Robert Elias

The Empire Strikes Out by Robert Elias takes two things that to me seem completely separate: foreign policy and baseball and shows that aren't all that separate after all. Elias is a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco. The Baseball Book Review notes that he also teaches a baseball and politics class.

The book walks through the history of baseball and shows how the ebb and flow of U.S. politics and foreign policy interact with how the game. Sometimes the game is used as propaganda — through world tours. Sometimes it affects recruitment. The book covers all the major wars and occupations and how and where baseball was played — either abroad or at home.

The Empire Strikes Out is one of the most interesting and odd political history books I've read. I recommend it to baseball fans and history buffs who want a new way of looking at events.

Recommended by Forum on KQED.… (meer)