This succinct monograph provides not only a general study of sports history in the United States from the late 19th to early 20th centuries but also a study of how sports have provided diversion and reassurance during periods of great societal change … Mental Health, Gender, and the Rise of Sport is an entertaining and informative read, made more so by plenty of illustrations and suitable sources.

Choice

Motivated by the all too recent devastating effects of COVID-19 on the sport and exercise lives of Americans, Gerald Gems, respected historian of American sport, presents us with an analysis of an historical 'alarm' that embedded itself in American sport culture just as COVID did. In his academically rigorous Mental Health, Gender, and the Rise of Sport, Gems traces the persistence of a nervous and psychological disorder called neurasthenia, a malady that produced 'lassitude and hysteria' in Americans as they faced the explosive expansion of sport between the end of the Civil War and the opening of World War I. No bookshelf on the assessment of American sport history should be without this thoughtful and provocative monograph.

Robert K. Barney, Western University

This particular book, by Gerald R. Gems, goes far beyond his stated intent of linkage between sport and neurasthenia. Academics in sports studies programs should implement this as required reading. This book is also great reading for the public, especially the sport fanatic, and those attached to these fanatics wishing to understand the devotional aspect shown to sports. Delaying reading this work is truly restricting one’s understanding of sport in the American culture.

James R. Coates Jr., University of Wisconsin, Retired