Baseball in Comparative History

Catalog description

This course offers a comparative survey of baseball history from its origins in the nineteenth century to the present. The course uses the broad cultural and geographic diffusion of baseball over time to examine the diverse and changing social, economic, and political meanings of this activity in different cultural settings, emphasizing the ways in which a common activity may acquire unique meanings in different cultures. Although North America, Cuba, and Japan demand attention as the most striking examples of baseball's pervasive impact, the course will also consider baseball as a global phenomenon, for example, exploring the minimal impact or failure of baseball promotions in many European and African societies.