But Didn't We Have Fun?: An Informal History of Baseball's Pioneer Era, 1843-1870
by Peter Morris
List Price:
Our Price: $15.94
You Save: $11.56 (42%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Compare Prices for But Didn't We Have Fun?: An Informal History of Baseball's Pioneer Era, 1843-1870
Book Summary Information
Author: Peter MorrisEdition: Hardcover
Published: 2008-03-25
ISBN: 1566637481
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher
Book Reviews of But Didn't We Have Fun?: An Informal History of Baseball's Pioneer Era, 1843-1870
Book Review: A modern history of early baseball
Summary: 5 Stars
The study of early baseball has made great strides the past couple of decades. Our knowledge is both broader and deeper than before. There has been a steady trickle of work by academic historians, a flow of work by amateurs (some of it excellent) and a community of researchers gathered under the aspices of the Society for American Baseball Research and its 19th century committee.
By the nature of things it takes a while for such knowledge to work its way from specialists to books for the general reader. There have books published quite recently that could have been written forty years ago.
There are numerous possible examples illustrating this point. Perhaps the best is the anachronistic expectation that early baseball players and organizations were motivated pretty much like modern baseball players and organizations. We often see sniggering condescension at the early Knickerbockers for wasting their time on banquets when they should have been practicing. The implicit assumption is that their motivation was to win games, but they kept getting distracted; or if this wasn't their motivation, it should have been. This is a hopeless way to approach history, and utterly commonplace. If we are to understand the Knickerbockers we need to understand their motivations, not impose our modern expectations on them.
It is a great pleasure to see in Peter Morris's new book. He makes available recent work, combined with his knack for ferretting out an impressive collection of old accounts. He puts the familiar events into context, and allows us to approach the early players on their own terms. This is a modern history of early baseball.
This isn't to say that there are no points to disagree on. There certainly are interpretations that can be disputed. This isn't the final word on the subject, but that isn't the point. This is part of an ongoing conversation, now made available to anyone interested.
As always, Morris's writing is admirably readable. Early baseball geeks will keep a bookmark to refer to the endnotes nearly every page, but there is no need for the less obsessive to notice them.
Summary of But Didn't We Have Fun?: An Informal History of Baseball's Pioneer Era, 1843-1870
But Didn't We Have Fun? covers a period in the early days of baseball that even those who think they know everything about the popular American sport do not know. Peter Morris--an indefatigable researcher and brilliant chronicler, and winner of both the SGeneral Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in General Books
The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performanceby H A Dorfman
Diamond Communications; Published: 2002-07-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.22
Price in other shops:
Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Legends: The Truth, the Lies, and Everything Elseby Rob Neyer
Fireside; Published: 2008-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.47
Price in other shops:
The Bill James Gold Mine 2008by Bill James
ACTA Sports; Published: 2008-02-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.83
Price in other shops:
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Gameby Michael Lewis
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2004-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.10
Price in other shops:
The 33-Year-Old Rookie: How I Finally Made it to the Big Leagues After Eleven Years in the Minorsby Chris Coste
Ballantine Books; Published: 2008-03-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.50
Price in other shops:
We Would Have Played for Nothing: Baseball Stars of the 1950s and 1960s Talk About the Game They Loved (Baseball Oral History Poject)by Fay Vincent
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2008-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.50
Price in other shops:
Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and the Battle to Save Baseballby Jose Canseco
Simon Spotlight Entertainment; Published: 2008-03-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.95
Price in other shops:
Baseball Prospectus 2008: The Essential Guide to the 2008 Baseball Season (Baseball Prospectus)Plume; Published: 2008-02-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.80
Price in other shops:
Yankee Stadium: The Official Retrospectiveby Al Santasiere
Pocket; Published: 2008-03-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $31.30
Price in other shops:
The Mental ABC's of Pitching: A Handbook for Performance Enhancementby H.A. Dorfman
Diamond Communications; Published: 2000-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.07
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Legends: The Truth, the Lies, and Everything Elseby Rob Neyer
Fireside; Published: 2008-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.26
Price in other shops:
Lush Life: A Novelby Richard Price
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 2008-03-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.47
Price in other shops:
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sexby Mary Roach
W. W. Norton; Published: 2008-04-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.68
Price in other shops:
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil Warby Drew Gilpin Faust
Knopf; Published: 2008-01-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.73
Price in other shops:
Baseball Prospectus 2008: The Essential Guide to the 2008 Baseball Season (Baseball Prospectus)Plume; Published: 2008-02-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.80
Price in other shops:
The Bill James Gold Mine 2008by Bill James
ACTA Sports; Published: 2008-02-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.78
Price in other shops:
Chief Bender's Burden: The Silent Struggle of a Baseball Starby Tom Swift
University of Nebraska Press; Published: 2008-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.54
Price in other shops:
The Code: Baseball's Unwritten Rules and It's Ignore-at-Your-Own-Risk Code of Conductby Ross Bernstein
Triumph Books; Published: 2008-03-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.26
Price in other shops:
Arnie and Jack: Palmer, Nicklaus, and Golf's Greatest Rivalryby Ian O'Connor
Houghton Mifflin; Published: 2008-04-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.91
Price in other shops:
A Game of Brawl: The Orioles, the Beaneaters, and the Battle for the 1897 Pennantby Bill Felber
University of Nebraska Press; Published: 2007-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.95
Price in other shops: