Books by Gerald R. Gems

This study is an interdisciplinary examination of the role of sport in the formation of urban identity in Chicago. The author employs historical and sociological methodologies and analyzes how the city became a hub for immigration, transportation, and entertainment.

Sports in American History: From Colonization to Globalization, Second Edition, journeys from the early American past to the present to give students a compelling grasp of the evolution of American sporting practices.

This interdisciplinary case study invokes historical, sociological, and anthropological means to examine the ascendance of the United States to a world power in its first imperial venture. In the aftermath of the Spanish-American War of 1898 the U.S. acquired and occupied the Philippine Islands for nearly a half century in an attempt to install a democratic form of government, a capitalist economy, the Protestant religion, and a particular value system. Sport became a primary means to achieve such goals, fostered initially by the military, and then widely promoted in the schools and the YMCA. Competitive programs, including international athletic spectacles, channeled Filipino nationalism against Asian rivals rather than the American occupiers as guerrilla warfare ensued in the islands. The strategies learned in the Philippines, now known as ';soft power' remain prominent factors in current American foreign policy.

Despite the increasing focus on the connection between sports and societal values, football has been left relatively unexplored. This text aims to fill this gap in sports history.