About the Author

Peter Levine is Professor of History at Michigan State University. He is the author of A.G. Spalding and the Rise of Baseball, American Sport: A Documentary History, and the editor of Baseball History, 1986-91.

Reviews

"Levine convincingly and repeatedly demonstrates the way in whch sport served as an important vehicle of assimilation and, perhaps more important, provided a vivid demonstration of Jewish strength, fortitutde, determination, and heroism in the face of anti-Semitic calumny at home and impending genocide abroad. Levine's social history of Jews and American sports weaves together this special perspective with bittersweet tales of achievement and
overcoming."--American Jewish Archives
"A scholarly exploration of the important role sport played in transforming Jewish immigrants into American Jews."--The Sporting News
"A valuable footnote to American sports history...Makes a major contribution to the field."--Publishers Weekly
"Ellis Island to Ebbets Field is a wonderfully evocative combination of sports and Jewish cultural and athletic life in our country. It tells the stories of Hank Greenberg, Nat Holman, Barney Ross, and many other famous and not so famous Jewish athletes with great insight and appeal."--W.P. Kinsella, author of Shoeless Joe
"Levine tells an important but little-known story."--Elliott J. Gorn, Miami University
"An engaging glimpse into an aspect of Jewish culture often overlooked and ignored. A home run."--Gary David Goldberg, creator of TV's Brooklyn Bridge
"For too long we have focused our historical attention on the political scene--wars and presidents etc. Peter Levine reminds us that sometimes our most revealing history comes from different arenas and playing fields."--Ken Burns, Filmmaker
"A fine study."--Dr. Linda J. Borish, Western Michigan University
"This is history at its best. Ellis Island to Ebbets Field offers much to appreciate and to savor."--Richard C. Crepeau, University of Central Florida

Levine, a professor of history at Michigan State, here composes a valuable footnote to American sports history. He begins by pointing out that Eastern European Jews traditionally honored scholarship and learning over athletic prowess; in his apt phrase, they were ``people of the book rather than people of the hook, right cross, or home run.'' Arrived in America, the immigrant generation found their sons enchanted by sports, to the shock of most and the horror of some. By the 1920s, city-dwelling Jewish athletes had all but taken over the urban game of basketball, and they soon made their mark in boxing with long-time champion Benny Leonard. Stardom in baseball came later, but Hank Greenberg, the quintessential Jewish sports hero, made it all worthwhile in the 1930s. A chapter on Jews in intercollegiate sports between the world wars and other minor concerns seems unnecessary, but taken as a whole this book makes a major contribution to the field. (Sept.)

"Levine convincingly and repeatedly demonstrates the way in whch sport served as an important vehicle of assimilation and, perhaps more important, provided a vivid demonstration of Jewish strength, fortitutde, determination, and heroism in the face of anti-Semitic calumny at home and impending genocide abroad. Levine's social history of Jews and American sports weaves together this special perspective with bittersweet tales of achievement and overcoming."--American Jewish Archives "A scholarly exploration of the important role sport played in transforming Jewish immigrants into American Jews."--The Sporting News "A valuable footnote to American sports history...Makes a major contribution to the field."--Publishers Weekly "Ellis Island to Ebbets Field is a wonderfully evocative combination of sports and Jewish cultural and athletic life in our country. It tells the stories of Hank Greenberg, Nat Holman, Barney Ross, and many other famous and not so famous Jewish athletes with great insight and appeal."--W.P. Kinsella, author of Shoeless Joe "Levine tells an important but little-known story."--Elliott J. Gorn, Miami University "An engaging glimpse into an aspect of Jewish culture often overlooked and ignored. A home run."--Gary David Goldberg, creator of TV's Brooklyn Bridge "For too long we have focused our historical attention on the political scene--wars and presidents etc. Peter Levine reminds us that sometimes our most revealing history comes from different arenas and playing fields."--Ken Burns, Filmmaker "A fine study."--Dr. Linda J. Borish, Western Michigan University "This is history at its best. Ellis Island to Ebbets Field offers much to appreciate and to savor."--Richard C. Crepeau, University of Central Florida