Social History of Sports in the U.S.

Catalog description

This course will examine the experience of sports and leisure for different groups of Americans (e.g., African-Americans, women, working class), from colonial times to the present but primarily focused on the twentieth century. My goal is to introduce students to historical analysis and argument through the examination of the sports and leisure time activities that won increasing popularity among Americans from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century. This course will incorporate analytical categories from social history (class, race, gender, ethnicity) as well as the frameworks used by cultural, economic, and political history. This course will thus involve students in gaining a better understanding of the relationships that sports and leisure have with the social, economic, cultural and political forces at work in the United States and the world. Students will appreciate the issues that have affected sports participation over the years, including racial and gender discrimination, class economics, and commercialization.