From Publishers Weekly
Of all the sporting contests in the world, baseball, basketball and football are by far the most popular in America: millions of diehard fans dedicate countless hours to following these games on TV, in print and in person. But perhaps few fans know why they are drawn to one sport more than another, or why they feel such a strong affiliation to their favorite. In his ninth book, Mandelbaum applies the same tactical research skills that made him a leading authority on American foreign policy to chronicling the history of the big-three American sports, of the superstars who became household names and of the evolution of the rules of each game. Baseball, which experienced its great rise during America’s agrarian stage when the majority of the nation’s people lived in rural areas, plays to our longing for the pure, the outdoors, he says. When the country entered its industrial period, and many people worked in factories with extremely specialized jobs, football, a sport in which each player is assigned carefully specialized roles, began to evolve in American schools. Basketball, unlike the other more organic sports, was invented during the post-industrial age. Like the "knowledge workers" of that era-the economists, psychologists and designers-basketball required that athletes bring little equipment to the court. The author parallels each sport’s history with the history of our nation, explaining in textbook-like prose why each became popular and endured where other sports did not.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


Lynn Sherr, ABC News 20/20, author of America the Beautiful: The Stirring True Story Behind Our Nation's Favorite Song
"So that's why we sports fans are so devoted. Thank you, Michael Mandelbaum, for your dazzling and witty insight."


Michael Shapiro, author of The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, the Dodgers and Their Final Pennant Race Together
"Michael Mandelbaum has turned his fine eye and keen intellect toward sports -- and shown us why they matter."


Robert Kraft, owner of The New England Patriots, Super Bowl XXXVI and XXXVIII Champions
"This is a great account of how and why sports have become so popular and important in America."


USA Today
"A scholarly yet readable study of why Americans watch so much baseball, football, and basketball."


The Financial Times
"If Alexis de Tocqueville were to . . . write a book about U.S. sport, this would be the book."


Sportsillustrated.com
"Some insightful explanations for why we care so much about sweaty men (and women) playing games."


Dallas Morning News August 8, 2004
"Sports fans will find this fascinating; others...will find a deeper appreciation and understanding of the dynamics of sports."


Book Description
One thinking fan explains to other sports fans and non-fans alike just what it is that draws us to America's most popular sports. In The Meaning of Sports, Michael Mandelbaum, a sports fan who is also one of the nation's preeminent foreign policy thinkers, examines America's century-long love affair with team sports. In keeping with his reputation for writing about big ideas in an illuminating and graceful way, he shows how sports respond to deep human needs; describes the ways in which baseball, football and basketball became national institutions and how they reached their present forms; and covers the evolution of rules, the rise and fall of the most successful teams, and the historical significance of the most famous and influential figures such as Babe Ruth, Vince Lombardi, and Michael Jordan. Whether he is writing about baseball as the agrarian game, football as similar to warfare, basketball as the embodiment of post-industrial society, or the moral havoc created by baseball's designated hitter rule, Mandelbaum applies the full force of his learning and wit to subjects about which so many Americans care passionately: the games they played in their youth and continue to follow as adults. By offering a fresh and unconventional perspective on these games, The Meaning of Sports makes for fascinating and rewarding reading both for fans and newcomers.


About the Author
Michael Mandelbaum is one of the nation's leading authorities on American foreign policy and international relations and the author or co-author of eight books, including The Ideas That Conquered The World: Peace, Democracy, and Free Markets in the Twenty-First Century.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In The Meaning of Sports, Michael Mandelbaum examines America's century-long love affair with baseball, football, and basketball. He shows how each of these games experienced a golden age when the values that it embodies were most prized by the culture. He demonstrates how sports respond to deep human needs; describes the ways in which baseball, football, and basketball became national institutions and how they reached their present forms; and covers the evolution of rules, the rise and fall of the most successful teams, and the historical significance of the most famous and influential figures such as Babe Ruth, George Steinbrenner, Red Grange, Vince Lombardi, Bill Russell, and Michael Jordan.

SYNOPSIS

Mandelbaum (international studies, The Johns Hopkins U.) offers both devoted fans and non-fans an analysis of the origins, development, and social functions of sports in America. Coverage includes the human purposes served by organized athletic competitions; the rise of organized team sports at the end of the 19th century; the origins and development of each of the three major American sports—baseball, football, and basketball—and why they emerged as the country's own distinctive set of team sports; the different social functions of the three sports and their relationships to American cultural values; the evolution of rules; and the historical significance of the most famous and influential American sports figures. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Pete Hamill - The New York Times

In its way, Mr. Mandelbaum's book can help explain America to Americans, but it is also a subtle extension of his own expertise in foreign policy. It can help explain the United States to the rest of the often-baffled world.

Sean Callahan - The Washington Post