Which is where I come in! I contribute environmental and eco-based news stories to the website. Here's what I have so far, and I'll make sure to upload other stories separately as they come!
Green Global Travel
Thursday, February 28, 2013
I did forget to mention that I have been contributing to this snazzy online magazine for a few weeks now! Go check out Green Global Travel; it's a magazine right up my alley, and centered on not only eco-tourism and sustainability, but also environmental issues and news.
Which is where I come in! I contribute environmental and eco-based news stories to the website. Here's what I have so far, and I'll make sure to upload other stories separately as they come!
Which is where I come in! I contribute environmental and eco-based news stories to the website. Here's what I have so far, and I'll make sure to upload other stories separately as they come!
Book Journal: The Meaning of Sports
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Another incredible example of well-crafted nonfiction.
The Meaning of Sports: Why Americans Watch Baseball, Football, and Basketball and What They See When They Do by Michael Mandelbaum
Mandelbaum really gets the ball rolling here; he jumps in from the onset and provides some great sociological and anthropological reasoning as to why our society enjoys these sports--and how that enjoyment differs. He smartly and cleanly associates each sport with a specific period of American history: baseball and the pastoral, agrarian age; football and the industrial age; and basketball and the post-industrial, knowledge-based age. That easy-to-access metaphor is extended throughout the entire book.
In academic fashion, Mandelbaum takes a very essayist approach to his presentation, with lots of footnotes, listed analysis, and comparisons. It works wonders. The information is intelligent but so cleanly presented—it really has a great effect on the reader, myself included. Information, emotion, and/or concepts you've known about the sports —baseball's languid nostalgia, football's bellicose, made-for-TV action, and basketball's sociological influences—are expounded on and offer great breadth and insights to further develop those core concepts and associations.
My personal favorite chapter was the extremely well-done analysis of baseball.
I was quite familiar with much of his football analysis, though that's because I've read several other books on the subject (Sal Paolantonio's How Football Explains America comes to mind specifically); as such, it was a slight, albeit intelligent, dog paddle of familiar concepts, mainly in the historical sections. Basketball, much like the sport itself, flowed continuously as a chapter, and the history of its roots in Indiana and the connection of individualized growth for inner-city kids were particularly fascinating points.
BUY IT AND READ IT! A must for anyone interested in not only sports, but American history, sociology, and culture.
Rating: 10/10
The Meaning of Sports: Why Americans Watch Baseball, Football, and Basketball and What They See When They Do by Michael Mandelbaum
Mandelbaum really gets the ball rolling here; he jumps in from the onset and provides some great sociological and anthropological reasoning as to why our society enjoys these sports--and how that enjoyment differs. He smartly and cleanly associates each sport with a specific period of American history: baseball and the pastoral, agrarian age; football and the industrial age; and basketball and the post-industrial, knowledge-based age. That easy-to-access metaphor is extended throughout the entire book.
In academic fashion, Mandelbaum takes a very essayist approach to his presentation, with lots of footnotes, listed analysis, and comparisons. It works wonders. The information is intelligent but so cleanly presented—it really has a great effect on the reader, myself included. Information, emotion, and/or concepts you've known about the sports —baseball's languid nostalgia, football's bellicose, made-for-TV action, and basketball's sociological influences—are expounded on and offer great breadth and insights to further develop those core concepts and associations.
My personal favorite chapter was the extremely well-done analysis of baseball.
I was quite familiar with much of his football analysis, though that's because I've read several other books on the subject (Sal Paolantonio's How Football Explains America comes to mind specifically); as such, it was a slight, albeit intelligent, dog paddle of familiar concepts, mainly in the historical sections. Basketball, much like the sport itself, flowed continuously as a chapter, and the history of its roots in Indiana and the connection of individualized growth for inner-city kids were particularly fascinating points.
BUY IT AND READ IT! A must for anyone interested in not only sports, but American history, sociology, and culture.
Rating: 10/10
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