Jackie Robinson: Race, Sports and the American Dream - Softcover

Dorinson, Joseph

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0765603187 ISBN 13: 9780765603180

Publisher: Routledge, 2006

Synopsis

With these words, President Clinton contributed to Long Island University's three-day celebration of that momentous event in American history when Robinson became the first African American to play major league baseball. This new book includes presentations from that celebration, especially chosen for their fresh perspectives and illuminating insights.

A heady mix of journalism, scholarship, and memory offers a presentation that far transcends the retelling of just another sports story. Readers get a true sense of the social conditions prior to Robinson's arrival in the major leagues and the ripple effect his breakthrough had on the nation. Anecdotes enliven the story and offer more than the usual "larger than life" portrait of Robinson.

A melange of contributors from the sports world, academia, and journalism, some of Robinson's contemporaries, Dodger fans, and historians of the era, all sharing a passion for baseball, reflect on issues of sports, race, and the dramatic transformation of the American social and political scene in the last fifty years. In addition to the editors, the list of authors includes Peter Golenbock, one of America's preeminent sports biographers and author of Bums: The Brooklyn Dodgers, 1947-1957, Tom Hawkins, the first African-American to star in basketball at Notre Dame and currently Vice-President for Communications of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Bill Mardo a former writer for the New York Daily Worker, Roger Rosenblatt, teacher at the Southampton Campus of Long Island University, and author of numerous articles, plays, and books, Peter Williams, author of a study of sports myth, The Sports Immortals, and Samuel Regalado, author of Viva Baseball!: LatinMajor Leaguers and Their Special Hunger.

About this title

From the Publisher:

A Choice Magazine Review
"The essays ask the reader to reflect on the condition of the US in the aftermath of WW II, to recall that baseball in that era was an aspect of national self-identification, to ponder the ways in which the US has in fact changed since 1947, and to honor the courage of the great man who stood in the center of the storm. For all libraries." -- Choice

From the Author:

I will be on New York & Co to discuss the book on 7/19/99
Jackie Robinson was a hero who made a difference: not only on the field of dreams but in society. His legacy deserves continual exploration; his life remains a beacon for seekers of social justice. We will discuss Jackie in the context of his era with Leonard Lopate, the genial host of New York and Co., July 19 at 12:45 PM.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0765603187
• ISBN 13: 9780765603180
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 294