THE MEANING OF SPORTS Why Americans Watch Baseball, Football, and Basketball and What They See When They Do MICHAEL MANDELBAUM

"The Meaning of Sports is not only fascinating but enormously entertaining. A knowledgeable sports fan will learn more than a thing or two. I'm one and I did. The non-sports fan will discover just why sports are woven so tightly into the fabric of American life."
Fred Barnes, Wall Street Journal

"[Mr. Mandelbaum writes] with clarity, in prose mercifully free of academic jargon. He explains why Americans are usually absorbed by all three sports, almost always rooting for the home teams. He examines the crucial power of our nostalgias, the ways sports help erase ethnic and religious differences, the corruptions of money and the use of performance-enhancing drugs, which form a hidden script in our scriptless dramas. 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."
Pete Hamil, New York Times

"[C]olloquial and readable… when Mandelbaum is explaining how the games men play reflect the society we live in, he is at his best. "
Washington Post Book World

"[A] witty tour de force of cultural anthropology."
New York Newsday

"A sports fan who also happens to be a pre-eminent foreign policy thinker, Mandelbaum goes deep into the American psyche."
Atlanta Journal Constitution

"[A] delightful new book."
Thomas Friedman, New York Times

"[Mandelbaum] is clearly a smart man, clearly a sports fan, and has done admirable research on his topics….He offers some interesting insights into the nature of sports, and the introduction of his book is a fine essay on the similarities of baseball, football and basketball and various stages of the nation's development: baseball is the legacy of our agrarian past; football is the model of the industrial age; basketball is post-industrial."
The New York Daily News

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

"Whether Mandelbaum can actually catch a ball himself is unclear, but there is no doubting the authenticity of his interest in sport; this is clearly one professor who spends Sundays tethered to his couch, and has keen insights into the games he loves. …If Alexis de Tocqueville were to return to life and write a book about US sport, this would be the book he would produce."
Financial Times

"A marvelous piece of work. This will be of interest to the entire spectrum of our society. A true history of sport."
Bill Walsh, Former Coach of the San Francisco 49ers, Member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame

"So that's why we sports fans are so devoted. Thank you, Michael Mandelbaum, for your dazzling and witty insight into this addictive American wonder - for giving new meaning to the games we play. I will watch my next jump shot with renewed awe."
Lynn Sherr, ABC News 20/20, author of America the Beautiful: The Stirring True Story Behind Our Nation's Favorite Song

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

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

PAPERBACK
ISBN 978-1-58648-330-2
Pub date: 04/20/05
Price: $14.00/19.95 Canada
5 1/2 x 8 1/4
384 pages
Carton Quantity: 28
Baseball, Popular Culture, Sports
Selling Territory: W
Pub history: