Daniel Okrent

America's obsession with its own history has resulted in innumerable bestsellers. Like baseball and the Civil War, Prohibition is one of the grand American topics, and now it is the subject of Daniel Okrent's masterful, prize-worthy tour de force. Last Call is a narrative history of one of the most puzzling and most exciting eras in American history, the years 1920 to 1933, when the Constitution was amended to restrict human social behavior. Beginning...

From its winners to its sinners, two bestselling sportswriters chronicle a dizzying trip through more than a century of baseball lore and legend. Some of the stories are celebrated-from Ruth's called shot to DiMaggio's streak to Mays's catch. Some of the men are titans of the game-Mantle, Williams, Koufax. But alongside those stories passed from generation to generation, Daniel Okrent and Steve Wulf have assembled tales both hard-to-believe and a...

By the widely celebrated New York Times bestselling author of Last Call-the powerful, definitive, and timely account of how the rise of eugenics helped America close the immigration door to "inferiors" in the 1920s. A forgotten, dark chapter of American history with implications for the current day, The Guarded Gate tells the story of the scientists who argued that certain nationalities were inherently inferior, providing the intellectual justification...

America and the world are seeing more changes than at any time in history. And so is baseball. Free agency, multimillion-dollar salaries, the designated hitter, a shocking gambling scandal, a new all-time home run champion, a World Series victory for Canada. And yet, paradoxically, the game remains timeless-still played the same way it was in our fathers' and grandfathers' time.

The 1920s begin with America trying to recover from World War I and baseball trying to recover from the scandal of the 1919 World Series. America finds relief in the boom market and the Jazz Age. George Herman "Babe" Ruth is one of the best pitchers in baseball. But he loves to hit even more. In 1919, he hits 29 homers for the Red Sox, more than any player has ever hit in a single season.

In an age of globalization and deregulation, Cal Ripken becomes baseball's new Iron Man, sluggers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa smash records, and The Braves dominate the National League while the Yankees build a new dynasty.

In 1894, a sportswriter named Byron Bancroft Johnson takes over a struggling minor league and turns it into a financial success. In 1900, he changes its name to the American League and begins talking about challenging the big city monopoly held by the National League. In 1903, the first World Series is played between the American League Boston Pilgrims and the National League Pittsburgh Pirates.

As America struggles to make it through the Depression, baseball provides them heroes. But the heroes do not come only from the Major Leagues. The Negro Leagues bring baseball to towns the Major Leagues ignore. They develop an elaborate warm-up routine in pantomime; throwing and hitting an invisible ball so convincingly, spectators can't believe it's not real. It's called "shadow ball."

By the widely celebrated New York Times best selling author of Last Call, the powerful, definitive, and timely account of how the rise of eugenics helped America close the immigration door to 'inferiors' in the 1920s. A forgotten, dark chapter of American history with implications for the current day, it tells the story of the scientists who argued that certain nationalities were inherently inferior, providing the intellectual justification for the...

Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith was the most widely read sportswriter of the last century and the first to win the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. From the 1940s to the 1980s, his nationally syndicated columns for the New York Herald Tribune and later for The New York Times traversed the world of sports with literary panache and wry humor. Now, writer and editor Daniel Okrent presents the best of Smith's inimitable columns ---miniature masterpieces that...