American Work-Sports

<p> For more than a century the American farm factory and frontier provided opportunities for physical workers to display their skill win a bet brag or perhaps just have some fun. Competitions that emphasized useful skills like plowing corn-husking rock drilling typesetting and tree cutting were common in the antebellum and post-Civil War periods often drawing large crowds and the attention of sporting journals.</p><p> For many years conventional American sports occurred in the workplace. This may help explain why the nicknames of so many prominent collegiate or professional sporting teams--Cornhuskers Lumberjacks Miners Cowboys Packers and Boilermakers--are also the occupations of 19th century worker-athletes.</p><p> By examining the American experience with competitions among workers this book provides a new understanding of the interrelated nature of occupation and leisure.</p>