YOU KNOW ME AL(GER): THE EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN CULTURE THROUGH BASEBALL FICTION AND JOURNALISM

YOU KNOW ME AL(GER): THE EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN CULTURE THROUGH BASEBALL FICTION AND JOURNALISM

By Scott D. Peterson

Thesis Advisor: Dr. David Kress

A Lay Abstract of the Thesis Presented

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the

Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

(Interdisciplinary in American Literature and Culture)

May, 2010

Between 1880 and 1939, American culture underwent a series of significant economic and social transitions, including the development of popular culture. Through the efforts of the Progressive and Social Gospel movements and the major league baseball owners, the game of baseball was promoted as a source of positive individual development and American democracy—especially when it was built around the story of a young man’s maturity as he tried to make his way in the world. Given the above framework, this dissertation sought to understand how baseball journalism and popular fiction both reflected and shaped the changes underway in American culture.  

Recognizing baseball journalism as a significant, though under-utilized source of cultural attitudes, the study examined selected examples from the period of 1880 to 1939. The study drew from a wide range of journalistic sources, including The Sporting Life, theChicago Tribune, The New York Times, and the Daily Worker. The study drew from nearly 100 baseball short stories published in The Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, and other mass market magazines aimed at middle-class audiences. The study also examined book-length fiction written for adults during the timeframe.

The study confirmed that baseball and baseball writing began as a lower class entertainment that evolved over time and became an activity that was embraced by the middle-class. Due to the social function of stories about a young man’s development, the blending of Victorian and modern values, and the world-upside-down atmosphere of the Busher figure, baseball journalism and fiction was able to influence middle-class identity and philosophy. The study also showed the interconnectedness of baseball journalism and fiction, especially in the cases of Ring Lardner and Heywood Broun, and documented the multiple emergences of the average American, baseball, and popular culture in an important time in the country’s history.