Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming American

Nothing matches the energy of Opening Day: a celebration of springtime, of renewed dreams, and of national heroes past, present, and future. From the games earliest days in the nineteenth century through today, baseball has served as a pathway for minority groups to learn and understand American values.

As a complement to the groundbreaking 2014 exhibition Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming American, the National Museum of American Jewish History has published this 256-page hardbound volume featuring over 40 evocative, compelling, and touching essays by a notable array of authors, sportswriters, former players, and commentators, as well as 143 stunning photographs chronicling the history of the game.

The stories that fill this volume illustrate baseballs centrality in American culture, from the major leagues to the little leagues, and how parents, children, and grandchildren adapted to, and sometimes challenged, what it means to be an American.

Edited by Josh Perelman, with contributions from:

• Michael Scott Alexander
• Rebecca T. Alpert
• Marty Appel
• Marc Appleman
• Brad Ausmus
• Abraham Cahan
• Billy Crystal
• Michael Berenbaum
• Ira Berkow
• Barry M. Bloom
• Adrian Burgos Jr.
• Adam Chandler
• William Choslovsky
• Colin Friedman
• Doug Glanville
• Doris Kearns Goodwin
• Eric Rolfe Greenberg
• Jeffrey S. Gurock
• Aviva Kempner
• Jane Leavy
• Peter Levine
• Bernard Malamud
• Colum McCann
• Pamela S. Nadell
• Kerry Yo Nakagawa
• Daniel Okrent
• Chaim Potok
• Shirley Povich
• Joshua Prager
• William Ressler
• Steven A. Riess
• Philip Roth
• Rob Ruck
• Justine Siegal
• Scott Simon
• Curt Smith
• Arn Tellem
• John Thorn
• Marc Tracy
• Beth S. Wenger
• Stephen Wong
• Steve Wulf