The Tented Field: A History of Cricket in America

by Tom Melville

Overview

Tom Melville presents a well-documented history of cricket playing in America, focusing on its period of growth in the 1840s and its periodic revivals. Cricket failed to take on, or resisted, an American identity, but the sport had considerable appeal both as a sport and as an activity that fostered sportsmanship, control, public manners, and decorum. Cricket found acceptance mainly in the upper class but also appealed to working-class people.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780879727703
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	01/01/1998
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	987,575
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

Editorial Reviews

Cricket is not a game synonymous with North America. The only two books published on the game in the United States are by cricket player and teacher Melville. Far more than a chronological record, this study examines a sport that resisted change in a society accustomed to fast-paced, professional, profit-generating athletics. In an attempt to determine the reason for its lack of popularity here, Melville presents a thematic history of American cricket, focusing not only on past trends but specific cultural influences. Although well researched, this is not easy reading. Libraries would be better to purchase Melville's first book (Cricket for Americans: Playing and Understanding the Game, Popular Pr., 1993) for more relevant information about the fundamentals of the sport. Not a necessary purchase for public libraries. (Bibliography and index not seen.)--Larry Robert Little, Penticton P.L., BC

Library Journal

Presents an analytical explanation of why cricket failed as an American sporting institution. Devotes much attention to the rise of organized American sports immediately before and after the Civil War and interprets this phenomenon in the context of both its premodern American history as well as its development up to the First World War. The geographical focus is on the larger urban areas of the Atlantic seaboard, but other urban and rural areas are also discussed. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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