Customer Reviews

A Brief History of American Sports

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Academics who write about sport all too often seem to be trying to compensate for the supposedly frivolous subject matter by writing in prose that is weighted down with ten-dollar words that add nothing of value. As such, it is a pleasure that Gorn and Goldstein's Brief History of American Sports is written in accessible language and makes no apology for its topic. Better still, they have presented a great deal of fascinating material, much of which will not be familiar to most readers. The first half of the work, credited as being primarily written by Gorn in the preface, is especially good, sketching out central themes and illustrating them with well-chosen examples. The second half, Goldstein's contribution, is far less polished. In the years since writing his terrific book about early baseball, it seems as though Goldstein has been trying to forget everything he once knew about the sport. Not only are the examples he uses oft-repeated ones, but howlers abound that could easily have been checked: Al Reach was not a pitcher, the American Association did not "drop" its claim to major league status (the major league by that name is unrelated to the subsequent minor league), and Jackie Robinson did not stump for (or even support) Nixon in 1968, etc., etc. Instead of a careful checking of sources, we get too many unhelpful generalizations. Despite these deficencies, A Brief History of American Sports is a valuable work, well suited to anyone seeking an introduction to the subject and also containing plenty of suggestive ideas that will be useful to the scholar.

The book was quite informative in giving the reader a look into sports that is not often mentioned.