gerald r. gems, gertrud pfister-understanding american sports_ in culture and society -taylor &...

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UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN SPORTS

Since the nineteenth century the USA has served as an international model for business,lifestyle and sporting success. Yet whilst the language of sport seems to be universal,American sports culture remains highly distinctive. Why is this so? How should weunderstand American sport? What can we learn about America by analyzing its sportsculture?

Understanding American Sports offers discussion and critical analysis of the everydaysporting and leisure activities of ordinary Americans as well as the big three (football,baseball, basketball), and sports heroes. Throughout the book, the development ofAmerican sport is linked to political, social, gender and economic issues, as well as theorientations and cultures of the multilayered American society with its manifold regional,ethnic, social, and gendered diversities.

Topics covered include:

n American College Sportsn The influence of immigrant populationsn The unique status of American footballn The emergence of womens sport in the USA

With co-authors from either side of the Atlantic, Understanding American Sports uses boththe outsiders perspective and that of the insider to explain American sports culture. Withits extensive use of examples and illustrations, this is an engrossing and informative resourcefor all students of sports studies and American culture.

Gerald R. Gems is Professor of Health and Physical Education, North Central College,Naperville, Illinois, USA. He is past president of the North American Society for SportHistory.

Gertrud Pfister is Professor of Sport and Social Sciences at the Institute for Exercise andSport Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She was president of the InternationalSociety for the History of Physical Education and Sport (19842000) and President of theInternational Sport Sociology Association (20042008).

UNDERSTANDINGAMERICAN SPORTS

GERALD R. GEMS AND GERTRUD PFISTER

First published 2009 by Routledge2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canadaby Routledge270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2009 Gerald R. Gems and Gertrud Pfister

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any informationstorage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication DataGems, Gerald R.

Understanding American sports / Gerald R. Gems and Gertrud Pfister.p. cm.

1. SportsSocial aspectsUnited States. I. Pfister, Gertrud, 1945 II. Title. GV706.5.G45 2009306.483dc22 2008047461

ISBN10: 0415443644 (hbk)ISBN10: 0415443652 (pbk)ISBN10: 0203886178 (ebk)

ISBN13: 9780415443647 (hbk)ISBN13: 9780415443654 (pbk)ISBN13: 9780203886175 (ebk)

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009.

To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledgescollection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

ISBN 0-203-88617-8 Master e-book ISBN

CONTENTS

List of illustrations vi

Introduction: or why do we need a book like this and what is it all about? 1

1 An introduction to the United States 13

2 The evolution of American sports 37

3 A nation of immigrants 61

4 The relevance of baseball 95

5 Football games 123

6 College sport 155

7 Physical education and sports in American schools 172

8 Professional sport: development and organization 190

9 Fitness and recreational sport 201

10 Sport and race 228

11 Women and sport: the long road to liberation 250

12 The cultural importance of sports heroes 297

13 Sport, media, consumption 335

14 Sport as big business 369

Glossary 383

Notes 390

Bibliography 399

Index 436

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ILLUSTRATIONS

FIGURES

1.1 US map, 1902 141.2 Settled areas in New England c. 1660 191.3 Confederate Memorial 261.4 Maxwell Street Market, Chicago c. 1905 291.5 Girls school yard baseball game in Gary, Indiana c. 1920 302.1 Native American women in canoe race 392.2 Carlisle mens physical education class 402.3 Modern rodeo 493.1 Tenement houses 613.2 German Turnverein class, Chicago 1885 723.3 Children sledding 743.4 Boys boxing in front of Chicago Hebrew Institute gymnasium c. 1915 794.1 Baseball field 1024.2 Baseball pitcher and hitter 1034.3 Baseball player Babe Ruth 1155.1 Football mele 1335.2 Huddle 1365.3 Running play 1365.4 Sideline coachs instruction 1375.5 Marching band 1395.6 Cheerleading 1405.7 Homecoming 1486.1 North Central College homecoming parade 1676.2 Crowning of the homecoming king and queen 169

10.1 Jack Johnson defeats Jim Jeffries, Reno 1910 23410.2 Black Power salute at 1968 Olympics 24311.1 Archery contest 26011.2 Tennis match on Allen Field 26111.3 Broadside of Annie Smith Peck 272

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11.4 Senda Berenson officiating at a Smith College basketball game, 1903 27611.5 Bathing costumes, bathing beauties, 1905 28511.6 Babe Didrikson 28612.1 Pugilist Gene Tunney after being knocked down by Jack Dempsey 31012.2 Joe DiMaggio with Marilyn Monroe 31712.3 Billie Jean King 326

TABLES

3.1 Sport associations of immigrants 849.1 Sporting leisure activities 215

11.1 Womens participation in the Olympics 28113.1 Hours spent watching TV 34013.2 Fans of various sports 35314.1 Sport rights fees for major sports 37314.2 Sports advertising revenues 375

BOXES

1.1 Thomas Jefferson 221.2 The Star-spangled Banner 241.3 Runaway slave 251.4 How political machines work 281.5 The significance of the frontier in American history 312.1 Sports on the Lords day 422.2 Bull baiting 432.3 Quaker views on sports and games 442.4 Gouging 482.5 Tavern entertainments 502.6 Washington Social Gymnasium 522.7 Pedestrian trials 532.8 On the role of sport clubs 542.9 Harry Edwards and the Revolt of the Black Athlete 582.10 Thrill of surfing 593.1 England as cradle of modern sport 653.2 The Americanization of British sports 673.3 Catholics as enemies 683.4 Turnen its principles and practices 703.5 Daily life on the Prairie 763.6 Arrival in America 77

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3.7 Hull House 853.8 Catholics on the football field 883.9 The Pullman industrial recreation program 894.1 Invented traditions 974.2 Baseball player or president? 994.3 The great match 1044.4 Theodore Roosevelt on amateurism 1054.5 Baseball addiction 1084.6 Fan loyalty 1104.7 The popularity of the World Series 1124.8 Baseball the American game 1134.9 The soft side of baseball 1164.10 The business of baseball 1195.1 Football and the civilization process 1255.2 Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) 1275.3 Recruitment practices 1315.4 Considerations of a college president 1345.5 Football violence 1385.6 Letter of a German exchange student: marching bands and cheerleaders 1395.7 Cheerleaders as awards? 1445.8 Football, masculinity, and politics 1455.9 Football players as patriotic heroes 1475.10 The little gifts to athletes 1495.11 A black girls traveling soccer team 1536.1 The income of a coach 1586.2 The coach as demi-god 1596.3 The reputation of a university 1596.4 Critical questions 1616.5 Alumnus donates millions 1616.6 Hazing 1636.7 Fame and ambition 1646.8 Luxury for basketball players 1646.9 The fans 1666.10 Muscles as a fad 1666.11 Homecoming at North Central College, Naperville 1687.1 Gymnastics at the schools in Kansas City 1747.2 American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance 1797.3 Activity rates in PE lessons 1817.4 High school basketball as state religion 1837.5 National Federation of State High School Associations 1857.6 Sport and education 1867.7 Pep rally 186

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7.8 Football and scholarships 1887.9 Booster club 1898.1 Salaries in the early phase of professionalization 1908.2 Football and imagined communities 1948.3 Mitchell Report 1999.1 Sport for all 2029.2 Black basketball 2079.3 Childrens sport is hard work and business 2099.4 A star is born 2109.5 Sport for all is not for all 2119.6 National parks 2199.7 Obesity and physical education 2209.8 The American residential experience 2209.9 Not without a car 224

10.1 A slave narrative 23010.2 Tom Molyneaux, former slave and famous boxer 23110.3 Racial equality in the boxing ring? 23310.4 Race and boxing 23510.5 Maya Angelou about Joe Louis 23810.6 Discrimination: the situation of black athletes during the 1960s 24110.7 The Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) 24210.8 Basketball stars contested heroes? 24511.1 On the proper occupations for women 25111.2 Womens education 25511.3 The foot of the Croquet Queen 25811.4 Playing tennis in corsets 26211.5 Female hunters 26511.6 Barrel racing a fast-growing womens professional sport 26611.7 Louise Armaindo, the world champion female cyclist 26911.8 A female pedestrian 27011.9 Powder Puff Derby 27311.10 Tennis, a game for black women 28811.11 Womens Sports Foundation 29311.12 Athletes as sexual objects 29512.1 Celebrities, heroes, stars 29912.2 Daniel Boone 30012.3 Theodore Roosevelt and American football 30312.4 Babe Ruth 30612.5 Corbett defeats Sullivan 30812.6 All-American athletes and teams 31912.7 Jim Thorpe as place of remembrance 32212.8 Sport as an arena for heroism 324

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12.9 Lombardian ethics 32812.10 Muhammad Ali 33012.11 Paternity: no laughing matter 33113.1 A game of heroic proportions 33613.2 Nascar Nation 34313.3 Ashes over the stadium 35513.4 Sport bars 35913.5 Sport as a fantasy 36113.6 Conflicts of sport journalists 36614.1 Alex Rodriguez Gets $275 Million give me a break! 37714.2 Super Bowl advertising 37814.3 The global media giants 379

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INTRODUCTION

OR WHY DO WE NEED A BOOK LIKE THIS ANDWHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT?

If you can answer all of the following questions, you do not have to read this book.

n What is interscholastic sport?n Why do colleges and universities offer athletic scholarships?n Why do some coaches at American universities earn more money than the president?n What are owners and salary caps?n Why are football competitions accompanied by pep rallies, cheerleaders, and

tailgaiting?n What is Title IX and was it an advantage for women?n Who administers and provides sport for all?n Why is the obesity rate increasing in the United States?n Is race still an issue in American sport?n Why do Americans spend billions of dollars and numerous nights and weekends on

sport consumption?n Why are Americans so fascinated with statistical performances in sport?n What is a home run and what is a touchdown?

AIMS

Sport is a global player in Westernization, and often specifically Americanization processeswhich are driven by, among other things, unlimited flows of information and com-munication, media without frontiers, global heroes and stars, transnational audiences andfans, and sporting mega-events like the Olympic Games.

The principles of modern sport and its orientation towards international competition andworld records have led to a worldwide unification of rules, techniques, strategies, andpractices. Closely linked to sport, business, sponsors, and media transmissions operatethroughout the world. The language of sport seems to be universal, and the attraction ofsports, teams, and athletes is no longer restricted by borders. Sport seems to be a universalphenomenon shared by the global community. Yet, there is resistance to the flow of global

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sport, and numerous and various culturally specific types of sport and movement culturesflourish. Each culture has developed specific sport practices and meanings, and sport is anexcellent example of glocalization, the integration of local agents in the discourses of sportand the embedding of ideologies and practices in local communities and cultures. Despiteits common rules, sport does not have the same meaning everywhere; on the contrary, wecan only understand sport in its cultural context and we can only gain a comprehensiveinsight into cultures and societies if we take bodies and embodiment, physical cultures andleisure activities, sport and sport consumption into consideration.

Since the nineteenth century, America has played a central but ambivalent role in theideologies and politics of other countries. America was the promised land with seeminglyunlimited opportunities, where immigrants have sought material sustenance, freedomand/or democracy. The USA has served as a model for business, lifestyle, and sportingsuccess. But the United States has also been regarded as a country that exemplifies a questfor unlimited profit and materialism; a place without high standards of culture. America isa world power with aggressive politics and a sense of manifest destiny, admired and feared,loved and hated. Admiration or repudiation America was always, and still remains today,a center of interest and attention in the world. This is also true of American sport.

However, in spite of the worldwide interest in America and American sport, there is stilllittle knowledge about the distinctive American sport culture outside the USA. Few non-American authors are experts on American sport, and for sport students in Europe, SouthAmerica or the Far East understanding American sport is a challenge. There are someEuropean studies available on sport and physical activities in the USA, such as thecomparison between American and European sports like soccer and baseball (Szymanskiand Zimbalist 2005) or about soccer in the USA (Markovits and Hellermann 2004b). Otherstudies concentrate on the role of physical activities in immigrant cultures in the US(Hofmann 2001). Details of American sport history may be found in Christensen et al.(2001) and Levinson and Christensen (2005). Nevertheless, there remains a gap in theliterature for a broader, general guide to understanding American sport.

Within the USA the majority of publications about sport focus on the big three sports:football, baseball, and basketball, and on famous athletes. Higher level studies aimed atstudents and researchers take a basic understanding of US sport culture for granted.However, we must also ask whether within such a unique and self-contained sportingculture there may be a need for further objective insight from outside the USA to gaina truly in-depth understanding of American sport in the context of world sport.

This book is written from European and American perspectives, and will discuss andcritically analyze not only the national sports, elite sport performances and the well-knownheroes but also the everyday sporting and leisure activities of ordinary Americans.

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CONTENTS

Arising in particular historical situations (sport) cultures1 are dependent on the prevailingsocial conditions and develop in conformity with political, social and economic influences.Of particular significance here are the origins and the initial phases of developments.

Following Bourdieus concept of the social field (see p. 9), developments in sport havealways taken place in a specific field which determines the position of a sport in society.Here, the time of the establishment of a sport is important because latecomers havedifficulty displacing already popular activities. In the USA, the hegemonic sport culturewas shaped in the nineteenth and the first part of the twentieth century. This might explainwhy soccer, the worlds most popular sport, has been unable to dislodge football, baseball,and basketball in the USA. Although our focus is thus on this period, we will also coverdevelopments before and after.

We give a general introduction to American history and the evolution of American sportas a background for all chapters. In addition, we address the various groups of immigrantswhich had an impact on American culture and became ingredients in the Americanmelting-pot. American sport cannot be understood without insight into the emergence,development, and meanings of baseball and football. While Chapter 4 on the relevanceof baseball also provides an insight into the evolution of professional sport, the history ofAmerican football (Chapter 2) explains the interrelations between sport and schools. Inboth chapters, white men are the focus of attention. Womens sport has a specific historyin the USA. It has always differed decisively from mens sport, and also from womens sportdevelopments in other countries. Thus, a separate chapter (Chapter 11) is devoted towomens long struggle for equality in sport. A distinctive feature of the USA is the segregationand, later, the integration of the different ethnicities and races. As illustrated in this book,sport has played an important role in the integration and acceptance of African-Americans.In addition, the wide diversity and complexity of activities, organizations, discourses, andpractices from elite sport to fitness programs will be described and analyzed. The secondpart of the book contains information about the sports participation of Americans (numbers,age, gender, race, social class) and their lifestyles, as well as the structures and organizationsof professional sport, school sport as well as sport for all in communities and commercialinstitutions. Today, American sport is closely intertwined with the media and markets. Themedia and their influence, audiences and their activities and tastes, and sport markets areimportant issues for understanding American sports. Information about media and markets,and their role in the lives of Americans, are presented in Chapters 13 and 14. But the bestway to gain insight into the significance of sport in the USA is the analysis of sporting heroes(Chapter 12). Heroes represent and embody the values, (self-) image, and dreams of theAmerican population. The whole book, especially the chapter on sporting heroes, revealsthe close interrelations between American sport and American culture.

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DEFINITIONS

Games and dances, physical activities, performances and movement cultures have alwaysexisted and continue to exist in all societies. On closer scrutiny we detect that the multi-faceted world of sports and games has different culture-specific patterns. On the one handthe body and physical activities are governed by the laws of physiology; on the other theyare also subjected to the prevailing social norms. The forms and aims of physical activitiesas well as the motives, feelings, and associations connected with them depend on the socialcontext. Quite different forms of movement, for example, may have the same object (theworship of gods, say) while the same movements may be associated with different objec-tives or intentions. Running, for instance, may be aimed at imitating the cosmic cycle or atbreaking the 100m record. Consequently, the analysis and interpretation of physicalactivities must always pay heed to their context, with emphasis upon the fact that physicalculture embodies (i.e. adopts, presents, and reinforces) the values and norms of a society.

In the early modern era many traditional sports and games were played all over Europewhich were more often than not connected with religious festivals and which, being restrictedto certain social groups and/or certain regions, did not aim at being universally propagated.Among sport historians there is general consensus that modern sport developed in England(Guttmann 1978; Mangan 1981; Mason 1982). Modern sport is characterized by the(theoretical) equality of opportunity, orientation towards performance and competition,and the principle of setting and breaking records, which is connected with an abstract formof performance. In this context abstract means that the performance relates neither to theachievement itself, nor to the athlete nor to an opponent; it is merely expressed in an abstractfigure. In this way, performances in running, for example, can be compared with each othereven though they take place at different times and in different places, without the runnersever having met each other. Activities which cannot be measured quantitatively, likegymnastics or figure skating, are evaluated, and these evaluations are transferred intoquantitative figures with the help of a code de pointage. Games are organized in a complexand hierarchical system of tournaments and leagues which make it possible to identify thebest teams of a city, a region, a nation, or worldwide.

A further characteristic of modern sport is that the movements and actions in a given sportare not determined by an objective but by rules. Soccer, for example, is not defined bygetting a ball into the goal but by the rule that only kicking the ball is allowed. Sport istherefore a ritual based on social arrangements which adapt to the prevailing conditions.In the course of the nineteenth century numerous physical activities were sportified. Theconcept of sportification, meaning the transformation of a physical activity into a modernsport, has often been interpreted as rationalization and civilization following Eliasdeliberations on the civilization process (Elias 1971). As Guttmann (1994), among others,has emphasized, the principle of competition and the pursuit of records had numerousconsequences, including rationalization, the quantification of performance, standardizationof apparatus and facilities, bureaucratization, specialization, and professionalization.

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Sport has always been a contested term and its meaning has changed in the course of time.In colonial America, sport meant amusement. Therefore, cockfights could be termed sport,and later in the taverns of the Wild West female prostitutes could be called soiled doves,painted ladies or sporting women. And large numbers, perhaps even the majority, ofsportsmen in the sports bars of the nineteenth century engaged in drinking, gambling,and watching sports without getting involved in any physical activity. Even today manysports fans would identify themselves as active sports participants.

Most people would agree that sport has to do with physical skills and movement, and thatsedentary activities are not sport. But a closer look reveals that this distinction is blurred,not least because especially games like chess and poker claim to be sports. It seems normaland natural to define football, rowing, sailing, ski jumping, or running the 100m as sports;however, defining something as normal also means concealing the social arrangements. Allsports are social constructions which have developed in a certain situation and changecontinually following new demands from participants, audiences, and the media. Sport aims at physical performance, but the range of physical activities involved and the nature of performance is open to discussion. Here, one must also consider that amazingachievements do not necessarily have to be quantifiable and measurable.

The American definition of sport emphasizes performance, competition, and recordorientation. This notion of sports fits nicely in the above-mentioned framework developedby Allen Guttmann (1978). In Europe, sport has a much broader meaning, including theconcept of sport for all, which was developed in the 1960s. In the USA, sport for all isnot a common term; it can be translated into recreational physical activities.

In this book, we have chosen a broad approach to sport. We focus on sports (in the narrowsense), but we also include recreational physical activities, not least because the largemajority of the physically active population engages in sport for all. In addition, we includeinformation about sport consumption, i.e. the broad range of activities in which sport is usedas a service or product. A special focus in this context will be on sport audiences. Sportconsumption is a very important part of American culture; however, it should not beconfused with active sports participation.

THEORETICAL APPROACHES

It is a common saying that sociology without history is empty and that history withoutsociology is blind. However, many (sport-)historical studies are rather descriptive, and theauthors seem to be content with reconstructing historical developments inductively byinterpretations of various sources. On the other hand, there are numerous sociologicalanalyses whose approaches and findings are not rooted in the past and thus lack explanatoryvalue.

Our book has an interdisciplinary approach: it combines sport history and social sciencesand provides insight into the emergence of the most important physical activities and sports

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as well as into current sporting structures and practices. This allows us to show how historicaldevelopments have influenced or, better, shaped American sport. History helps to explainthe way sport is played, perceived, understood, structured, organized, and sold in the USA.Explanations require theoretical approaches which provide questions and hypotheses, aswell as guidelines for analysis and a framework for interpretation.

The topics covered in this book are diverse and include a broad range of issues from raceto gender, from physical education to the mass media. Therefore, we propose varioustheoretical concepts and perspectives.

As a whole the book is based on the ideas of Cultural Studies, developed since the 1950sin England. Cultural Studies combine various disciplines from political economy to mediastudies, sociology and history. They focus on gender, race and class issues, and deal withethnicities, nationalities and ideologies. Culture is seen as the whole way of life. (Symbolic)interaction, discourses, power, representation and contextualization are key terms in thisapproach (Andrew and Sedgwick 2005).

We explore the historical development of sport using Elias ideas about the civilizationprocess. We interpret sport and sporting heroes as important parts of the collective memory,the political myths, and the popular history of the USA. We have based our approaches togender, race, and ethnicity on constructivist concepts as proposed by Judith Lorber or R. Connell, and we interpret sport as a field and playing sport as a means of social distinctionin Pierre Bourdieus sense of the terms.

PLACES OF MEMORY AND NATIONAL IDENTITY

Since the publication of Pierre Noras monumental seven-volume Les Lieux de Mmoire,research into remembered places is being carried out throughout the world with growingenthusiasm.2 In the USA, a young nation and a nation of immigrants, collective memories,and the construction of American identity was, and still is, of central importance.

The study of cultures of remembering makes use of various research approaches andstrategies. It starts out from a hypothesis attributed to the French sociologist MauriceHalbwachs that, namely, historical interpretations and patterns of perception result froma dual interplay of, firstly, personal reminiscences and the common collective memoryand, secondly, the perception of the past and the expectation of the future (Francois andSchulze 2001; see also Assmann and Harth 1991; Francois 1996). In communicativeprocesses cultures reconstruct their pasts and incorporate those events into their collectivememory, which they require for their current circumstances. From this point of view,remembering means the ongoing production of sense in connection with a currentlyperceived necessity to act (Reichel 1996, 107). The reminiscences of individuals andcollective memory are the result of and are also partly produced consciously and inten-tionally by stories, histories and myths, rituals and symbols, monuments and memorial

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celebrations as well as the evocation of outstanding personalities and important events.However, collective reminiscences are by no means confined to products of high culturebut are also anchored in everyday culture, in the trivial as well as in the sublime. Baseball,for example, plays an equally important role in the American cultural memory as TheodoreRoosevelt; and, as far as their effect of creating identity is concerned, Oprah Winfrey maybe of just as much significance as the Capitol, burgers, or Marilyn Monroe.

For Pierre Nora all the immaterial and material anchorages for the memory are places,entries in the collective memory, which he imagines as a spatial arrangement, i.e. a storageroom or a museum, in keeping with the Greco-Roman tradition of rhetorical mnemonics(Assmann 1996, 19).

Whereas history studies used to treat the formation of nations formerly from a political andsocial perspective, a central focus of todays research is on the question of how nationalawareness is culturally molded. If nations are cultural constructs, it follows that nationalidentity, too, is nothing that one acquires by nature, but something that has to bepermanently produced and staged. For this purpose, societies develop a cultural memorywhich furthers group formation and ties because it enables the emotional bonding ofpersonal recollections with the memories of the other individual members of thecommunity (Francois and Schulze 1999, 1). A sense of nationhood is based on a diffusemixture of cognitive and emotional as well as collective and individual elements (Francoiset al. 1995, 15). This form of internalized affinity through common memories, notions,and visions is expressed by the term imagined community, coined by Anderson (1987).Nations, too, are imagined communities, and the collective memories are of majorsignificance in their origin and development.

The creation of a feeling of belonging even among people who have never met and willnever interact concretely with each other is a subject discussed not only in Norasreflections on remembered places but also in various other theoretical concepts, forinstance, in the British historian Hobsbawms approach of the invention of tradition (cf. Hobsbawm 1938). Further, the notion of the invention of ethnicity was derived fromthis approach and applied to the construction of ethnic identity (Sollors 1989).

Various groups of a society, among them historians, are involved in the invention of tradi-tions and constructions of memory. They produce, whether consciously or subconsciously,remembered places by writing myths, stories, and histories which are bound to theinterpretations of their own national projects and which endow historical events with ameaning that is teleologically oriented towards the contemporary situation. National mythsare by no means mere propaganda, i.e. a conscious manipulation from above; theyinvolve a great number of social groups, including the recipients, who select, interpret,evaluate, and, perhaps, internalize these messages. In order to be effective, certain rulesapply: national myths must be personified in individuals and/or events in order to triggeridentification processes; further, they must contain contemporary references and positivemessages, and they must be associated with emotionally appealing values. In the USA,

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public history, meaning the public productions of knowledge about the past, is booming.3

According to Michael Gordon (http://www.uwm.edu/Course/448-700/syllbus.html),public history involves the presentation of the past for public citizens . . . in ways that areespecially important in shaping collective memory.

As many chapters of this book will show, sporting events and athletes play an outstandingrole in the construction of American identity and public history. Memorials and halls offame, baseball statistics and football books celebrate the past, ascertain common values,and legitimize Americas claim of superiority.

POLITICAL MYTHS

American sport was accompanied by, and is still embedded in, various myths, among othersthe myths of the frontier and the manifest destiny of the Americans. Myths are a particularform of collective memory composed of narratives offering a selective and condensedaccount of events from the distant past. They appeal to the emotions, confer legitimacy onsocial organizations and structures, rationalize ideologies and norms, and lend meaning to a communitys quest for self-reassurance. In modern societies myths are anchored in collective and individual memory as fragmentary references, indirect allusions,watchwords, slogans, visual symbols, echoes in literature, film, songs, public ceremonies,and other forms of everyday situations, often highly condensed and emotionally charged(Flood 1996, 84). Such fragments are frequently found as elements of political ideologies,whose messages are expressed by symbols such as a countrys flag, and are experiencedthrough rituals and symbolic actions such as singing the national anthem.

Political myths, as fixed and stereotypical images of the past, place emphasis on things in the collective memory which a particular society or culture deems vital for its existence. They are ultimately an explanation and interpretation ofhistorical events and a declaration of the fundamental values, ideas and behaviorof a group.4

Like places of memory generally, political myths are of great significance for the presentsince they make developments appear natural, thus legitimizing and stabilizing theprevailing conditions. They strengthen the power of those who have control over the choiceand interpretation of things remembered. Myths of origin allude to persons, events,and/or places who or which play a key role in the development of a community. Theyoften combine with myths of persons, which focus on someone whose historicalachievements are augmented, embellished, and construed as being superhuman. This isespecially true of American sports events and sporting heroes.

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SPORT AND THE PROCESS OF CIVILIZATION NORBERT ELIAS

In several contributions Elias has applied the fundamental ideas of his civilization theory tosport (Elias 1971; cf. also Elias and Dunning 1986). In an article on the genesis of sportthe point of departure is a comparison between modern sport and Greek agonistics, whichis presented as an example of physical culture typical of pre-industrial societies. Usingmany examples, the author shows that the same forms of movement may be linked todifferent intentions and meanings. In this way, for example, the brutal boxing contests ofantiquity, which not infrequently ended in death, are compared with todays boxingmatches governed by rules.

Elias attributes the differences in the norms and standards of physical culture to the differentstages reached in the civilization process, which is marked by a growing trend towardsinterdependence, monopolization and control of power as well as internalization ofpressures. The author notes that state formation and conscience formation, the level ofsocially permitted physical violence and the threshold of repugnance against using orwitnessing it, will differ in specific ways at different stages in the development of societies(1971, 95). The body and physical strength also play different roles in different historicaleras, the civilization process being accompanied by a civilizing not only of minds, butalso of bodies. Elias emphasizes the interrelations between power, behavior, emotions andknowledge and bridges thus the macromicro divide, the divide between structure andagency, individual and society.

According to Elias, sport as a regulated and rationalized form of physical confrontation is a practice of physical culture typical of industrial nation-states with industrial production,state-controlled power, and a high degree of internalized discipline. In these societies sportis one of the great social inventions which helps to reduce tensions and channelaggressions. The development of sport in the USA may be described as sportification anda civilization process in the sense given to it by Norbert Elias.

SPORT AS CULTURAL CAPITAL PIERRE BOURDIEU

Like Elias, Bourdieu (1986) links the macro with the micro perspective and connects socialstructures and individual behavior. In contrast to traditional theories of class, Bourdieustresses that social stratification is determined by both vertical and horizontal diffe-rentiations. Members of each social group take up a position in a hierarchically and verticallystructured social field according to their social, cultural, and economic capital. They arecharacterized by a set of behavior patterns and self-presentations which are condensed tospecific lifestyles. The positions of the various class factions are not totally fixed; insteadthere is a continuous process of social distinction, i.e. marking oneself off from the groupbelow, and striving towards the acquisition of status symbols, tastes as well as the generalhabitus of the social strata situated higher on the vertical scale. The social reproduction

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of power and its legitimization takes place in the form of the struggle not only for economicresources but also for legitimacy.

For Bourdieu the hinge between the individual and society is formed by the habitus, whosedevelopment depends on social conditions and which consists of the totality of humandispositions; in determining thoughts, perceptions, and actions the habitus produces specificcultural practices in each social group. Habitus and the tastes related to it thus characterizesocial classes and groups. A central role in this is played by the body, which assumes animportant symbolic function, expressing values which are specific to an individual, group,or class, and thus becoming the bearer of social distinction and cultural capital. It is the bodyhabitus, i.e. the socially structured system of bodily dispositions, which determines not onlyindividual attitudes to the body and its management but also the choice and patterns ofphysical activities and sporting habits (see, for example, Bourdieu 1982).

Bourdieu turns his attention to sport as a significant field of daily culture and practice,which serves to produce and present the legitimate body and the right taste. Sport maybe considered a relatively autonomous field which has its own dynamics and is an objectof struggles between the various groups in the field. On the one hand, sports participationdepends on resources and the amount and form of capital; on the other hand, sportingactivities can provide social and cultural capital and serve as social distinction. Thedistinctive value of a sport depends on its image, the costs, and also the environment. Golfin an expensive club enables the players to accumulate much more cultural capital thangolf played on a public course. In addition, sport has specific meanings, attractions, and(imagined) effects on health and appearance for instance the development of muscles which attracts some groups and deters others.

Part and parcel, then, of an understanding of sports participation is the consciousand unconscious orientations of different groups toward engaging in distinctive (asconceived by their social group), potentially rewarding (economically, culturally,and socially), and reinforcing (especially their positions in their local community)practices.

(Washington and Karen 2001, 210)

Not only sports participants but also sports providers are in constant competition:

The field of sporting practices is an arena of combat, in which the object is, amongother things, the monopolistic domination of a legitimate sporting practice . . .And these specific struggles are further embedded in a more extensive field ofstruggle for the definition of the legitimate body and the legitimate use andmanagement of the body.

(Bourdieu 1988, 9)

The evolution of American sport as well as current sport practices are permeated by classstruggles and distinction processes. Using Bourdieus perspective allows us to understand,

10introduction

among other things, the soccer craze in rich suburbs or the fitness boom in Americansociety.

GENDER AND RACE AS SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS

Using a constructivist approach to gender, we can define gender as a process of socialconstruction, a system of social stratification, and an institution that structures every aspectof our lives because of its embeddedness in the family, the workplace and the state as wellas in sexuality, language and culture and we would like to add in sport (Lorber 1994,5). Gender always has an institutional, an individual, and an interactional perspective,which means that the gender order of a society is appropriated by individuals who developgendered identities and present gendered images. At present there is general agreementamong scholars of gender studies that gender has different dimensions and must beinterpreted as a lifelong process with ambivalences and contradictions.

Connell (2002) emphasizes the role of bodies and of social embodiment in genderingprocesses. Bodies are both objects of social practice and agents in social practice . . . Thepractices in which bodies are involved form social structures and personal trajectories whichin turn provide the conditions of new practices in which bodies are addressed and involved(Connell 2002, 47). Social processes always include bodily activities from childbirth tosport, and bodily activities, in turn, are connected with social norms and interpretations.

How then does the gender order become embedded in peoples bodies and minds, andhow do men and women continually construct and reconstruct gender as an institution?People are categorized as belonging to social groups and also to one or other of the sexesby means of outward features such as dress, hairstyle, the way they move, or their bodylanguage and as a rule this happens unconsciously. Gender, therefore, is not somethingwe are or have but something we produce and do. Gender is constantly created and re-created out of human interaction, out of social life, and it is the texture and order of thatsocial life . . . it depends on everybody constantly doing gender (Lorber 1994, 13; 2000).Gender is a performance. Ethnicity and race can likewise be understood as socialconstructions, based on bodies but transformed by culture. Sport (in the broad sense of theterm) is one of the few areas of our culture in which the body plays a decisive role: inenacting and exposing physical strength, endurance, power, and aggressiveness, but alsograce and elegance. Sport always involves the presentation of the body and its capacities,the demonstration of physical performance, and the enactment of a persons image.Therefore, sport offers a stage where bodily differences, gender differences, and gender asa whole are re-produced and presented. Doing sport is always doing gender and doing race;it is always presenting oneself as male or female, as white or African-American. The changingroles of women, African-Americans, and various ethnic groups show, along with themainstreaming of their sporting practices, that not biology but social and cultural con-ditions decide discourses and practices.

11introduction

READING INSTRUCTIONS

The chapters of this book are self-contained, each dealing with a key issue. The differentchapters provide contributions on various subjects (womens sport, the mass media, sportsystems, the history of individual sports, etc.) and thus offer insights from different angles.Consequently, a number of key events and important figures are dealt with in differentchapters in different contexts. We have been at pains to avoid repetition by providingreferences to the relevant passages in other chapters.

12introduction

CHAPTER ONEAN INTRODUCTION TO THE UNITED STATES

GEOGRAPHY AND SOCIETY

The United States of America occupies the central portion of the North American continent.It extends across four time zones from the Atlantic Ocean on the east to the Pacific Oceanon the west. It comprises forty-eight contiguous states of various sizes, as well as the largepeninsula of Alaska, adjacent to northwestern Canada, and the islands of Hawaii, locatedin the mid-Pacific Ocean. (Alaska and Hawaii entail two additional time zones.) It coversan area of 3,718,685 square miles or 9,631,420 square kilometers (Essential World Atlas2001, vi; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States).

The population of the United States exceeded 300,000,000 in 2006, most of whom livedin urban metropolitan areas. The United States has nine cities with an excess of 1,000,000inhabitants, and four of its cities (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston) areconsidered global centers, cities which serve as commercial, technological, and transporthubs in the world economic system (Abu-Lughod 1999). The East Coast is the most denselypopulated area of the country; although there has been an increasing movement to thewarmer climate of the south and west (known as the Sun Belt) over the last generation.

A nation of immigrants, the United States has a diverse racial and ethnic population. Morethan 74 percent of the population (215,300,000 people) identify themselves as white with German, Irish, and Anglo ancestry predominant; while 14.5 percent (41,900,000)claim Hispanic heritage; although some Hispanics identifying themselves as white. African-Americans or blacks comprise 12.1 percent of the population (34,900,000); Asian-Americans 4.3 percent (12,500,000); Native Americans 0.8 percent (2,400,000); andNative Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders make up 0.1 percent (400,000). A small percentageclaim a mixed race ancestry. The largest number of immigrants in the past decade camefrom Mexico, China, India, and the Philippines (Wills 2005; http;//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States).

Owing to the particular historical evolution of the country, both race and religion remainmajor factors within American society which influence values, politics, and lifestyles deci-sively.1 Almost 80 percent of Americans profess to being Christians. Of the many Christiandenominations, Catholics claim 25.9 percent of the population, while a wide variety of

13an introduction to the United States

Protestant sects account for the remainder. Among the Protestants, Baptists are mostnumerous with 17.2 percent, most of them living in the southern states, which are referredto as the Bible Belt. Evangelical Christian groups, though they represent only a small fractionof the population, wield an inordinate amount of political power as lobbyists and pressuregroups. Jews make up 1.4 percent of the population; and Muslims, Buddhists, and Hinduseach account for less than 1 percent. A growing number (15 percent ) of US citizens areagnostics or atheists. As the US Constitution stipulates the separation of church and state,the non-believers have won several court cases relative to the public display of Christiansymbols, such as crosses or Christmas nativity scenes on government property, and theteaching of religion in public schools. Still, they are considered to be an anomaly in theUnited States, which adopted the slogan In God We Trust as an official motto in 1956.

In the US population, females slightly outnumber males; women enjoy a life expectancyof over 80 years compared to 75 years for men. Although women have become the majorityof college students and comprise the largest number of college graduates, men retain mostpositions of power in the government, commerce, and society.


Figure 1.1 US map, 1902 (Northrope 1902, VIII)

The country has a 99 percent literacy rate, with mandatory attendance for school-agedchildren. Public schools offer a free education; however, 12 percent of children attendprivate, mostly religious schools, and another 2 percent are home-schooled by theirparents, often for religious reasons. Slightly more than 27 percent of Americans haveobtained a college degree, with 9.6 percent granted a graduate degree (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States).

Economically the median income for American households is over $46,000 (over $67,000for two-income families, which have become common since the 1960s). Twenty-five percent of Americans earn more than $77,000 annually, and 13 percent of Americansfall below the poverty line of $20,000 for a family of four. Racial and social class distinctionsare evident; Hispanics earn, on the average, slightly more than $34,000; and blacks arepaid an average of slightly more than $30,000. The latter two groups also have the highestunemployment rates at more than 9.4 percent for African-Americans and 14.6 percent forHispanics.

The United States had the worlds largest economy with more than $13 trillion in gross domestic production in 2006. Despite such wealth, economic inequality is moreapparent in the United States than in European countries. One percent of Americans hold 33.4 percent of the nations wealth, and 10 percent control 69.8 percent. The other 90 percent of the citizenry has declined in relative worth over the past decade(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States).

GOVERNMENT

The federal government of the United States is comprised of three branches: the executive,the legislative, and the judicial. The executive branch is made up of the president, the vice-president, and a group of appointed administrators of various departments known as theCabinet, who act as the presidential advisors and policy-makers. The president must be anative-born citizen of the United States, at least 35 years of age, and resident in the countryfor at least fourteen years. The president is elected for a term of four years and cannot holdoffice for more than two consecutive terms. He is the chief executive of the governmentand also serves as the commander in chief of the military forces. The vice-presidentsucceeds to the presidency upon the death of a president or any other circumstance inwhich the president cannot fulfill his or her duties.

The legislative branch of the government is the Congress composed of two houses, theSenate and the House of Representatives. The Congress creates the laws which governAmerican society. The vice-president presides over the Senate, and the citizens of each stateelect two senators, insuring a measure of equality regardless of the size of the state. Senatorsserve a six-year term in office and may be re-elected indefinitely. Election to the House ofRepresentatives is dependent upon the population of each state. More populous states get


more representatives than less populated areas. Representatives are elected to two-yearterms, but may be re-elected to office for an indefinite period. Either house of Congressmay propose legislation; but both units must provide an affirmative vote before theproposed measures become law.

The judicial branch of the government is composed of a Supreme Court, which consists ofnine judges and one Chief Justice, and a system of lower courts. Federal laws supersedethe laws of the individual states. Supreme Court judges serve for the duration of theirlifetime or until self-imposed retirement. They are appointed by the president and passjudgment on the legality of statutes and actions.

The federal entity created by the Constitution is the dominant feature of theAmerican governmental system. But the system itself is in reality a mosaic,composed of thousands of smaller units building blocks that together make upthe whole. There are 50 state governments plus the government of the District ofColumbia, and further down the ladder are still smaller units that govern counties,cities, towns, and villages.

(http://usinfo.state.gov/infousa/government/overview/ch7.html)

The United States has two major political parties, which provides limited choice for citizens.Both parties court celebrity (such as Hollywood movie stars) and corporate donors thatsupply the ever increasing finances necessary to run media dependent election campaigns.

The Republican Party is considered to be more conservative, favoring commerce and bigbusinesses, as well as advocating right-wing social and moral issues (anti-abortion, privategun ownership, military expenditures). The Democratic Party is generally more liberal,supporting expenditure on social welfare programs and education.

POLITICAL ISSUES

One of the most debated issues in the US is welfare. In the US, each state has the authorityto decide about its welfare politics.

In practice, the US is pluralistic, rather than liberal. There are significant departuresfrom the residual model e.g. state schooling . . . In addition to federal and stateactivity, there are extensive private, mutualist and corporate interests in welfareprovision. The resulting systems are complex (and expensive): the guiding principleis less one of consistent individualism than . . . decentralized social altruism.

(http://www2.rgu.ac.uk/publicpolicy/introduction/wstate.htm)

Welfare means a social commitment of the majority of the American population, as thefollowing figures indicate:


About one million non-governmental, non-profit organizations are dedicated towelfare; more than 80% of all American citizens claim to be part of at least onesuch organization; about 60% of all American citizens do voluntary work in suchorganizations. The majority of Americans are against an expansion of the welfarestate, but they want increasing efforts to fight poverty on a private level.

(Murswieck 1998, 4245; http://tiss.zdv.uni-tuebingen.de/webroot/sp/spsba01_W98_1/usa1.htm)

Further issues confronting the populace are unequal educational opportunities and accessto health care. Public schools are funded by real estate taxes, meaning that wealthier (oftensuburban) districts provide a greater budget and resources to their local schools than dosmall, rural, or inner city districts that accommodate poor neighborhoods. Thus poorchildren lack the same resources and opportunities for better schooling, higher education,and ultimately, social mobility in the American society.

Deficiencies in health care services afflict the poorer citizens, the elderly, and an increasingnumber of workers who lack health insurance and adequate pension plans. Infant mortalityin the United States affects 6.37 of every 1,000 births, a figure higher than WesternEuropean countries. Likewise, teen pregnancies, at 79.8 per 1,000, supersede Europeanfigures. With two-thirds of Americans rated as overweight and one-third judged obese,both obesity and type 2 diabetes strain medical resources (Nye 2008; Orsega-Smith et al.2008; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_ States).

In addition to educational and health concerns the unique American gun culture representsa distinct difference from European societies. The American Constitution guarantees theright to private ownership of guns and the National Rifle Association is one of the mostsuccessful lobbyist organizations in the United States, dedicated to maintaining that status.Proponents for and against guns debate whether such weapons promote or protect againstcriminal activities. The US murder rate of 5.6 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2005 was muchhigher than the rate, for example, in Germany (1/100,000). The United States also has thehighest rate of imprisoned individuals among the worlds developed countries (468/100,000), with an inordinate number of the prisoners being African-Americans, as thesentencing of criminals exhibits clear differences along racial lines. Blacks are often incar-cerated with longer jail sentences than whites. Of the fifty states, thirty-eight enforce adeath penalty for the most heinous crimes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States;http://www.gibbsmagazine.com/blacks_in_prisons.htm).

Despite social inequalities and the lack of a universal welfare system immigrants continueto flock to the United States in search of the American Dream. Unlike other nations of theworld, which have a distinct national culture based on common traditions, American culturehas been described as a melting-pot or a salad bowl in which migrants, ethnic, and racialgroups retain elements of the cultures of their home countries as they integrate and finallyassimilate into the American mainstream. Although a relatively young culture, the United


States exports its ideology and images throughout the world by virtue of its globalentertainment enterprises, such as Hollywood movies, television, radio, music, and sports(Wills 2005).

AMERICAN HISTORY AN OVERVIEW

Colonization

Prior to the European discovery of North America the continent was inhabited bynumerous indigenous tribes of Native Americans. While many were hunters and gatherers,others practiced agriculture and lived in villages. Coastal communities proved adept atfishing. As communal societies with strong kinship ties, government took the form of tribalchieftains or a tribal confederacy among allied groups. They traded in a barter economy,practiced natural religions, and lived according to seasonal rhythms (Countryman 1996,1921).

Utilitarian sports, such as running and archery games that enhance hunting skills, wereprominent among all tribes. Numerous ball games, especially lacrosse, were widespreadthroughout the continent as training for war, and a means to settle disputes with rival tribes.Gambling on such activities added interest and importance. Sports and games were oftenplayed in ceremonial contexts, and had religious meanings and significance for the socialcohesion of the tribes (King 2004).

The arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 and the subsequent colonization of theAmericas by the European powers decimated the ranks of the Native Americans and signaled a fundamental change in the indigenous cultures. The Spanish settled in theFlorida peninsula in the southeast and moved northward from Mexico through south-west and coastal California, imposing the Catholic religion on subject peoples. The Frenchtook up residence in New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi River that drained central North America and brought the fur trade to the native tribes. French priestsconverted the Indians and lived among them in missionary outposts throughout centralNorth America and Canada. The Dutch founded New Amsterdam (New York) before anEnglish takeover in the seventeenth century. The British proved most influential, establishingcolonies along the East Coast and the Atlantic seaboard (from the current states of Maineto Georgia).

The Jamestown colony, founded in Virginia on the mid-Atlantic coast in 1607 as acommercial enterprise, introduced the British class system to America. Many immigrantswere sons of the aristocracy; they refused to work and whiled away their time, as they haddone in their home country, at sport and gambling, to the peril of the starving colony.Indentured servants, immigrants contracted to work, performed much of the labor, untiltoo many succumbed to sickness. By 1619 the British began importing slaves from Africato replace the white indentured servants, fostering the plantation agricultural system in the


South. The Africans brought and preserved their values, beliefs and lifestyles. Thus elementsof African cultures influenced and shaped modern American society. The establishment ofslavery in the seventeenth century affected and continues to affect American economy,politics, and culture.

By 1630 the Puritans, reformers and separatists of the Anglican Church, founded coloniesin Massachusetts in the northeastern United States known as New England. The Puritansbelief system, though diluted over subsequent generations, had a lasting impact onAmerican culture. The Puritans saw themselves as a community of saints, Gods chosenpeople, who were to found a City on a Hill to serve as a beacon for all mankind to follow.Their belief in predestination, the idea that one was destined for an afterlife in heaven orhell at birth, gave rise to materialism and wealth as a sign of favor from God. Puritanstherefore valued a strong work ethic, self-discipline, and self-reliance in their quest forprosperity. Such views would later support Americans belief in their Manifest Destinyto guide the world and in the frontier thesis through which men would develop theabove-mentioned qualities during their conquest of the rough and uncivilized land in the west (Foner and Garraty 1991, 890893; Countryman 1996, 1315; McKnight 2003).

The Quakers, a faction that split from the Puritans after 1680, founded Pennsylvania,southwest of New England, as a holy experiment with a high measure of liberty including


Figure 1.2 Settled areas in New England c. 1660 (Matteson and Bolton 1930, 5)

freedom of religion. Their strive towards reciprocal liberty, welfare and education, andtheir opposition to war and, eventually, slavery marked a departure from other Europeancolonials who readily exploited, murdered, and enslaved Africans and Native Americans.

English Catholics found refuge in the tiny colony of Maryland, just north of Virginia, whileBritish philanthropists began deporting debtors in 1733 from England to Georgia, a southerncolony just north of the Spanish settlement in Florida. Their intention was to provide thedestitute with a new opportunity to better their lives. That American Dream remainedsteadfast for millions of immigrants over the succeeding centuries (Garraty 1983, 2324).The various groups of immigrants with their specific aims and interests, from the freedomof religion to economic endeavors, led to a variety of religious, economic, and social culturesin the different regions. Climatic conditions contributed to the different historical andcultural developments. New England soil proved too rocky for large farms; thus Boston grewinto a mercantile and shipping center for trade with the motherland and its Caribbeancolonies. In the South, rich soils proved amenable to agriculture and the wealthy acquiredlarge tracts of land from the British crown that they developed into plantations by the sweatof slave labor, exporting crops such as tobacco, rice, and cotton to the homeland. As thecolonists pushed ever westward, taking Native American land, a frontier society emerged,composed of the lower classes without means to acquire land in the east.

The encroachment of the British and French on Native territories to the north, south, andwest and the desire to exploit the natural resources of the continent led to inevitable rivalriesand conflicts between the Native Americans and the Europeans. As early as 1622 theIndians of Virginia rose up against the British settlers of the Jamestown colony. In NewEngland attacks by white settlers upon the Indians provoked a retaliation and resulted in King Philips War (16751676), which was titled after an American Indian leader namedKing Philip. Despite initial successes in both encounters, the Indians ultimately faced death,enslavement, and the expropriation of their lands. The Puritans assumed their victory as aprovidential sign of the righteousness of their cause, continuing their quest for land andconversion (Demos 1994, 7; Foner and Garraty 1991, 620).

The European concept of private property proved especially devastating to the communalsocieties of the indigenous tribes. Land belonged to all, particularly to the tribe, and couldbe used by the community. Individual landownership did not exist. Because the idea ofland sales was alien to the tribes, they unknowingly sold their land for trinkets by signingtreaties which they did not understand. As the indigenous peoples were drawn increasinglyinto the white economy and became dependent upon it, various tribes either resisted thewhite culture or allied with the colonists against rival tribes.

Rivalries between British and French colonists over the fur trade and Atlantic fishing rights,as well as religious differences between Catholics and Protestants resulted in the Frenchand Indian War, the North American chapter of the Seven Years War (17561763), aconflict about influence and power which involved all the major European countries andwas fought mostly on European battlegrounds. In North America both the British and French


laid claim to the western lands (eastern Canada and the Midwestern United States) thatsupplied much of the resources for the fur trade. Indian tribes aligned with one side or theother in the prolonged conflict. The eventual victory of the British enabled them to takecontrol of both Canada and Florida (Catholic Spain allied with France in the losing cause),greatly expanding the British hegemony in North America (Brumwell 2004; Garraty 1983,206, 619620).

The struggle for independence and the constitution of the US

The resolution of conflicts proved brief, however, as the British colonists, angered over thetaxation to pay for the colonial enterprises which they perceived as unfair, fomented arebellion. Tensions escalated after the colonists, intent on breaking the British trademonopoly, dumped a shipment of British tea into Boston Harbor in 1773, an event whichwas called the Boston Tea Party. When the British authorities closed the port, the coloniesbanned together in Philadelphia to form a Continental Congress in 1774. The Congress didnot strive for independence, but protested against the unfair treatment and addressedcomplaints to King George III.

Skirmishes between colonial militia and the British army throughout 1775 erupted into a revolutionary war in the following year. The American colonists declared theirindependence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776, a date now considered the most sacredholiday in the United States. A prolonged struggle ensued as the colonists waged bothconventional and guerrilla warfare, aided by the French, traditional enemies and Europeanrivals of the British. The decisive Battle of Yorktown in Virginia in 1781 assured an Americanvictory. George Washington, commander of the American forces, was elected the firstpresident of the United States in 1789. The United States, a coalition of thirteen colonies,embarked on an experiment in democracy and began forging a separate identity apartfrom the British monarchy.

The United States Constitution, the oldest written national constitution, was adopted onSeptember 17, 1787 by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. The Preamblestates:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence,promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves andour Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States ofAmerica.

(www.gpoaccess.gov/constitution/pdf2002/006-Constitution.pdf)

In 1791 the Bill of Rights came into effect; ten amendments to the original United StatesConstitution which guaranteed individual liberties, such as freedom of speech, freedom



of the press, or freedom of religion, that restricted the role of government in the lives ofcitizens. Various amendments to the Constitution have been endorsed and evenwithdrawn (the prohibition of alcohol) since then; but the original Bill of Rights hasremained intact.

The fledgling nation doubled its size in 1803 when President Thomas Jefferson made theLouisiana Purchase from France. Spain had ceded the vast lands that encompassed themiddle third of the continent from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada to Napoleon. In need offunds for his European campaigns, Napoleon sold the territory of 828,000 square miles(2,144,510 square kilometers) with the French name Louisiane to the United States for only$15,000,000 (Garraty 1983, 682). An exploratory party, the Lewis and Clark expeditionof 18041806, traversed the new land to the Pacific Coast and back, reporting on thegeography, flora, fauna, and Native inhabitants, thereby increasing interest and settlementof the rich western terrain (Ambrose 1996; Ronda 2001). Throughout the nineteenthcentury farmers, adventurers, and various groups of immigrants set off for the west in

BOX 1.1 THOMAS JEFFERSON

About to enter, fellow citizens, on the exercise of duties which comprehendeverything dear and valuable to you, it is proper that you should understand what Ideem the essential principles of our government, and consequently those whichought to shape its administration . . . Equal and exact justice to all men, of whateverstate or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship,with all nations . . . the support of the state governments in all their rights, as themost competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarksagainst anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the general government in itswhole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safetyabroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people . . . absolute acquiescencein the decisions of the majority the vital principle of republics . . . a well-disciplinedmilitia our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war, till regulars mayrelieve them; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority; economy in thepublic expense, that labor may be lightly burdened; the honest payment of our debtsand sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and ofcommerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of information and the arraignment of allabuses at the bar of public reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the press; freedomof person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartiallyselected these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us,and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.

(quoted in Peterson 1975, 290)

covered wagons, on foot, and eventually by railroad to claim their share of the AmericanDream. The trek assumed legendary status in American history and enhanced the legacyof the American conquest of the continent.

The United States faced Great Britain in the War of 1812 (18121814) over the seizure ofAmerican commercial vessels, the impressment of American sailors, and Indian raids onthe American frontier, which were instigated by British agents. Although British troopsburned down the United States capital, the war ended in stalemate. The Americans wontheir biggest victory at the Battle of New Orleans; but unbeknownst to the combatants, apeace treaty had already been signed two weeks earlier.

This war had a major impact on the national sentiments of the Americans who identifiedincreasingly with collective symbols and rituals of the new state. When the Americanssuccessfully withstood the British siege in the battle for Baltimore, a city resident wrote thesong The Star-spangled Banner in homage to the still standing American flag. The song,destined to become the national anthem, is played today before the commencement ofevery American sporting event.

Expansion

In the nineteenth century the United States embarked upon a western odyssey in earnest,fostering the belief in the American Manifest Destiny, the driving force behind thecontinental conquest and beyond.

By the 1830s American settlers had moved southwest into the Texas area, a part of Mexico.There they fomented a rebellion against the Mexican government, winning their inde-pendence in epic battles that added to the martial glory of frontier heroes. Texas brieflybecame an independent republic (18361845) before it was annexed to the United States


BOX 1.2 THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER

The first verse:

Oh, say can you see by the dawns early lightWhat so proudly we hailed at the twilights last gleaming?Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,Oer the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air,Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet waveOer the land of the free and the home of the brave?

on the eve of the MexicanAmerican War (18461848). Mexico had never recognized theindependence of Texas and its acquisition by the United States sparked a war, resulting inan American invasion and the capture of Mexico City. The peace treaty gave a large portionof northern Mexico to the victors, with the new territory forming California and thesouthwestern United States.

Already engaged in the war with Mexico, the United States avoided a third conflict withGreat Britain over the Oregon territory on the Pacific Ocean, which both jointly occupied.Nationalists clamored for the annexation of all of the territory which stretched well intoCanada. John Quincy Adams, a former US president, invoked the religious zeal of theperceived American mission when he stated that it was the young nations intention tomake the wilderness blossom as a rose, to establish laws, to increase, multiply, and subduethe earth, which we are commanded to do by the first behest of God Almighty (Blum et.al. 1977, 263). Canada and the US reached a resolution in 1846 by dividing the land inhalf, whereby the American land gain marked the northwest corner of the United Statesuntil the acquisition of Alaska.

When gold was discovered in California in 1848 fortune seekers from around the worldhastened to the area. Its rapid population growth allowed California to become a state in1850. By the late twentieth century Californias continuing growth made it the state withthe largest population, its sunshine, beaches, and Hollywood movie industry still promotingthe American Dream.

By the mid-nineteenth century Americans had developed their own cultural traits,increasingly independent from their English roots. A new American literature and musicbased on particular American historical experiences had emerged. Writers such asNathaniel Hawthorne described in numerous short stories and several novels the mostnotable of which is the Scarlet Letter (1850) the Puritan experience, and HermanMelville portrayed the adventures of New England whalers. The most dramatic of Americannovelists, however, Harriet Beecher Stowe, wrote of the lives of slaves in Uncle Toms Cabin(1852), a work that strengthened the abolitionist movement which called for the aban-donment of slavery, and enflamed regional tensions which preceded the Civil War.


BOX 1.3 RUNAWAY SLAVE

Ranaway from the Subscriber, on the 22nd December last, his negro man MARTIN, aged about 23 years. He has a pleasing countenance, round face, is quickspoken, and can tell a very plausible story; he is shining black, stout built, with large limbs, short fingers, and small feet; the toe next to his great toe has beenmashed off.

Southerners favored the pre-eminence of individual states rights over the dictates of thefederal government, and individual rights to their slave property over the human rights toliberty favored by the abolitionists.

The contrasting regional economies produced further differences in values and opinions.After the turn of the nineteenth century the northern states experienced rapid industrial-ization processes, whereas plantations worked by slaves were the dominant pattern of thesouthern economy. Northern factories were manned by wage laborers, and the use ofslaves raised fundamental questions about the nature of American democracy and theuniversal human right of freedom prescribed by the Constitution of the USA.

The conflicts erupted in a civil war (18611865) when the southern states attempted tosecede from the union over issues of political difference and slavery. At the height of thewar President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed allslaves. After a long and bloody struggle that cost the lives of 620,000 soldiers, the superiorindustrial power and greater population resources of the North proved victorious. As thewar came to a close a southern sympathizer assassinated President Lincoln. Southernersbemoaned their Lost Cause for generations afterward, symbolically celebrating their militaryheroes in rituals and memorials (Countryman 1996, 198).

Reconstruction

The period immediately following the war was known as the era of Reconstruction inreference to the rebuilding of the political structure of the defeated southern states. Whitepoliticians from the North moved south to assume governmental roles and the freed blackselected African-Americans to offices.

The disputed presidential election of 1876, however, enabled the Southerners, membersof the Democratic Party, to return to local and regional power. When the corruptmanipulation of ballots by both sides resulted in a deadlocked election the rival partiesreached a compromise. Southern Democrats agreed to the election of the Republicancandidate, Rutherford Hayes, in return for a pledge that the federal government would notinterfere in southern affairs (Garraty 1983, 412415). The pact allowed the white residentsof the southern states to enact restrictive voting covenants that prohibited blacks from


The above reward will be paid on his delivery to me, or at any Jail in North Carolina.James R. Wood

Wadesboro, Feb. 5, 1844.(http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/slavery/oldsouth.html)


exercising their suffrage rights. In addition, veterans of the Confederate army founded asecret society of white vigilantes, a group known as the Ku Klux Klan, who terrorized thefreed blacks into subservience (Foner 1983).

Without capital, the former slaves were forced to work for white landlords in exchange fora percentage of their crops. This arrangement virtually returned the blacks to a state ofslavery. Although technically free they had little or no money and subsisted on the meagerharvest of their small agricultural plots, which they had to share with the overlords who were

Figure 1.3 Confederate Memorial in Charleston, South Carolina


no longer obliged to feed or clothe them. Later laws firmly established the social segregationof the races.

The Gilded Age

With the industrialized economy of the northern states triumphant, the post-Civil Waryears became known as the Gilded Age as unbridled capitalists strove to achievecommercial monopolies and amassed immense fortunes. Men like Jay Gould controlledthe stock market, J.P. Morgan dominated investment banking, Andrew Carnegie corneredthe steel industry, John D. Rockefeller established himself in the oil business, and CorneliusVanderbilt and other railroad magnates reigned over the shipping networks. By 1892 theUnited States registered 4,047 millionaires, most of whom had made their fortunes in theGilded Age (Blum et al. 1977, 464).

The excesses of employers and the exploitation of workers resulted in the formation of laborunions that opposed corporate greed, often in armed conflict. Like the exploited blacks inthe South, industrial workers claimed that they were wage slaves without adequateprotection or security. Ethnic and trade differences in the labor movement, however,factionalized employees and prevented a concerted and thus powerful opposition. Moreover,the federal government usually sided with employers, providing military forces to quell theworkers outbursts and intercede in the biggest strikes. However, the labor movement wonsome concessions, such as shorter working hours. Radical movements, such as socialists,communists, and anarchists, used freedom of speech to propagate their political messages,but they never gained the influence or the number of adherents as had the European socialistand/or communist movements. Despite the class conflicts, the Gilded Age provided a climatewhere sports, among others baseball and football, developed and flourished.

The Progressive Age

Middle-class reformers sought to cure the ills of American society based on their ownperceptions of morality. Women continued to campaign for suffrage rights, and they wereparticularly prominent in the temperance movement, which sought to ban alcoholicbeverages from the country, a crusade that clashed with the lifestyle of European immigrants.

The booming American economy lured millions of European immigrants to the UnitedStates after 1880 in the era known as the Progressive Age. The immigrant masses huddledin the tenements of urban slums, creating health and social problems. Their immediateneeds were met by corrupt party organizations, called machines, in return for votes onelection day.


BOX 1.4 HOW POLITICAL MACHINES WORK

One New York political boss explained his strategy . . .

go right down among the poor families and help them in the different waysthey need help . . . If theres a fire . . . Im usually there with some of myelection district captains as soon as the fire engines . . . I dont ask whetherthey are Republicans or Democrats, and I dont refer them to the CharityOrganization Society, which would investigate their case in a month or twoand decide they were worthy to help about the time they were dead fromstarvation. I just get quarters for them . . . (and) I can always get a job for adeservin man . . . And the children . . . They know me, every one of them,and they know that a sight of Uncle George and candy means the samething. Some of them are the best kind of vote getters.

(quoted in Blum et al. 1977, 480)

Figure 1.4 Maxwell Street Market, Chicago, c. 1905; Photographer: Barnes-Crosby.(Chicago History Museum)

In reaction to the corruption of politicians and the power of entrepreneurs and business-men, middle-class reformers, known as Progressives, made strident attempts to regaincontrol of American society and remedy the problems caused by industrialization andurbanization. They envisioned the perfection of both the individual self and society in aprogram known as the Social Gospel that invoked religious zeal to enact social reforms.Progressive reformers established settlement houses (community social agencies) to liveamong the poor immigrants in the industrial cities. In such places they offered instructionin English and civics classes as they tried to assimilate the Europeans into the Americanculture. Legislators passed a series of laws, among others restricting child labor andintroducing mandatory education, intended to Americanize the myriad ethnic groups whosought to better their lives in the United States (see Chapter 3).

Physical education laws insured that even those who could not yet speak English would beexposed to particular values and cultural traits, such as competition (the basis for capitalism)and cooperation (see Chapter 3). Physical educators introduced children to a compre-hensive array of sports and games. They believed and hoped that games taught deferenceto authority because the players had to obey rules and game officials. The best players wonacclaim and might even graduate to the professional ranks, where they earned large salaries.Such lessons could be carried to the factories, where the most productive workers mightgain advancement and serve as models to their fellow laborers.


Figure 1.5 Girls school yard baseball game in Gary, Indiana (Curtis 2006 [1915], 124)

Employers, who supported these educational efforts with financial contributions, par-ticularly hoped that the immigrant children who learned such lessons would become loyalworkers and avoid the political orientations of their parents, many of whom filled the ranksof the labor unions.

Despite the benevolent intentions, these reforms were not as successful as the initiatorshoped. For a variety of reasons, it was only a small minority of adolescents which wereregular users of playgrounds and the activities offered (Wassong 2005).

Frontier and the frontier myth

For both American citizens and newly arrived immigrants the vast expanses of the Americanwest promised free agricultural land for family farms; but required subjugation andincarceration on reservations for the indigenous tribes who inhabited the valuable territory.The western frontier offered a social and economic safety-valve for Americans as analternative to the overcrowded cities and a chance for a new life based on ones work ethicand abilities. The frontier with its promise of meritocracy proved to be especially attractivefor immigrants.

At the Chicago Worlds Fair of 1893 history professor Frederick Jackson Turner proclaimedthat the frontier had created an exceptional American people who were self-reliantindividualists, democratic in their outlook, and unique in their character (Turner 1935). Itwas a declaration that Americans too readily believed about themselves. Although relativelyfew people lived on the frontier it became an entrenched part of the American identity andAmericanness (Bogue 1998).


BOX 1.5 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FRONTIER IN AMERICAN HISTORY

Up to our own day American history has been in a large degree the history of thecolonization of the Great West. The existence of an area of free land, its continuousrecession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain Americandevelopment . . . Behind institutions, behind constitutional forms and modifications,lie the vital forces that call these organs into life and shape them to meet changingconditions. The peculiarity of American institutions is the fact that they have beencompelled to adapt themselves to the changes of an expanding people to thechanges involved in crossing a continent, in winning a wilderness, and in developingat each area of this progress out of the primitive economic and political conditionsof the frontier into the complexity of city life . . . But we have in addition to this a

The frontier myth and the belief in meritocracy engendered subscription to the doctrineof Social Darwinism. White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant males (WASPs) assumed that theyrested upon the apex of the evolutionary pyramid as superior beings. All others were rankedbelow in a hierarchical fashion that ascribed stereotypical characteristics to various ethnicand racial groups. The WASPs thus rationalized and justified their quest for dominance andthe suppression of others, the native population, the blacks, the immigrants, and thewomen, as the survival of the fittest (see Chapters 8 and 9).

Beliefs in American exceptionalism reinforced Turners views on the hardiness of Americansand the conditions that elicited such traits. He cautioned, however, that the free land ofthe frontier had expired by 1893. Nevertheless, another historian (a former student of Turner), Frederic Paxson, predicted sport to be the new frontier. Professional sports, inparticular, seemed to provide the means to social mobility based on ones physical prowess,not unlike the work ethic and discipline required of the pioneer farmers. The meritocracyof professional or semi-professional sports, which required physical skills, but not theeducation, social status, or wealth of more elite professions, made athletes into heroes foraspiring youths, especially young men of lower social class.

Colonialism

Americans invoked their sense of moral superiority and democracy to criticize Spanishimperial governance of Cuba and its brutal repression of the revolution at the end of thenineteenth century. When an American battleship mysteriously exploded in the Havanaharbor, the incident erupted into the SpanishAmerican War of 1898. The United Statesquick victory brought an instant empire in the form of Caribbean and Pacific Islandterritories, such as the Philippines, Hawaii, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. The acquisition of suchcolonies immediately placed the United States on the level of the global powers of Europe(Great Britain, France, and Germany) in the quest for world leadership.


recurrence of the process of evolution in each western area reached in the processof expansion. Thus American development has exhibited not merely advance alonga single line, but a return to primitive conditions on a continually advan

gerald r. gems, gertrud pfister-understanding american sports_ in culture and society -taylor &...

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