9th Edition
American Sports From the Age of Folk Games to the Age of the Internet
Lists of figures
Preface
Chapter 1. Sports in Early America
Chapter 2. The Setting for Nineteenth-Century Sports
Chapter 3. The Sporting Fraternity and Its Spectacles
Chapter 4. The Rise of America's National Game
Chapter 5. Elite Sports
Chapter 6. The Rise of Intercollegiate Sports
Chapter 7. Broader Horizons
Chapter 8. Sports, Culture and Nation: 1900-1945
Chapter 9. The Rise of Organized Youth Sports
Chapter 10. The Age of Sports Heroes
Chapter 11. Baseball's Golden Age
Chapter 12. The Intercollegiate Football Spectacle
Chapter 13. The Rise and Decline of Organized Women's Sports
Chapter 14. Globalizing Sports, Redefining Race
Chapter 15. The Setting of Organized Sports Since World War II
Chapter 16. Professional Team Sports in the Age of Television
Chapter 17. College Sports in the Age of Television
Chapter 18. Racial Revolution
Chapter 19. Women's Liberation
Chapter 20. All Sports All the Time
Chapter 21. Sports in the Twenty-First Century
Chapter 22. Sports and American Identity
Chapter 23. Transformations
Index
Biography
Pamela Grundy is an independent historian who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is the author of Learning to Win: Sports, Education and Social Change in Twentieth-Century North Carolina and, with Susan Shackelford, of Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of Women’s Basketball. She is also the editor, with Brad Austin, of Teaching US History Through Sports. Her work has received awards from, among others, the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the North American Society for Sport History.
Benjamin Rader is James L. Sellers Professor of History, Emeritus, University of Nebraska – Lincoln. He is the author of Down on Mahans Creek: A History of an Ozarks Neighborhood (2017), When Grandpa Delivered Babies and Other Ozarks Vignettes (2024), and Baseball: A History of America’s Game (5th edition, 2025).
Praise for the previous edition:
"Since its first edition, American Sports has admirably detailed not only the rise of sports in the country but why they are important. Ben Rader, and now Pamela Grundy, illustrate how our games reflect our society and provide agency for change. American Sports is everything I could ask for in a brief one-volume history."
Randy Roberts, 150th Anniversary Distinguished Professor, Purdue University
"This well-written, excellent text presents a much more inclusive history of sport in the United States than most textbooks do, broadly exploring the experiences of American athletes of various genders, races, ethnicities, and economic statuses across the centuries. The text embraces the diversity of American athletes and, thus, provides a comprehensive look at the strengths and weaknesses of sport in American society."
Sarah K. Fields, Professor, University of Colorado – Denver
"A perfect mix of specific anecdotes and broader trends. Comfortable prose that moves well yet includes tons of detail. Astute and timely quotations from prominent historical figures. Grundy and Rader have produced a comprehensive history of American sport – and they've done it well!"
Chad Carlson, Professor of Kinesiology, Hope College
