Baseball: The people's game

Dr. Harold Seymour has pioneered the scholarly study of baseball. Hailed by Sports Illustrated as the "Edward Gibbon of baseball history," he is the first professional historian to produce an authoritative, multivolume chronicle of America's national pastime. The first two volumes of this study--The Early Years and The Golden Age--won universal acclaim. The New York Times wrote that they "will grip every American who has invested part of his youth and dreams in the sport," while The Boston Globe called them "irresistible." Now, in The People's Game, the third volume of Baseball, Dr. Seymour offers the first book devoted entirely to the history of the game outside of the professional leagues, revealing how, from its early beginnings up to World War II, baseball truly became the great American pastime. He looks at the bond between baseball and boys through the decades, the game's place in institutions from colleges to prisons to the armed forces, the rise of women's baseball with nineteenth century feminism, and the struggles of black players and clubs from the later years of slavery up to the Second World War. The national sport pops up in the most unexpected places, from the cavalrymen's game at Fort Apache called off because of Geronimo's escape, to the scene of Philippine head-hunters enthusiastically playing ball, to General MacArthur as player/manager of the Fort Leavenworth team bringing in professional ringers. And the contests Dr. Seymour describes are as vivid and exciting as yesterday's game. Whether discussing the birth of softball or the origins of the seventh inning stretch, Dr. Seymour enriches his wide research with fascinating details and entertaining anecdotes as well as his own wealth of baseball experience. The People's Game brings to life the central role of baseball for generations of Americans.