During the nineteenth century, New Orleans won and stoutly defended a reputation for amusement and dissipation that made it distinct among American cities. Exquisite cuisine, theaters, casinos, and private clubs attracted the affluent, while gambling dens, saloons, public ballrooms, cockfights, and ten-pin alleys drew the masses. In the antebellum period, organized sports were added to the numerous diversions already available. This book, on a neglected aspect of American social life, treats an important facet of Louisiana history and shows how the growth of cities contributed to the emergence of a leisure ethic. Professor Somers explains the reasons for the rapidly growing interest in sports, their impact on the city�s social and economic life, and their effect upon race relations and the emancipation of women. In the space of some fifty years sports, moved from a minor to a major role in the city�s play habits. By the turn of the century, sports played an unprecedented part in the daily lives of New Orleanians and thousands of other Americans.

From the accounts of 18th-century travelers to the interpretations of 21st-century historians, Jumonville lists more than 6,800 books, chapters, articles, theses, dissertations, and government documents that describe the rich history of America's 18th state. Here are references to sources on the Louisiana Purchase, the Battle of New Orleans, Carnival, and Cajuns. Less-explored topics such as the rebellion of 1768, the changing roles of women, and civic development are also covered. It is a sweeping guide to the publications that best illuminate the land, the people, and the multifaceted history of the Pelican State. Arranged according to discipline and time period, chapters cover such topics as the environment, the Civil War and Reconstruction, social and cultural history, the people of Louisiana, local, parish, and sectional histories, and New Orleans. It also lists major historical sites and repositories of primary materials. As the only comprehensive bibliography of the secondary sources about the state, ^ILouisiana History^R is an invaluable resource for scholars and researchers.

A knockout biography of John L. Sullivan that puts the fabled boxing champ squarely in the context of his rough-and-tumble times. Drawing on a wealth of contemporary sources, including the scandalous National Police Gazette, Isenberg (History/Annapolis) recounts how Sullivan brawled his way from a working-class background in Boston's Irish ghetto to the top of the prizefighting world.

The Rock, the Curse, and the Hub is a collection of original essays about the people and places of Boston sports that live in the minds and memories of Bostonians and all Americans. Each chapter focuses on the games and the athletes, but also on which sports have defined Boston and Bostonians.

This is a fundamental text for the study of sport history. It answers the ‘why,’ ‘how,’ and ‘what’ questions, introducing the key principles and practices of sport history and walking the reader through the fascinating stories, debates, issues, and national and international narratives that constitute the history of sport. The book provides an overview of the field and the various professional roles assumed by practitioners, such as researchers, academics, and public historians. It is brief, crisp, and to the point. The main general topics of interest within the field – gender, race, nationalism, religion, sport and leisure, and megaevents – are covered with introductory vignettes, stories of interest, a wide variety of theoretical frameworks, and relevant historiography in the most current and timely text of its kind. Each chapter provides a list of further readings for more in-depth study. Students are taught how to conduct research and present their findings in a variety of mediums, and teaching and publication tips are offered for educators. Sport History: The Basics is essential reading for any student on a sport-related degree course or with an interest in social and cultural history. It is also fascinating reading for anybody with a general interest in sport.

America's national pastime has been marked from its inception by bitter struggles between owners and players over profit, power, and prestige. In this book, the first installment of a highly readable, comprehensive labor history of baseball, Robert Burk describes the evolution of the ballplaying work force: its ethnocultural makeup, its economic position, and its battles for a place at the table in baseball's decision-making structure. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the growing popularity of baseball as a spectator sport and the dramatic upsurge of America's urban population created conditions that led to franchise competition, the development of rival leagues, and trade wars, in turn triggering boom-and-bust cycles, franchise bankruptcies, and league mergers. According to Burk, players repeatedly tried to use these circumstances to better their economic positions by playing one team off against another. Their successes proved short-lived, however, because their own internal divisions, exploited by management, undercut attempts to create collective-bargaining institutions. By 1920, owners still held the upper hand in the labor-management battle, but as today's sports pages show, owners did not secure a long-term solution to their labor problems.

A Companion to American Sport History presents a collection of original essays that represent the first comprehensive analysis of scholarship relating to the growing field of American sport history. Presents the first complete analysis of the scholarship relating to the academic history of American sport Features contributions from many of the finest scholars working in the field of American sport history Includes coverage of the chronology of sports from colonial times to the present day, including major sports such as baseball, football, basketball, boxing, golf, motor racing, tennis, and track and field Addresses the relationship of sports to urbanization, technology, gender, race, social class, and genres such as sports biography Awarded 2015 Best Anthology from the North American Society for Sport History (NASSH)