Reviews for American Economic History

The average rating for American Economic History based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-05-22 00:00:00 David Macdonald Another used bookstore pickup, “A Complete History Of The Negro Leagues” would have been a decent pickup even if I’d paid full price for it. What I like most is that author Mark Ribowsky treats the subject, and by extension, the reading audience, with respect. It does not focus on the exploits of Cool Papa Bell jumping into bed before the light out, it does not focus on Satchel Paige’s womanizing exploits, nor does it highlight exaggerated statistics without providing proper context. Rather, it treats the principals as they were, that is, human beings. Denied the opportunity to play in the Major Leagues (often referred to in the book as “the white major leagues”), African Americans were left to form their own areas of play. Given the times, resources for such an endeavor were slight, so the leagues, such as they were, wound up being loosely confederated alliances of what we’d scarcely recognize as teams. Which is kind of the point – due to the lack of structure, the recordkeeping was not conducive to doing systematic analyses as to how good such players were. But the novel does do a good job in characterizing the play of Negro League-turned Major Leaguers in the 1940’s/1950’s, making the correct conclusion that if one were good in the Negro Leagues, they’d be good in the other leagues as well. I kind of wish the book dove a bit more into lesser players, but that is probably a tall order to fulfill. It would also have been nice to get a behind-the-scenes look at what went on around a team of the time and place, but one can’t have everything. Occasional edit oversights litter the book – Jackie Robinson did not go to the University of Southern California, for example. But overall, a solid recommendation for anyone who’s a bit short on the subject.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-03-04 00:00:00 Lucas Meneses A good outline of Negro league history, but it can be quite dry. The author draws heavily from his knowledge of Satchel Paige (who he had already written a biography on), but doesn’t include many anecdotes that are centered around other players. Lots of info on a few of the biggest name players (Paige in particular), and good detail in the business aspect of things, but the book feels a little empty when it comes to highlighting lesser known players and stories. EDIT: Turns out there was likely some fabrication of stories. Don’t bother with this book when there are better options out there, specifically by Black authors with a lot more credibility.