Overview
To cities, sports have never been just entertainment. Progressive urbanites across the United States have used athletics to address persistent problems in city life: the fights for racial justice, workers' rights, equality for women and LGBTQ+ city dwellers, and environmental conservation. In Seattle, sports initiatives have powered meaningful reforms, such as popular stadium projects that promoted investments in public housing and mass transit. At the same time, conservative forces also used sports to consolidate their power and mobilize against the civic good. In Heartbreak City Shaun Scott takes the reader through 170 years of Seattle history, chronicling both well-known and long-forgotten events, like the establishment of racially segregated golf courses and neighborhoods in the regressive 1920s and the 1987 Seahawks players' strike that galvanized organized labor. At every step of the journey, he uncovers how sports have both united Seattle in pursuit of triumph and revealed its most profound political divides. Deep archival research and analysis combine in this people's history of a great American city's quest to become even greater-if only it could get out of its own way.
Full Product Details
Author: Shaun Scott
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Imprint: University of Washington Press
Weight: 0.590kg
ISBN: 9780295751993
ISBN 10: 0295751991
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 28 November 2023
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Reviews
"Shaun Scott's Heartbreak City unfolds like a baseball game. First through its structure: divided chronologically, recounting a people's history of Seattle into nine innings--and some extra bits--corresponding to key eras between the start of white settlement and today. Then through a vibrant array of characters shaping how history unfolds: divulging their shared hopes, committing errors, moving through losses, rallying. Heartbreak City is as much about casting a light on keystone, bygone sports dynasties. . . . as it is about questioning Seattle's teams, champions, and projects the city rallies behind. -- ""The Stranger"""
"""Shaun Scott's Heartbreak City unfolds like a baseball game. First through its structure: divided chronologically, recounting a people's history of Seattle into nine innings--and some extra bits--corresponding to key eras between the start of white settlement and today. Then through a vibrant array of characters shaping how history unfolds: divulging their shared hopes, committing errors, moving through losses, rallying. Heartbreak City is as much about casting a light on keystone, bygone sports dynasties. . . . as it is about questioning Seattle's teams, champions, and projects the city rallies behind."" -- ""The Stranger"""
Author Information
Shaun Scott is a Seattle-based writer and organizer. He is author of Millennials and the Moments That Made Us: A Cultural History of the U.S. from 1982–Present.
