The Culture And Ethnicity Of Nineteenth Century Baseball

Evolving in an urban landscape, professional baseball attracted a dedicated fan base among the inhabitants of major cities, including ethnic and racial minorities, for whom the game was a vehicle for assimilation. But to what extent were these groups welcomed within the world of baseball, and what effect did their integration--or, as in the case of African Americans, their ultimate inability to integrate--have on the culture of a pastime that had recently become a national obsession? How did their mutual striving for acceptance affect relations between these minorities? (In deep and long-lasting ways, as it turns out.) This book provides a carefully considered portrait of baseball as both a sporting profession--one with quick-changing rules and roles--and as an institution that reinforced popular ideas about cultural identity, masculinity and American exceptionalism.

• | Author: Jerrold I. Casway
• | Publisher: Mcfarland & Company
• | Publication Date: May 15, 2017
• | Number of Pages: 216 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback/Sports & Recreation
• | ISBN-10: 0786498900
• | ISBN-13: 9780786498901