Overview

"Here is an eye-opening look at one of baseball's most intriguing and little known stories: the many-faceted relationship between Jews and black baseball in Jim Crow America. In Out of Left Field, Rebecca Alpert explores how Jewish sports entrepreneurs, political radicals, and a team of black Jews called the Belleville Grays--the only Jewish team in the history of black baseball--made their mark on the segregated world of the Negro Leagues. Through in-depth research, Alpert tells the stories of the Jewish businessmen who owned and promoted teams as they both acted out and fell victim to pervasive stereotypes of Jews as greedy middlemen and hucksters. Some Jewish owners produced a kind of comedy baseball, akin to basketball's Harlem Globetrotters--indeed, Globetrotters owner Abe Saperstein was very active in black baseball--that reaped financial benefits for both owners and players but also played upon the worst stereotypes of African Americans and prevented these black ""showmen"" from being taken seriously by the major leagues. But Alpert also shows how Jewish entrepreneurs, motivated in part by the traditional Jewish commitment to social justice, helped grow the business of black baseball in the face of the oppressive Jim Crow restrictions, and how radical journalists writing for the Communist Daily Worker argued passionately for an end to baseball's segregation. In fact, the campaign to convince manager Branch Rickey to integrate the Brooklyn Dodgers was initiated by Daily Worker sports writer Bill Mardo, in an open letter in the paper. Deftly written and meticulously researched, Out of Left Field offers a unique perspective on the economic and social negotiations between blacks and Jews in the first half of the 20th century, shedding new light on the intersection of race, religion, and sports in America."

Full Product Details

Author:   Rebecca T. Alpert (Associate Professor of Religion and Women's Studies, Associate Professor of Religion and Women's Studies, Temple University)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 23.60cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 15.70cm
Weight:   0.476kg
ISBN:  

9780195399004

ISBN 10:   0195399005
Pages:   256
Publication Date:   07 July 2011
Audience:   College/higher education ,  General/trade ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

Reviews

<br> In retrieving the story of the Jewish role in black baseball, Rabbi Alpert fills in an illustrative and symbolic gap in history, offering an insight into the relations between blacks and Jews that strengthened during the Civil Rights era and subsequently became frayed. --The Jewish Week<br><p><br>

<br> In retrieving the story of the Jewish role in black baseball, Rabbi Alpert fills in an illustrative and symbolic gap in history, offering an insight into the relations between blacks and Jews that strengthened during the Civil Rights era and subsequently became frayed. --The Jewish Week<br><p><br> Albert both tells their individual stories and fills in the larger canvas. --Michael Carasik<p><br>. ..an intriguing strand of inter-ethnic conflict and cooperation: the relationship between African and Jewish Americans. --TLS<p><br> Less told is the story of black baseball's entrepreneurs. Rebecca T. Alpert's Out of Left Field is a welcomed addition...[she] makes a compelling case for the impact of these Jewish figures in the black baseball world and, in so doing, illuminates the imaginings of Jewish identity through baseball and the workings of race in America's game. --The Journal of American History<p><br> Alpert has made great use of archival material, interviews, and secondary sources to explain the relationship between Jews and African Americans in baseball...Alpert, to her credit, has emphasized that Jews have played a major role in helping to bring about the integration of major league baseball. --Black Ball<p><br>

<br> In retrieving the story of the Jewish role in black baseball, Rabbi Alpert fills in an illustrative and symbolic gap in history, offering an insight into the relations between blacks and Jews that strengthened during the Civil Rights era and subsequently became frayed. --The Jewish Week<br><p><br> Albert both tells their individual stories and fills in the larger canvas. --Michael Carasik<p><br>.. .an intriguing strand of inter-ethnic conflict and cooperation: the relationship between African and Jewish Americans. --TLS<p><br> Interesting, well-written, and thoroughly researched... Alpert's book succeeds as a vivid account of individuals navigating the landscape of ethnicity, race, and ideology in the first half of the twentieth century in America. --The Journal of Religion<p><br> Less told is the story of black baseball's entrepreneurs. Rebecca T. Alpert's Out of Left Field is a welcomed addition...[she] makes a compelling case for the impact of these Jewish figures in the black baseball world and, in so doing, illuminates the imaginings of Jewish identity through baseball and the workings of race in America's game. --The Journal of American History<p><br> Alpert has made great use of archival material, interviews, and secondary sources to explain the relationship between Jews and African Americans in baseball...Alpert, to her credit, has emphasized that Jews have played a major role in helping to bring about the integration of major league baseball. --Black Ball<p><br> Rebecca Alpert has mined a remarkable and little known world of Jews, blacks, and baseball--and American culture, in a dramatic period of the 20th century--and turned it all into gold for the reader. --Ira Berkow, winner of the Pulitzer Prize<p><br> Out of Left Field is a fascinating journey into the history of baseball--and America. Rebecca Alpert has dug deep to tell a story that will surprise and impress even the most knowledgeable baseball reader. --Jonathan Eig, author of Opening Day: The

Author Information

Rebecca Alpert is Associate Professor of Religion and Women's Studies at Temple University and the author of Whose Torah?: A Concise Guide to Progressive Judaism.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions