Ethnicity and Sport in North American History and Culture

The editors use the unique lens of the history of sports to examine ethnic experiences in North America since 1840. Comprised of 12 original essays and an Introduction, it chronicles sport as a social institution through which various ethnic and racial groups attempted to find the way to social and psychological acceptance and cultural integration. Included are chapters on Native Americans, Irish-Americans, German-Americans, Canadians, African-Americans, Italian-Americans, Hispanics, and several more, showing how their sports participation also provided these communities with some measure of social mobility, self-esteem, and a shared pride.

Comprised of 12 original essays and an Introduction, it chronicles sport as a social institution through which various ethnic and racial groups attempted to find the way to social and psychological acceptance and cultural integration.

PrefaceIntroduction by George EisenEarly European Attitudes toward Native American Sports and Pastimes by George EisenFor Identity, for Cause, for Health, and Fitness: Forty-Eighters and the Rise of the Turnverein Movement in America by Robert Knight BarneyA Home In the South: The Turners of Galveston, Texas, 1840-1865 by K.B. WamsleyThe Shamrock and the Eagle: Irish-Americans and Sport in the Nineteenth Century by Ralph C. WilcoxJews and Baseball: A Cultural Love Story by Eric SolomonThe Italian-American Sporting Experience by Carmelo Bazzano"Diversionary" Tactics: The Recreation and Leisure Pursuits of Japanese Americans in World War II Internment Camps by Alison M. WrynnThe Quest for Identity: The Notion of Double-Consciousness and the Involvement of Black Athletes in American Sport by David K. WigginsSport in Philadelphia's African-American Community, 1865-1900 by J. Thomas JableSport and the Americanization of Ethnic Women in Chicago by Gerald R. Gems"We Raced for Socks and Sweaters--Not that Useless Bourgeois Stuff, Cups and Medals": Radical Immigrants and the Workers' Sport Federation of Canada, 1924-37 by Bruce KiddSport and Social Mobility among African-American and Hispanic Athletes by Merrill J. Melnick and Donald Sabo