Customer Reviews

Sporting Gentlemen

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Ever wonder why men's professional tennis is plagued by poorly behaved super-brats? This book explains the development of the sport, from its high-class Anglo-American origins to its devolution into a crass, in-your-face money-making scheme. Along the way one sees the departure of the WASPs (Prof. Baltzell invented that term by the way) who started the game, and the accompanying departure of the genteel sportsman-like attitude they originally insisted upon. The WASPs were replaced first by lower-class American and British whites, then by persons from all over the globe, of many hues. Along the way, as Prof. Baltzell explains, the game's original unwritten code of good behavior was tossed aside, as players opted instead to become tennis court litigators, disputing every close call and whining when things didn't go their way.

Can you believe that tennis players once had an unwritten default rule that close calls go in favor of the other guy? Yup. This book will explain why that is no longer the case - and it will make you long for the past. An excellent, although depressing, read.

Baltzell has put together a really good historical piece on men's tennis, but he draws some pretty far-reaching conclusions about the superiority of pre-war Anglo-American culture from, among other things, the number of non-English-speaking countries that have won the Davis Cup since the advent of open tennis. It's an excellent read for the history, but be ready for some sociological conclusions that are based on shaky evidence.