiers with bats in their rucksacks spread baseball to training camps, war prisons, and even front lines. As nationalist fervor heightened, baseball became patriotic. Fans honored it with the title of national pastime. War metaphors were commonplace in sports reporting, and charity games were scheduled. Decades later, Union general Abner Doubleday would be credited (wrongly) with baseball's invention. The Civil War period also saw key developments in the sport itself, including the spread of the New York-style of play, the advent of revised pitching rules, and the growth of commercialism. Kirsch recounts vivid stories of great players and describes soldiers playing ball to relieve boredom. He introduces entrepreneurs who preached the gospel of baseball, boosted female attendance, and found new ways to make money. We witness bitterly contested championships that enthralled whole cities. We watch African Americans embracing baseball despite official exclusion. And we see legends spring from the pens of early sportswriters. Rich with anecdotes and surprising facts, this narrative of baseball's coming-of-age reveals the remarkable extent to which America's national pastime is bound up with the country's defining event.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 24.10.2013
• Zusatzinfo: 15 halftones.
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► 20. Jahrhundert bis 1945
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport ► Ballsport
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften
• Schlagworte: 9th Infantry Regiment (United States) • Abner Doubleday • African Americans • alley • american nationalism • americans • Army of the Potomac • Attendance • Battle of Chancellorsville • Battle of Cold harbor • Bowdoin College • bribery • Brown University • bruce catton • Capitoline Games • Career • Carpentry • colored • Competition • Confederate States Army • Contesting • Crowd Control • Democracy • Desertion • Eastern Michigan University • editorial • Emancipation Proclamation • Equal Opportunity • Federal army • final examination • first lieutenant • Fort Sumter • Gerrit Smith • gratification • handkerchief • Harvard University • Headline • heckler • His Family • Hudson Valley • infantry • John C. Breckinridge • John G. B. Adams • Johnson's Island • laborer • Latin America • Library of Congress • Livelihood • Lunch • master craftsman • middle class • Military Service • Minstrel Show • misconduct • mulatto • Nativism (politics) • New England College • newspaper • New York Cotton Exchange • New York Metropolitan area • New York University • New York Volunteers • Northern Kentucky • nuisance • Payment • Phillips Exeter Academy • Physical Education • Political faction • Political Party • Politician • prisoner exchange • Public Interest • quartermaster • Racism • rebel yell • reconstruction era • Recreation • result • Salisbury prison • Shipbuilding • Shirt • Slavery • Social Class • Social Club • sophomore • tammany hall • The New York Times • Tufts University • tunic • union army • University of Michigan • Upper Class • Upstate New York • urbanization • volunteer fire department • White-collar worker • William Hays (general) • William M. Tweed • Williams College • Yachting
• ISBN-10: 1-4008-4925-X / 140084925X
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4008-4925-3 / 9781400849253