Play Ball! The Rise of Baseball as America's Pastime

Take a time machine back to the days of pre-industrial America and you’ll see youths, both in the city and in the countryside, playing informal bat-and-ball games. The sport captivates our nation’s consciousness and reflects our rich and varied culture, long since having earned the title of “America’s Pastime.” The Great Courses has collaborated with the esteemed National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown NY to offer a baseball course to fans devoted to baseball and to the public, at large, for those who are curious about the story of American baseball. In 24 lectures that paint a portrait of the sport’s remarkable past, taking you from the decades before the Civil War to the pivotal year of 1920, Play Ball! The Rise of Baseball as America’s Pastime offers a well-rounded, historically rich look at this most distinctive slice of Americana.