Sport in America

This book brings to one volume 19 essays representing some of the best sport history research in the field today. Sport in America helps fill the gaps in American sport history literature and provides a balanced perspective by presenting a variety of methodological approaches to historical research.

This affordable reader is primarily designed to supplement these widely used sport history texts:
-Benjamin Rader, American Sports: From the Age of Folk Games to the Age of Spectators

-Betty Spears and Richard A. Swanson, History of Sport and Physical Activity in the United States

-William J. Baker, Sports in the Western World

-Elliott J. Gorn and Warren Goldstein, A Brief History of American Sports Written by distinguished scholars, these high-quality essays focus on the changes and patterns of American sport during five distinct eras over the past 400 years. Readers will find topics such as
-the relationship between urbanization and sport;

-the role of women in sport;

-the influence of ethnic and racial groups in sport;

-the role of consumer culture in sport; and

-the interdependence among sport, physical education, and other health professions.
Students and scholars will appreciate the variety of perspectives and the opportunity to explore the diversity of America's sporting past.

Gender & sporting practice in early America 1750-1810/social significance of fighting in the Southern backcountry/etc.

David K. Wiggins, PhD, is director of undergraduate health science programs and professor of physical education at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Since earning his PhD from the University of Maryland in 1979, Wiggins has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in sport history at Kansas State University and George Mason University.

Wiggins is an expert on American sport, particularly as it relates to the involvement of black athletes in sport and physical activity. Since 1980, he has written about sport history and published articles in numerous journals, including the Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, Journal of Sport History, Canadian Journal of History of Sport, and The International Journal of History of Sport. His work has garnered two American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance Research (AAHPERD) Writing Awards (1984 and 1986) and significantly affected subsequent research studies on African American involvement in sport.

In addition to his memberships in AAHPERD and the North American Society for Sport History, Wiggins has served as President of the AAHPERD History Academy and on the Publications Board of The Journal of Sport History. He has held editorships and memberships on various committees of professional societies dealing with sport history.