Touching Home

Baseball and the Liberal-Republican Tradition in America

Mary Craig (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

202 Seiten

2025
University of Missouri Press (Verlag)
978-0-8262-2340-1 (ISBN)

Artikel merken

Baseball’s relationship to American ideals has long been an object of study across disciplines. In Touching Home, Mary Craig contributes to this ongoing study by relating issues of class, race, and gender to America’s theoretical tradition of liberalism and republicanism established during the nation’s founding era. Specifically, Touching Home traces theories of individualism and civic virtue from the founding era through baseball’s place in American society at the end of the twentieth century.

The work also examines the mythologizing of baseball’s pastoralism, racial equality, and inculcation of manliness as a civic virtue. These myths became ingrained in baseball in significant ways, including, for example, the Supreme Court’s granting of an antitrust exemption to Major League Baseball; MLB’s promotion of Jackie Robinson’s career as proof of its leadership in and commitment to desegregation; and the short-lived All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (1943-1954) and subsequent relegation of women to softball.

Through the exploration of these and other societal issues, Craig’s work highlights baseball’s development from accessible hobby to multi-billion-dollar corporation, exploring the ways in which the sport has helped shape how individual Americans engage with politics. Indeed, in the pages of Touching Home readers will find a demythologizing of baseball that helps them better understand the results of their efforts to form community through engaging with teams at both the local and national levels. Scholars of American politics, particularly American political thought, will be intrigued to find baseball used as a case study of the effectiveness of the founders’ project of crafting a jointly liberal-republican framework capable of directing Americans toward responsible citizenship.

In all of these ways, Touching Home upholds the value of studying popular culture, presenting baseball as a unique and highly interesting lens through which to help us appreciate how individual Americans relate to politics and parties in their respective communities and nationally.

Mary Craig is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Furman University, where she teaches courses in American politics and political theory. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Baylor University. A lifelong baseball fan, Craig has written for both Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus—websites carrying statistical reports and articles on current players, events, and issues as well as baseball history.

Preface/ xi
Acknowledgements/ xiii
Introduction/ 3
Chapter One- Myth and Money:A. G. Spalding Makes a National Pastime / 9
Chapter Two- Courts and Communities:The Development of MLB’s Antitrust Exemption / 29
Chapter Three- Equality and Economics:The Negro Leagues, Jackie Robinson, and Desegregation / 65
Chapter Four- Bloomers and Beanball:Women’s Involvement in America’s National Pastime / 97
Conclusion/ 127
Notes/ 137
Bibliography/ 167
Index/ 183

Erscheinungsdatum	30.10.2025
Reihe/Serie	Sports and American Culture
Verlagsort	Missouri
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	399 g
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport ► Ballsport
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Systeme
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
	Weitere Fachgebiete ► Sportwissenschaft
ISBN-10	0-8262-2340-0 / 0826223400
ISBN-13	978-0-8262-2340-1 / 9780826223401
Zustand	Neuware