Synopses & Reviews
In the spring of 1946, following the defeat of Hitlerand#8217;s Germany, America found itself still struggling with the subtler but no less insidious tyrannies of racism and segregation at home. In the midst of it all, Jackie Robinson, a full year away from breaking major league baseballand#8217;s color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers, was undergoing a harrowing dress rehearsal for integrationand#8212;his first spring training as a minor league prospect with the Montreal Royals, Brooklynand#8217;s AAA team. In
Blackout, Chris Lamb tells what happened during these six weeks in segregated Floridaand#8212;six weeks that would become a critical juncture for the national pastime and for an American society on the threshold of a civil rights revolution.
Blackout chronicles Robinsonand#8217;s tremendous ordeal during that crucial spring trainingand#8212;how he struggled on the field and off. The restaurants and hotels that welcomed his white teammates were closed to him, and in one city after another he was prohibited from taking the field. Steeping his story in its complex cultural context, Lamb describes Robinsonand#8217;s determination and anxiety, the reaction of the black and white communities to his appearance, and the unique and influential role of the pressand#8212;mainstream reporting, the alternative black weeklies, and the Communist Daily Workerand#8212;in the integration of baseball. Told here in detail for the first time, this story brilliantly encapsulates the larger history of a man, a sport, and a nation on the verge of great and enduring change.
Review
“An invaluable addition to studies about the tragic barring of blacks from Major League Baseball for almost half of the twentieth century. . . . An independent, moving analysis of a crucial era in American race relations.”—Arnold Rampersad, author of Jackie Robinson: A Biography Tom Hoffarth - Farther Off The Wall
Review
“Sure, everyone knows about baseballs color line and the man who crossed it. But no one has ever sifted the soil where that line was drawn, and found as much gold, as Chris Lamb does in Conspiracy of Silence.”—Gary Smith, writer for Sports Illustrated Arnold Rampersad
Review
“Understanding the curious intersection of sports and politics is always a perilous journey. But with Chris Lamb as a guide, its more than a joy. Its a revelation.”—Dave Zirin, author of A Peoples History of Sports in the U.S. Gary Smith
Review
"Lamb . . . brings all his scholarly tools to the project. . . . The author has documented a story of immense cultural importance."—Kirkus Starred Review
Review
"[Conspiracy of Silence] is a valuable resource for students of baseball history and for readers concerned with the history of race relations and the media in this country."—Robert Bruce Slater, Library Journal
Review
"Conspiracy of Silence offers overwhelming evidence of the effectiveness of the black press in advancing integration in this country."—Dorothy Seymour Mills, New York Journal
Review
"Lamb's thorough journalistic exposé chronicles the drama and history behind the game, while tracing how the desegregation of baseball parallels the story of the civil rights movement in the United States."—Kathleen Gerard, Shelf Awareness
Review
"Lamb's research shows the struggle that took place in the media had a lot to do with the tug-o-war of ideals and practicality of all the issues involved in the decision. It's as good a book on the subject as we've ever come across."—Tom Hoffarth, Farther Off The Wall
Review
"Though it covers some familiar ground, this solidly researched study introduces new faces to the picture to broaden the context. The clear, bold writing makes the book a joy to read."—L. A. Heaphy, Choice
Review
"Using their racial and social attitudes as a springboard, Kashatus has written a superb narrative of sports, race, and politics in the 1950s and '60s."and#8212;Publishers Weekly
Review
"Enhancing our understanding of attitudes toward integration and race relations at a pivotal stage of American history through this story of baseball, this book is highly recommended as social and sports history."and#8212;Library Journal starred review
Review
and#8220;A fantastic and thought-provoking analysis of how two men championed the fight for racial harmony in segregated America via different rules of engagement. A must-read for any serious student of baseball and American history.and#8221;and#8212;Larry Lester, historian for the Negro League Baseball Hall of Fame
Review
and#8220;Bill Kashatus has given us a very human account of Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella.and#8221;and#8212;Monte Irvin, New York Giants Hall of Famer
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Review
and#8220;Kashatus sheds new and important insight on the Robinson-Campanella relationship by placing it in the larger framework of African American history.and#8221;and#8212;Larry Hogan, author of
Shades of Glory: The Negro Leagues and the Story of African-American BaseballReview
"Aand#160;boon to scholars of both the early development of baseball and race relations after the Civil War."and#8212;Library Journal
Review
and#8220;Deeply researched and well written, Ryan A. Swansonand#8217;s When Baseball Went White carefully examines and#8216;the mechanics of segregationand#8217; that racially cleansed organized baseball during Reconstruction and in the process helped the game become our and#8216;national pastime,and#8217; at the expense of civil rights and racial justice.and#160; Swanson reveals, in fine detail, how a sport that would become a truly meaningful cultural practice and institution nevertheless became something less than it might have been.and#8221;and#8212;Daniel A. Nathan, president of the North American Society for Sport History and author of Saying Itand#8217;s So: A Cultural History of the Black Sox Scandal
Review
and#8220;Ryan Swanson's carefully researched and wonderfully nuanced study of baseballand#8217;s declining race relations during Reconstruction sheds considerable light on this oft-neglected topic. A must-read.and#8221;and#8212;Peter Morris, author of A Game of Inches and Level Playing Fields
Review
andquot;Robinson and Campanella were trailblazers. Both were passionate, strong-minded men who excelled in baseball and had definite ideas about handling race relations in the game. Kashatus has provided a nice narrative that explains how both men were successful at achieving their goalsandmdash;on and off the field.andquot;andmdash;Bob Dand#39;Angelo, Tampa Tribune
Review
"Lamb's detailed and annotated research provides an in-depth examination of an important step in the integration of baseball, a step that, up until now, has not received the coverage it deserves. Of interest both to baseball fans and social historians."and#8212;Booklist
Review
Lamb tells what Robinson faced in 1946 in segregated Floridaand#8212;six weeks that would become a critical juncture for the national pastime and for an American society on the threshold of a civil rights revolution."and#8212;Dermot McEvoy, Publishers Weekly
Review
"[A]n important contribution to American Studies."and#8212;Choice
Review
"In his richly sourced examination of Robinson's first spring training, Lamb puts readers on the back of a hot Greyhound bus as it makes its way through the Jim Crow South of the mid-1940s. . . . Throughout the book Lamb carefully documents who wrote what, analyzing the black press, mainstream dailies, the Daily Worker, a national newspaper for communists, and even southern newspapers. This comprehensiveness in sources is unprecedented in examinations of press coverage of Robinson's life or career, making it a good investment for researchers in the field based on its footnotes alone. The book also deserves credit for turning attention to the black sportswriters who, as the author writes, 'faced their own color line.'"and#8212;American Journalism
Review
and#8220;Lamb does an excellent job of setting this pivotal episode in baseball history in the larger context of race relations of the South, providing a number of graphic examples of violence against blacks in order to emphasize the dangerous world that Robinson and Wright were entering when they arrived in Florida as new members of the Montreal Royals, Brooklynand#8217;s main minor league team.and#8221;and#8212;Michael Cocchiarale, Aethlon
Review
"Blackout is the most complete analysis of Robinson's first spring training available as Lamb has probed the press reports to new depths and in the process revealed another facet of the two America's divided along racial lines. Blackout is also a volume that is essential to any understanding of the events of sixty years ago in Florida and their significance for baseball, for Florida, and for America."and#8212;Richard Crepeau, Sports Literature Association
Review
"Blackout is well written, engaging, and analytically sound. It is a work that belongs in all baseball libraries as well as those on American social history."and#8212;Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
Review
http://nebraskapress.typepad.com/university_of_nebraska_pr/2013/04/ode-to-jackie-robinson.html
Review
andldquo;Firmly grounded in history, richly contextualized, theoretically sophisticated, and cogently written. . . . [Moments of Impact] tightly illustrates the messy, contentious politics of memory and commemoration, the making and remaking of meaning. . . . Scholarly and smart without being stuffy and dry.andrdquo;andmdash;Daniel A. Nathan, president of the North American Society for Sport History and author of Saying Itandrsquo;s So: A Cultural History of the Black Sox Scandal
Review
andldquo;Moments of Impact ties together quite nicely and with much finesse the connection among sport, racial politics, and cultural memory. . . . Schultz obviously understands that good history is about content and analysis and accuracy, but also about telling good stories involving interesting people and interesting events. . . . Moments of Impact will make a significant contribution to the scholarly literature.andrdquo;andmdash;David Wiggins, assistant professor of kinesiology at Pennsylvania State University and author of The Unlevel Playing Field: A Documentary History of the African American Experience in Sport
Review
andquot;While much has been published about each player, the team, and the integration of baseball, never until now has this topic received its deserved treatment. This is an original and important book.andquot;andmdash;Spitball
Synopsis
The campaign to desegregate baseball was one of the most important civil rights stories of the 1930s and 1940s. But most of white America knew nothing about this story because mainstream newspapers said little about the color line and less about the efforts to end it. Even today, as far as most Americans know, the integration of baseball revolved around Branch Rickeys signing of Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers organization in 1945. This book shows how Rickeys move, critical as it may well have been, came after more than a decade of work by black and left-leaning journalists to desegregate the game.
Drawing on hundreds of newspaper articles and interviews with journalists, Chris Lamb reveals how differently black and white newspapers, and black and white America, viewed racial equality. He shows how white mainstream sportswriters perpetuated the color line by participating in what their black counterparts called a “conspiracy of silence.” Between 1933 and 1945, black newspapers and the Communist Daily Worker published hundreds of articles and editorials calling for an end to baseballs color line. The efforts of the alternative presses to end baseballs color line, chronicled for the first time in Conspiracy of Silence, constitute one of baseballs—and the civil rights movements—great untold stories.
Synopsis
As star players for the 1955 World Champion Brooklyn Dodgers, and prior to that as the first black players to be candidates to break professional baseballand#8217;s color barrier, Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella would seem to be natural allies. But the two men were divided by a rivalry going far beyond the personality differences and petty jealousies of competitive teammates. Behind the bitterness were deep and differing beliefs about the fight for civil rights.and#160;
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Robinson, the more aggressive and intense of the two, thought Jim Crow should be attacked head-on; Campanella, more passive and easygoing, believed that ability, not militancy, was the key to racial equality. Drawing on interviews with former players such as Monte Irvin, Hank Aaron, Carl Erskine, and Don Zimmer, Jackie and Campy offers a closer look at these two players and their place in a historical movement torn between active defiance and passive resistance. William C. Kashatus deepens our understanding of these two baseball icons and civil rights pioneers and provides a clearer picture of their time and our own.
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Synopsis
The story of Jackie Robinson valiantly breaking baseballand#8217;s color barrier in 1947 is one that most Americans know. But less recognized is the fact that some seventy years earlier, following the Civil War, baseball was tenuously biracial and had the potential for a truly open game. How, then, did the game become so firmly segregated that it required a trailblazer like Robinson? The answer, Ryan A. Swanson suggests, has everything to do with the politics of and#8220;reconciliationand#8221; and a wish to avoid the issues of race that an integrated game necessarily raised.
and#160;The history of baseball during Reconstruction, asand#160;Swansonand#160;tells it, is a story of lost opportunities. Thomas Fitzgerald and Octavius Catto (a Philadelphia baseball tandem), for example, were poised to emerge as pioneers of integration in the 1860s. Instead, the desire to create a and#8220;national gameand#8221;and#8212;professional and appealing to white Northerners and Southerners alikeand#8212;trumped any movement toward civil rights. Focusing on Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Richmondand#8212;three cities with large African American populations and thriving baseball clubsand#8212;Swanson uncovers the origins of baseballand#8217;s segregation and the mechanics of its implementation. An important piece of sports history, his work also offers a better understanding of Reconstruction, race, and segregation in America.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
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Synopsis
In the first half of the twentieth century, Jack Trice, Ozzie Simmons, and Johnny Bright played college football for three Iowa institutions: Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, and Drake University, respectively. At a time when the overwhelming majority of their opponents and teammates were white, the three men, all African American, sustained serious injuries on the gridiron, either because of their talents, their race, or, most likely, because of an ugly combination of the two. Moments of Impact tells their stories and examines how the local communities of which they were once a part have forgotten and remembered those assaults over time. Of particular interest are the ways those memories have manifested in a number of commemorations, including a stadium name, a trophy, and the dedication of a football field.and#160;Jaime Schultz focuses on the historical and racial circumstances of the careers of Trice, Simmons, and Bright as well as the processes and politics of cultural memory. Schultz develops the concept of andldquo;racialized memoryandrdquo;andmdash;a communal form of remembering imbued with racial significanceandmdash;to suggest that the racial politics of contemporary America have engendered a need to redress historical wrongs, congratulate Americans on the ostensible racial progress they have made, and divert attention from the unrelenting persistence of structural and ideological racism.
About the Author
Jaime Schultz is an assistant professor of kinesiology in the History and Philosophy of Sport program at Pennsylvania State University. She is the author of Qualifying Times: Points of Change in U.S. Womenandrsquo;s Sport.