Wow! eBook
The Kingdom of Golf in America
Author(s): Richard J. Moss (Author)
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Publication Date: 1 Jun. 2013
- Language: English
- Print length: 400 pages
- ISBN-10: 0803244827
- ISBN-13: 9780803244825
Book Description
For golf’s true enthusiasts, the game is far more—and far more complex—than a simple hobby, commodity, or slice of the sports industry. It is a physical and mental place to be, a community. It has a history, a hierarchy, laws, a language, and a literature. And in Richard J. Moss, it has a chronicler.
From its beginnings in the northeastern United States in the 1880s, golf has seen its popularity, and its fortunes, wax and wane, affected by politics and economics, reflecting tensions between aristocratic and democratic impulses. The Kingdom of Golf in America traces these ups and downs, ins and outs, in the growth of golf as a community. Moss describes the development of the private club and public course and the impact of wealth and the consumer culture on those who play golf and those who watch. He shows that factors like race, gender, technology, suburbanization, and the transformation of the South that shaped the nation also shaped golf. The result is a unique, and uniquely entertaining, work of cultural history that shows us golf as a community whose story resonates far beyond the confines of the course.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Any book by historian [Richard] Moss is a reason for celebration, especially when the subject is golf, a game he understands far better than most. With
The Kingdom of Golf in America Moss has provided a richly detailed and brilliantly nuanced account of the game’s social growth in America, must (and delightful) reading for anyone who wants to understand how golf got into the bloodstream of a community and a nation. He beautifully reveals the scope of our enduring love affair with life’s most complex and social game. Bravo.”―James Dodson, author of Final Rounds and American Triumvirate: Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, and the Modern Age of Golf“[Richard J. Moss’s] own love for the game is infectious.”―Henry Allen,
Wall Street Journal“A historian specializes in the past, but Moss casts a sharp eye on the game’s future as well and his conclusion is sobering.”—Dennis McCann,
Wisconsin Golfer
