Saying It's So: A Cultural History of the Black Sox Scandal by Daniel A. Nathan
The story of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and his teammates purportedly conspiring with gamblers to throw the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds has lingered in our collective consciousness for more than eighty years. With baseball so closely linked to American values and ideals, the Black Sox Scandal of 1919 disenchanted baseball fans, changed the way Americans felt about the national pastime, and fostered changes in the game.
Daniel A. Nathan's wide-ranging, interdisciplinary cultural history is less concerned with the details of the scandal than with how it has been represented and remembered by journalists, historians, novelists, filmmakers, and baseball fans. Offering insights into what different cultural narratives reveal about their creators and the eras in which they were produced, Saying It's So is a complex study of cultural values, memory, and the ways people make meaning.
Addressing the relationship between cultural narratives and social reality, Nathan considers the media's coverage of scandal -- from front-page attention to scathing commentaries and cartoons -- when the story broke in 1920 and in the following years. He also examines how oral tradition reiterated the scandal before new narratives began to appear at midcentury.
In a series of astute reflections on Bernard Malamud's novel The Natural, Eliot Asinof's popular history Eight Men Out, and the work of the historians David Voigt and Harold Seymour, Nathan sheds light on the ways cultural and historical meaning is produced. Also considered are representations of the scandal in popular fiction and film during the Reagan era, the popular tourist destination and baseball field in Dyersville, Iowa, created for the filmField of Dreams, Ken Burns's television documentary Baseball, and the country's reactions to the 1994-95 Major League Baseball strike.
Related:
Saying It's So: A Cultural History of th : The story of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and his team...
Saying It's So: A Cultural History of th : Saying It's So: A Cultural History of the Black ...
The Making of Mammy Pleasant: A Black En : Mary Ellen Pleasant arrived in Gold Rush-era San...
A History of Illinois: From Its Commence : Both cynical and self-serving, Illinois' seventh...
Middle Innings: A Documentary History of : Dean A. Sullivan presents a fascinating array of...
When Brer Rabbit Meets Coyote by Jonatha : An exploration of the literature, history, and c...
Burn, Baby! Burn!: The Autobiography of : With his dynamic on-air personality and his trad...
Passing and the Rise of the African Amer : Passing and the Rise of the African American Nov...
Contemporary Black Men's Fiction and Dra : Demonstrating the extraordinary versatility of A...
Representing: Hip Hop Culture and the Pr : In this engaging and provocative book, S. Craig ...
Race, Rock, and Elvis by Michael T. Bert : In Race, Rock, and Elvis, Michael T. Bertrand co...
Race Against Time: Culture and Separatio : While many studies of race relations have focuse...
History Made, History Imagined: Contempo : In this provocative and original study, David Pr...
Prehistoric Culture Change on the Colora : one of the largest archaeological projects ever ...
Making the Body Beautiful: A Cultural Hi : Nose reconstructions have been common in India f...
America's First Black Town: Brooklyn, Il : "Founded by Chance, Sustained by Courage", Brook...
America's First Black Town: Brooklyn, Il : "Founded by Chance, Sustained by Courage, " Broo...
The Boston Red Sox by Frederick G. Lieb, : Through their triumphs and downfalls, no major l...
Communities of Journalism: A History of : Newspapers do more than provide information. The...
Crossing Boundaries: Comparative History : The essays assembled in Crossing Boundaries refl...