This book, written with the passion of both baseball fan and cultural anthropologist, unravels the mysteries of Cooperstown, New York-home of the Baseball Hall of Fame-and Dyersville, Iowa-site of the baseball field made enormous by the Hollywood movie Field of Dreams. .

By what magic is a simple geographical space such as a city or town transformed into cultural significance, into a "place" people travel to, enshrine, mythologize, and consume? What stardust falls upon the ground and in the public's mind that moves us to worship a piece of property that was once an unremarkable field or vacant lot? This book, written with the passion of both baseball fan and cultural anthropologist, unravels the mysteries of Cooperstown, New York-home of the Baseball Hall of Fame-and Dyersville, Iowa-site of the baseball field made enormous by the Hollywood movie Field of Dreams. Charles Springwood provides insight into the postmodern culture of the United States in which tourist sites and "American heritages" are culturally produced and consumed, by studying the people who visit them. The results of his interviews with visitors to these sites speak to issues of youth, innocence, family, domesticity, nation, and the hegemonic practices of the "leisure class." The book provides a reading of America steeped in narratives of pastoralism and nostalgia. Behind it all (the curtain behind which the great wizard sits) is the corporate mind creating an atmosphere of false histories and reconstructed pasts. Springwood pulls the reader's heart in two directions, seeking to honor the beautiful myth of baseball's pastoralism through two sacred geographical sites while also seeking to expose the underpinnings of myth-making to a gentle but constant light.

A growing controversy in recent years has arisen around the use and abuse of Native American team mascots. The Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves, Washington Redskins, Kansas City Chiefs, Florida State Seminoles, and so forth—these are just a few of the images and names popularly associated with Native Americans that are still used as mascots by professional sports teams, dozens of universities, and countless high schools. This practice, a troubling legacy of Native–Euro-American relations in the United States, has sparked heated debates and intense protests that continue to escalate. Team Spirits is the first comprehensive look at the Native American mascots controversy. In this work activists and academics explore the origins of Native American mascots, the messages they convey, and the reasons for their persistence into the twenty-first century. The essays examine hotly contested uses of mascots, including the Washington Redskins, the Cleveland Indians, and the University of Illinois's Chief Illiniwek, as well as equally problematic but more complicated examples such as the Florida State Seminoles and the multitude of Native mascots at Marquette University. Also showcased are examples of successful opposition, including an end to Native American mascots at Springfield College and in Los Angeles public schools.