Larry Ruttman
Author of American Jews and America's Game: Voices of a Growing Legacy in Baseball
Works by Larry Ruttman
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Boston College Law School (1958)
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Brookline High School, Brookline, MA - Occupations
- lawyer
author
oral historian - Short biography
- Larry Ruttman has lived all his life in Brookline, MA. He graduated from Brookline High School and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, then attended Boston College Law School. He served as an Air Force officer during the Korean War. Larry has practiced law for more than 50 years, and still does pro bono work. He started writing 10 years ago. His first book, Voices of Brookline, was published in 2005, and was a national finalist for a coveted historical writing prize awarded by the American Association of State and Local History (AASLH). His second book, "American Jews and America's Game: Jewish Voices of American Baseball," will be published April 2013. Both books are oral histories based on in-depth interviews. Larry is also the host of an interview show on local access TV station BATV in Brookline.
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Places of residence
- Brookline, Massachusetts, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- Massachusetts, USA
Members
Reviews
Worth reading for the breadth of interviews, not only about/with the usual subjects (Greenberg and Koufax) but also front office types, academics and even two women who played in the all-girls league during World War II. My one big complaint is with Ruttman, whose agenda and general interviewing style (including completely unnecessary summing-ups at the end of each interview) often makes his own viewpoint more prominent than those of the people he interviews. I particularly dislike how he show more tries to get certain people to admit that they feel their values are specifically Jewish, even right after they've said they don't feel that way. I could also have done without his usually long and often unnecessary explanations of Jewish concepts like Torah and Purim and mini-histories for every single baseball player mentioned, sometimes with accompanying photos that don't add anything to the book; he doesn't seem to realize that anyone who would pick this up would almost certainly have to be interested in Jews, baseball or both and thus would get annoyed at the constant interruptions by comments that would've made more sense in a glossary at the back. (And what book needs a foreword, a preface, acknowledgments that repeat a lot of the preface, AND an introduction?) I don't regret reading the book, but I do wish the mix of voices in it didn't feature his own voice quite so much. show less
Statistics
- Works
- 3
- Members
- 35
- Popularity
- #405,583
- Rating
- 3.0
- Reviews
- 1
- ISBNs
- 6