This addition to the considerable literature about the Brooklyn Dodgers of 1947-1957 is by an academic historian who seeks to place the Dodgers within the broader social and political context of the era. The book captures the atmospherics of the time with a mostly credible and readable account of one of the great teams of all time.
Academic history today means race, gender, class and some of that in this context seems a bit forced. There certainly is an important race story here in the person of Jackie Robinson. The author, consistent with the academic perspective, has difficulty coming to grips with both Robinson's and Dodger General Manager Branch Rickey's support of integration with their views on the Cold War. This reader did not find it unusual that people opposed to the Soviet Union would also support, and take considerable risks in supporting, integration in baseball. Much of the race angle in this volume is familiar territory. Some which is not familiar is questionable. The author brands a player of the era, later a prominent broadcaster, as a racist and does so on what appears to be very thin evidence - a not unusual on the field scrape with Robinson. Similarly forced, on the gender angle, is the characterization of the colorful Dodger fan Hilda Chester as a "single mother", even though her child was an adult. That women were vastly outnumbered by men watching baseball games in bars in the 1950s seems to have little to do with the Dodgers.
The author's best point is his explanation of why the hatred of Walter O'Malley has lasted though successive generations, a phenomena not associated with other franchise moves. The Reason: the Dodger move did not just re-locate a baseball team, it destroyed a distinct culture, which is probably the best explanation.
There are some factual errors in the book, one of them particularly surprising coming from an academic American historian. Perhaps the aversion to "right wing" politicians explains it. In 1952, Richard Nixon made a TV speech which came to be known as the "Checkers" speech - it saved his career in the face of charges of fiscal impropriety. Checkers was a dog given to Nixon's daughters as a gift. The author asserts that the dog was present on the TV set as Nixon gave the speech. That did not occur.
The author also attempts to "deconstruct" the common wisdom about Dodger pitcher Billy Loes. Loes had the reputation as something of a flake, but the author asserts that he was a chess-playing intellect who knew exactly what he was doing. The account given here has Loes planning to make enough money in five years and then quit, having made his fortune and "that is exactly how long his career lasted". The deconstruction does not stand up. Loes' major league career lasted eleven years.
For those who cannot get enough of Dodger literature, this short volume is worth reading if only to see how an academic would view the story. Those who want to read just one book on the subject should stick to Roger Kahn's classic The Boys of Summer or Peter Golenbock's Bums.
