by John Fox (Find the Book)Disgraceful to humanity and to civilization eighteenth-century mayors of Derby, England, detested soccer (or football, to them). But Fox shows here that such games have often though not always beneficially shaped our human character and enriched our civilization. In tracing the fascinating history of ball games from the primal contests between prehistoric tribes playing with stuffed balls of grass, to the hypercommercialized violence of twenty-first-century Super Bowls readers witness the evolution of more than just sports. We learn, for instance, how the Aztecs religiously consecrated the arenas where teams battled to bounce a large rubber ball off their hips through stone rings before ritually executing the losers. Nearer our own time, we reflect on how nineteenth-century baseball created a welcome escape from the rigors of urban industry. Some readers may not like the way the mayhem of American-style football captured the national imagination as a symbol of American exceptionalism, but they will be fascinated by the spiritual idealism that launched basketball as a form of muscular Christianity. A book for fans and scholars alike! --Booklist
