History 490    Tygiel/Solomon    Spring, 2007

QUESTIONS FOR FIRST PAPER

Choose one of the following questions and write a 4-6 page (1000-1700 word) paper in answer to it. You may answer either a question drawn from the history list, or one drawn from the literature list. All papers must be word-processed, double-spaced, WITH A LARGE12 POINT FONT and written in the best possible English that you can muster. Papers should include pagination and a word count. Follow the guidelines provided in the handout, "Writing Papers." Your answers should be drawn from the readings,  lectures, and the online syllabus.  MAKE SURE THAT YOU USE ALL OF THE READINGS PERTINENT TO THE QUESTION, MAKING SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO THE AUTHORS. PAPERS ARE DUE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14.

ENGLISH TOPICS

  1. The use of actual game descriptions in Lardner and Malamud.
  2. The idea of the hero--or mock hero--in either (or both) Lardner and/or Malamud.
  3. Baseball language as poetry in the novel.
  4. Contrast narrative voices in You Know Me Al and The Natural.
  5. The growth from innocence to experience in the two novels.
  6. Baseball as American dream or nightmare in Lardner and/or Malamud.
  7. Uses of time in these baseball novels.
  8. Parallelisms or contrasts in structure of novel and game.
  9. Any topic of your choice--AFTER CONSULTING PROFESSOR SOLOMON.

HISTORY TOPICS

1. Trace the conflicts between players and owners from the creation of the National League to the collapse of the Federal League.  (Use specific examples from Ritter wherever possible.)

2.  What were the major causes and results of the 1919 Black Sox Scandal? (Be sure to use evidence from Tygiel, Ritter, and, if possible, Lardner to answer this question.) OR, ALTERNATIVELY:  Discuss the ways in which Lardner and Malamud use the historical record of the Chicago White Sox in the 1910s to create their fictional accounts.

3. Lawrence Ritter writes of the men that he interviewed in  The Glory  of Their Times, "They recreate with dramatic  impact  the sights and sounds, the vigor and the vitality, of an era that can never  return. Here is what it felt like to be young and  a  big leaguer  in a high-spirited country a long time ago." (p. xvi) What  were the major characteristics of baseball in the early decades of the century as described by the players in The Glory of Their Times? Contrast these images with those presented in Tygiel and Lardner.

4.  Discuss the ways in which baseball manifested itself as America's National Game from the 1850s through the 1880s and how the sport reflected the nation's racial biases as well.