This course will examine the historical development of sport in the United States from a societal and cultural viewpoint and explore the significance of sport in American history, looking beyond the action on the field of play.
Lead Scholar: Seth Tannenbaum, Manhattanville University
Master Teacher: Brian Sheehy
Image: Photograph of Louis Santop, ca. 1920–1930 (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)
Up to 24 PD Hours
This course will examine the historical development of sport in the United States from a societal and cultural viewpoint and explore the significance of sport in American history, looking beyond the action on the field of play. In addition to providing a detailed overview of changes in American sport from the pre-colonial era to the late twentieth century, this course highlights the plethora of ways that sport can be used to understand broader elements of American history, including colonization, slavery, industrialization, nationalism, immigration, urbanization, suburbanization, foreign policy, the Civil Rights Movement, feminism, and the roles of race, ethnicity, class, and gender in America.
Photograph of Louis Santop, ca. 1920–1930 (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)
You may attend Professor Tannenbaum’s book talk on Bleacher Seats and Luxury Suites: Democracy and Division at the Twentieth-Century Ballpark (2026), regardless of which symposium course you select. Symposium participants who attend the optional book talks earn additional PD credit.
Unused Yankees-Giants-Dodgers baseball ticket, 1943 (The Gilder Lehrman Institute, GLC09414.1698)
Seth S. Tannenbaum is an assistant professor of sport studies at Manhattanville University in Purchase, New York. He earned a PhD in American History at Temple University and a BA in History at Vassar College. He previously worked at Drexel University, Lesley University, and the University of Central Oklahoma. His teaching and research focus on using sport to unpack and understand the world around us. His book, Bleacher Seats and Luxury Suites: Democracy and Division at the Twentieth-Century Ballpark (2026), examines Americans’ changing understandings of urban areas, inclusion, and the body politic. It analyzes how team owners used ballparks’ designs, locations, and amenities to keep fans coming back to the park amidst significant changes in cities and in leisure consumption patterns. His scholarship has been published in The Journal of African American History, The Journal of Sport History, Nine: A Journal of Baseball History & Culture, The Washington Post, and The Philadelphia Inquirer among a number of other venues.
Brian Sheehy is the history department coordinator at North Andover High School in North Andover, MA, where he teaches AP World History, AP US History, Sports of the Past, and Sports in American Culture. He is the 2020 Organization of American Historians’ Mary K. Bonsteel Tachau Teacher of the Year Award winner and Williams College’s Olmstead Secondary Teacher of the Year Award winner. He has also developed and published lesson plans and curriculum around sports history, specifically baseball. Sheehy has developed courses and professional development related to sports for other educators and has traveled all over the country giving presentations at conferences, symposiums, historical societies, and museums. He wrote a chapter for an upcoming book, Stories of Sport: Critical Literacy in Media Production, Consumption, and Dissemination, entitled “Selling Patriotism On and Off the Field: Media Connections between Baseball, the Military, and the Government.” He also co-authored an article entitled “Play Ball: Representations of Women on Vintage Baseball Photo Postcards” that appeared in Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture. Brian is the president of the Essex Base Ball Organization, a nonprofit group that plays baseball as it was played in the nineteenth century.