- Hardcover: 344 pages
- Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press (22 Aug 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0812236270
- ISBN-13: 978-0812236279
- Product Dimensions: 24.3 x 16.3 x 3 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,800,722 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"A treasure trove of facts and stories... The author not only describes the history, from the first Ivy League game in 1869 to the present, but also includes interesting vignettes about he players after they left their colleges... An excellent resource for football historians and those interested in the Ivy League."-Choice "Anyone looking here to find a detailed account of the sport's origin will scarcely be disappointed."-Publishers Weekly "Bernstein provides the most comprehensive treatment of his subject currently in existence... He also deserves praise for ... filling his book with interesting football stories."-H-Net Reviews "Bernstein's book is first-rate football history for the richness of its details drawn from a wide range of primary and secondary materials... Highly readable and highly informed."-Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
As America is the daughter of Europe, President John F. Kennedy once joked to open a commencement address in New Haven, Connecticut, so he was pleased to be at Yale, the daughter of Harvard. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
As America is the daughter of Europe, President John F. Kennedy once joked to open a commencement address in New Haven, Connecticut, so he was pleased to be at Yale, the daughter of Harvard. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
|
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon U.K.
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Potentially Great history Ruined by Sloppy Editing, 3 Jan 2005
By Edward Garea "Edward Garea" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Football: The Ivy League Origins of an American Obsession (Hardcover)
This could well have been not only the definitive history of the Ivy League, but also one of the seminal works on the subject of football. The history of football by necessity goes through the Ivy League and the intrigues among Princeton, Harvard and Yale were to affect the college game for years and decades to come.
The Ivies have always been an enigma, an asterisk on the history of college football. Once boasting the most dominant teams in the country, the Ivies haven't boasted a national champion since Cornell in 1939. Finally, they were demoted by the NCAA to its Division I-AA in the late 70s. There would be no more national glory, and football became just another thing to do in the autumn, instead of being an obsession, which it is at Division 1-A colleges.
Bernstein does an excellent job of narrating the history of the Ivies. Every school is included, and there are loads of anecdotal sidelights that will delight the reader. The book is also thoroughly researched and is marked by a lively style not often found in university press publications.
Then why do I say that this could have been the definitive history of the Ivy League? One word: editing. One would naturally take for granted that a book from a university press would be well-edited, and a book from a press of the University of Pennsylvania being such should be a no-brainer. But the book is spoiled by numerous errors, errors that could have been caught by an editor's sharp eye. Other reviewers have pointed out some of the more outrageous errors as pertains to football, but I give you the most egregious of all:
"In many ways, the teens were a decade of Ivy prominence. Both presidential elections were all-Ivy affairs: Theodore Roosevelt defeated Woodrow Wilson and William Howard Taft in 1912, and Wilson beat Charles Evans Hughes in 1916." (p. 95)
HOW'S THAT AGAIN? ROOSEVELT DEFEATED WILSON IN 1912?? This will come as some news to American Historians. Obviously, history is not a core curriculum course of the University of Pennsylvania these days. I don't blame the author (though he should know better, being a graduate of Princeton), I blame the editors. They're the ones who are supposed to catch these mistakes. I admit that a mistake concerning football history can slip by, but this is a basic fact of American history that slipped right past. Shame on the editors.
Nonetheless, I do recommend the book for its strengths and its well-written narrative and lively style. Perhaps the mistakes can be corrected for the paperback edition.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, but needs a thorough editing; too many mistakes, 19 July 2002
By Engineering Jones - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Football: The Ivy League Origins of an American Obsession (Hardcover)
Mark F. Bernstein's history of Ivy League football is generally interesting, though it doesn't offer a lot of new material. The bibliography is fascinating. Most problematic however, is the proliferation of mistakes, sometimes self-corrected later. A good editor should have caught these. Consider the following:1) On page 199, Mr. Bernstein implies that Princeton, Dartmouth, Columbia, and Cornell dropped Pennsylvania from their schedules in 1951 and 1952. In fact, Pennsylvania played all of these teams in both of those seasons and the author even refers to the 1951 Princeton-Penn contest on page 209.
2) On page 257, the author writes that "(Penn coach Jerry) Berndt continued to win, claiming a share of still another Ivy title in 1988, with Cornell....". However, this is not correct as Berndt left Pennsylvania after the 1985 season, which the author correctly indicates on page 258.
3) On page 242, and again on page 280, Penn receiving legend Don Clune, is referred to as Don McClune.
4) There is no mention of Frank Riepl's miracle kickoff return for Pennsylvania against Notre Dame in 1955, Coach Ron Rogerson of Princeton's untimely death in 1986, Brown is continually called the "Bears" when their nickname was the "Bruins" until recently, and I swear, somewhere in the book Bob Blackman is called Bob Blackmun.
All in all, it's a good book with a decent balance of coverage of each of the eight teams, though Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Penn get by far the most attention. The beginning takes a bit to get through as well and of course, please check the facts, ma'am.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Read About the Ivy League and Football, 12 Dec 2001
By CaribMike - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Football: The Ivy League Origins of an American Obsession (Hardcover)
Even though I have not yet finished reading this excellent book on football and the Ivy League, I already have enough tidbits to keep up a lively conversation at holiday cocktail parties. Before the end of the first chapter, I found out that there really is no Ivy League. And who could resist dropping on their friends from Cornell the fact that one of their college presidents refused to let "thirty men travel 400 miles to agitate a bag of wind". The tales are intriguing, and Bernstein's writing is engaging. If you have an Ivy League graduate or any other football fan on your gift list, this would be a great choice.
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
