Breaking the Slump: Baseball in the Depression Era
From SoSH
Authors: Charles Alexander
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Date Published: May 15, 2002
Summary: Charles C. Alexander, Professor Emeritus Of History at Ohio University, and author of a fine biography of Ty Cobb and other baseball books, covers the history of baseball from 1930 until American entry into World War II.
It seems a natural to combine an analysis of the last decade of what some refer to as baseball's Golden Age with such a definitive event as the Great Depression. How did baseball and a struggling nation relate? Did the antics of Dizzy Dean and the Gashouse Gang, the supremacy of the lordly Yankees, and the exuberance of the barnstorming Negro Leaguers deliver fans from their suffering, if only for the few hours of a game's duration? Or was baseball only a diversion, something to be set aside if a choice had to be made between tickets or a meal?
While Alexander examines the baseball of the time in great detail and also speaks about the Depression. In addition, he offers an exhaustive season-by-season analysis. A good overview, this is recommended for baseball collections lacking other resources about the decade.
