2010 Spring HISTORY 120-01
Bulletin Course Description Examination of baseball from 18th-c. origins in Britain's North American colonies to the contemporary "World Baseball Classic." Topics addressed include transformation from amateur participant sport to commercial spectator sports business based in North America; globalization of the sport; commercialization and professionalization in new environments; and trans-national baseball as a lens for examining evolving class, race, gender, regional, and international relationships. Among central themes is how baseball's international migration reshaped the game. Instructor: Thompson
(Instructor named in bulletin description above may not be current. For current instructor, see listing below.)
Title BASEBALL IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Department HISTORY Course Number 2010 Spring 120 Section Number 01 Primary Instructor Thompson,John H Prerequisites
Synopsis of course content
“Baseball in Global Perspective” uses lectures, readings, and learning activities to survey the history of baseball from its 18th Century origins in Britain’s North American colonies to the contemporary “World Baseball Classic,” in which teams from six continents compete for an international championship. We consider how a folk game became an amateur participant sport and a spectator sports business based in the United States and Canada; how baseball was constructed as an essential element of American identity; how baseball migrated globally; how the game was culturally reshaped in the countries it migrated to; and how globalization changed the game in the USA.
Wednesday lectures will provide the narrative structure of the course; we’ll use our Friday classes for discussion and other learning activities.
Assignments
Reading assignments: No historian has a yet written a global history of baseball, so there can be no assigned narrative text. (Perhaps we’ll create one in the class.) Required reading – approximately 100 pages each week of the semester – comes from a variety of books and articles, and will be provided via the class Blackboard. The Blackboard will also present primary documents and images.
Exams
A three-hour on-line final written during our designated final exam period, but written individually and submitted via the Blackboard. Students will answer three short essay questions chosen from among nine, and one longer essay question chosen from among three.
Term Papers
Students will write one 5-page paper on an assigned question shaped around sources that posted on our Blackboard. Students may choose to write either two more short (5-7 page) papers or one 12-15 page research paper to complete the writing assignments for the course.
Grade to be based on
Writing assignments 48%; class participation 24%; final exam 28%
Additional Information
jthompso@duke.edu or 684-8102
AREA: USC
