Pigskin Nation
How the NFL Remade American Politics
by Jesse Berrett
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Pub Date 30 Apr 2018 | Archive Date 4 May 2018
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Description
Cast as the ultimate hardhats, football players of the 1960s seemed to personify a crewcut traditional manhood that channeled the Puritan work ethic. Yet, despite a social upheaval against such virtues, the National Football League won over all of America—and became a cultural force that recast politics in its own smashmouth image.
Jesse Berrett explores pro football's new place in the zeitgeist of the 1960s and 1970s. The NFL's brilliant harnessing of the sports-media complex, combined with a nimble curation of its official line, brought different visions of the same game to both Main Street and the ivory tower. Politicians, meanwhile, spouted gridiron jargon as their handlers co-opted the NFL's gift for spectacle and mythmaking to shape a potent new politics that in essence became pro football. Governing, entertainment, news, elections, celebrity—all put aside old loyalties to pursue the mass audience captured by the NFL's alchemy of presentation, television, and high-stepping style.
An invigorating appraisal of a dynamic era, Pigskin Nation reveals how pro football created the template for a future that became our present.
Jesse Berrett earned a PhD in History at the University of California, Berkeley.
He has worked as a rock critic, television columnist, and book reviewer. He
teaches history at University High School in San Francisco..
Advance Praise
"With an acute eye for detail, especially notable in the brilliant analysis of NFL films, Jesse Berrett shows how pro football and Richard Nixon's America arose coterminously and in reinforcing ways. One of the best books I have read on the politics and culture of sports in the modern United States. This terrific study shows how football both reflected and transformed American politics and culture during the long 1960s."--Larry Glickman, author of Buying Power: A History of Consumer Activism in America
"This is a terrific book—smart, lively, and deeply researched, full of surprises to delight the casual fan and the seasoned historian alike. If you want to know how a not-quite-respectable sport of the 1950s within two decades became 'America's Game,' not just the country’s most popular sport but also the one most entangled in partisan politics and competing visions of American life, this book is for you."--Michael Oriard, author of Brand NFL: Making and Selling America's Favorite Sport "For this devotee of Sam Huff's New York Giants and Dave Meggyesy's Syracuse Orangemen, Jesse Berrett's fascinating book is an absolute pleasure to read. Moving with the tempo of a two-minute drill, the narrative will inform both gridiron fans and political scholars alike. How many knew, for instance, that during the Vietnam War that the best way to avoid fighting the NLF was to play in the NFL? Masterfully researched, brimming with well-mined quotes, and leavened with astute analysis, the book makes the difficult job of good writing appear effortless. Anybody wanting to know how football got so big, and politics got so mean, needs to pick up Pigskin Nation."--Thomas M. Grace, author of Kent State: Death and Dissent in the Long Sixties
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9780252083327 |
| PRICE | US$24.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 304 |
Links
Featured Reviews
Linda S, Librarian
PIGSKIN NATION (U of Illinois P; April 11) by Jesse Berrett focuses on the interplay between football and politics primarily during the mid-1960s to mid-1970s; as such, it will appeal mainly to political junkies and some sports fans. However, it is still a fascinating look at the influence that the NFL, with increasing emphasis on televised games, merchandising, and celebrity players, has had on politics and American culture in general.
Berrett, a historian and teacher, points to the NFL's associations "with patriotism, the military in Vietnam, even the Bicentennial." He examines the influence of Commissioner Pete Rozelle, also stresses Nixon's reinforcing of his own political message with comments about conservative coaches like Vince Lombardi, and the role of players in the 1968 and 1972 Presidential elections. Readers will even reminisce about Reagan's "win one for the Gipper" references. PIGSKIN NATION could definitely provide a springboard for creative thinking by students looking to apply a similar analysis to other periods (or sports) in American history, even as we learn more about the concussion crisis and/or debate reactions to the playing of the National Anthem today.
Brendan C, Reviewer
Pigskin Nation is a fascinating cultural history of a time when as the books says “football, politics and culture entwined themselves in ever more complex ways.”
Berrett is a historian by training and he brings the discipline of his profession to examine how NFL Films transformed the image of the NFL and how politicians sought to gain reflected glory from the game.
The material on Nixon is particularly interesting. The book has a real resonance today when we see the current President take an opposite approach - and use the NFL as a punching bag to stir up his supporters.
It is very well written and exceptionally well researched. I learnt a huge amount - I thought the politicalisation of the game was a post 9/11 phenomenon but I was wrong- football and politics have mixed from the very beginning - perhaps never more than between 66 and 74 as covered in this excellent book.
(I intend to post a fuller review to my blog in due course - https://allsportsbooks.reviews)
Linda P, Reviewer
This is a superb, fascinating look at NFL football, 1960's era, and how it fit with the culture and politics of the times. I found the portions dealing with the NFL and politics, in particular, especially interesting. I'd heard about how Nixon was involved with football but never to this extent
Just a fascinating book and one I'd highly recommend to history buffs, even if they aren't football fans.
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