Touching Home

Baseball and the Liberal-Republican Tradition in America

Mary Craig

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Hardback

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English

University of Missouri Press
05 November 2025

Series: Sports and American Culture

Baseball's relationship to American ideals has long been an object of study across disciplines. In Touching Home, Mary Craig contributes to this ongoing study by relating issues of class, race, and gender to America's theoretical tradition of liberalism and republicanism established during the nation's founding era. Specifically, Touching Home traces theories of individualism and civic virtue from the founding era through baseball's place in American society at the end of the twentieth century.

The work also examines the mythologizing of baseball's pastoralism, racial equality, and inculcation of manliness as a civic virtue. These myths became ingrained in baseball in significant ways, including, for example, the Supreme Court's granting of an antitrust exemption to Major League Baseball; MLB's promotion of Jackie Robinson's career as proof of its leadership in and commitment to desegregation; and the short-lived All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (1943-1954) and subsequent relegation of women to softball.

Through the exploration of these and other societal issues, Craig's work highlights baseball's development from accessible hobby to multi-billion-dollar corporation, exploring the ways in which the sport has helped shape how individual Americans engage with politics. Indeed, in the pages of Touching Home readers will find a demythologizing of baseball that helps them better understand the results of their efforts to form community through engaging with teams at both the local and national levels. Scholars of American politics, particularly American political thought, will be intrigued to find baseball used as a case study of the effectiveness of the founders' project of crafting a jointly liberal-republican framework capable of directing Americans toward responsible citizenship.

In all of these ways, Touching Home upholds the value of studying popular culture, presenting baseball as a unique and highly interesting lens through which to help us appreciate how individual Americans relate to politics and parties in their respective communities and nationally.

By: Mary Craig
Imprint: University of Missouri Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 399g
ISBN: 9780826223401
ISBN 10: 0826223400
Series: Sports and American Culture
Pages: 202
Publication Date: 05 November 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Mary Craig is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Furman University, where she teaches courses in American politics and political theory. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Baylor University. A lifelong baseball fan, Craig has written for both Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus—websites carrying statistical reports and articles on current players, events, and issues as well as baseball history.

Reviews for Touching Home: Baseball and the Liberal-Republican Tradition in America

“In Touching Home, Mary Craig presents a thought-provoking look at the relationship between baseball and American politics. Focusing on the myths we tell ourselves about both, she asks us to consider the costs of blindly embracing these foundational stories. In the process, Craig imagines a different future for baseball and politics beyond consumerism and more in line with true civic virtue.” —Thomas Bunting, Shawnee State University, author of Democracy at the Ballpark “When it comes to baseball, finding something new to write about is not an easy task, but Craig has found a new way to connect baseball with the foundations of the United States, with all of its contradictions and triumphs. Touching Home is a quality project and well worth the read; baseball fans won’t be disappointed.” —Lisa Doris Alexander, Wayne State University, author of When Baseball Isn’t White, Straight, and Male: The Media and Difference in the National Pastime