Baseball: An Illustrated History
by Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns, Lynn Novick
Ken Burns: Baseball [PBS] (Companion Book — Companion Book)
On This Page
Description
A moving and fascinating history of the game of baseball. Goes beyond the stolen bases and home runs to demonstrate how baseball has been influenced by, and has in turn influenced, American life.Tags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
Member Reviews
I cannot fully describe how much I love this book. I love history. I love baseball. Put history and baseball together and you have "Baseball: An Illustrated History". This book goes back to the beginnings of baseball in the late 19th century, all the way up to the steroid era of the 90's and 2000's. The book highlights plenty of teams, including dynasties such as my favorite franchise, the Oakland Athletics. What I enjoy most about this book is the fact that no matter how much baseball changes, the essence of the game seems to always stay the same. There are stories from the early 20th century, and when compared to the stories of the late 20th century, one comes to the realization that baseball seems timeless, and is truly America's show more past-time. I also loved the pictures. There were images in the book that left me staring. The one of a teenage Miguel Tejada wearing the green and gold Athletics jersey is among my favorites. Why is it my favorite? The rarity of it. I have never seen that picture. "Baseball" has plenty of rare images. The text does a great job providing insight and thoughtful thinking, but the images are truly aesthetically beautiful. I highly recommend this book to anyone who considers themselves a baseball fan. It has taken up a permanent spot on my night stand. show less
5305. Baseball An Illustrated History, by Geoffrey C. Ward , based on a documentary filmscript by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns (read 25 Aug 2015) I watched the Ken Burns documentary when it was on TV but that is a while back and I found reading this book, which has material in it not shown in the film, eminently worthwhile and many of the accounts were extremely interesting. Especially revealing to me was the account of Jackie Robinson and the ordeal he went through when he arrived in the major league. I was appalled at the way he was treated, finding it hard to believe some ballplayers could be as mean and stupid as they apparently were. But there are accounts of many events in baseball history which I found eminently thrilling, even show more though I suppose I have heard of them all before, since when I 'discovered' major league baseball (in 1937 at age 9) I was thoroughly hooked and absorbed and lived and breathed the game for years--till the Cubs came seldom to be in contention, I suppose, {But now, 2016, the World Series was heaven to watch.) show less
The book version of Ken Burns' excellent PBS series on the history of baseball. With a wide range of baseball writers covering every aspect of the game and its history, this is a book more interested in the humans behind the game than the statistics they produce. Chock-full of wonderful photos of baseball history, aimed at the interested fan, this is a sumptuous feast for the true friend of the game.
This is a great history of baseball.
companion book to the PBS series
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Used books to buy next
565 works; 1 member
Author Information
86+ Works 9,192 Members
Geoffrey C. Ward is an author, historian, and screenwriter. He has written for numerous documentary films, and has won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Francis Parkman Prize, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Geoffrey Champion Ward was born in 1940 in Newark, Ohio. He was a graduate of Oberlin College in 1962. He is an editor, show more author, historian and writer of scripts for American history documentaries for public television. He is the author or co-author of 18 books, including five companion books to the documentaries he has written. He is the winner of seven Emmy Awards. He was the founding editor of Audience Magazine (1970-1973) and the editor of American Heritage Magazine (1977-1982). His 1989 biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, A First-class Temperament: the Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt, won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Francis Parkman Prize of the Society of American Historians and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The principal writer of the television mini-series The Civil War, Ward has collaborated with its co-producer Ken Burns on most of the documentaries he has made since, including Jazz, Baseball, The War and Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. This work has earned him five Emmy Awards. He also won two Emmys for the American Experience series, including The Kennedys, in 1992 and TR,The Story of Theodore Roosevelt in 1996. His script for the documentary Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, won the Writers Guild of America Award in 2005 and the accompanying book won the 2006 William Hill Sports Book of the Year and the Anisfield-Wolf Award for best biography. His works include The War: An Intimate History, Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz can Change Your Life and Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson. His title The Roosevelts: An Intimate History made The New York Times Best Seller List in 2014. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
139+ Works 10,666 Members
Ken Burns, July 29, 1953 - Ken Burns was born in Brooklyn, New York on July 29, 1953. Burns attended the alternative campus of Hampshire College in Amherst Massachusetts, graduating with a degree in film making. After graduating from college, Burns began Florentine Films with a few of his friends, and began creating his first documentary, entitled show more "The Brooklyn Bridge." This film won an Academy Award in 1982. His most famous work is his "Civil War" series, which has won many various awards. Burns was the first film maker to be inducted into the Society of American Historians, an unprecedented honor. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
32 Works 2,489 Members
All Editions
Awards and Honors
Awards
Distinctions
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Work Relationships
Has the adaptation
Is abridged in
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1994-09-04
- Related movies
- Baseball (1994 | IMDb)
- First words
- One summer afternoon in 1839, at Cooperstown, on the shore of Otsego Lake in upstate New York, the boys of the Otsego Academy were playing a game of town ball against Green's Select School.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Despite its troubles and the country's; despite AstroTurf and television; despite the ignominious departure of Pete Rose and the second coming of George Steinbrenner, the game can still summon up sublime moments of grace and skill and accomplishment that speak to us in our time precisely as they would have spoken to our fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers in their time, and as they will delight our sons and daughters in theirs.
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 796.3570973; 796.357
- Canonical LCC
- GV863.A1
Classifications
- Genres
- Sports and Leisure, History, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 796.357 — Arts & recreation Recreation, sports, and performing arts Sports Ball sports Ball and stick sports Baseball
- LCC
- GV863 .A1 — Geography, Anthropology and Recreation Recreation. Leisure Recreation. Leisure Sports Ball games: Baseball, football, golf, etc.
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 929
- Popularity
- 28,692
- Reviews
- 6
- Rating
- (4.22)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook
- ISBNs
- 8
- ASINs
- 8
