Modern sports emerged from a background of traditional sports in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These sports were a product of the industrial revolution, the scientific revolution and urbanization. This lively and clear survey provides a wide-ranging overview of the history of modern sports, covering such topics as:
- how the major modern sports came about and how they spread throughout the world with the help of enthusiastic individuals, sports organizations, the YMCA and the Olympic movement.
- discussions of some of the most popular modern world sports including: soccer, basketball, baseball, cricket, table tennis, tennis, formula one racing, golf, swimming, skiing, volleyball, track and field, boxing, judo and cycling. These are among the most popular, although there are some 300 sports in the world.
- the history of both western and non-western sports in depth, as well as the increasing globalization of sports today.
- the challenges facing the world of sports today, such as commercialization and the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Modern sports emerged from a background of traditional sports in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These sports were a product of the industrial revolution, the scientific revolution and urbanization. This lively and clear survey provides a wide-ranging overview of the history of modern sports, covering such topics as:
- how the major modern sports came about and how they spread throughout the world with the help of enthusiastic individuals, sports organizations, the YMCA and the Olympic movement.
- discussions of some of the most popular modern world sports including: soccer, basketball, baseball, cricket, table tennis, tennis, formula one racing, golf, swimming, skiing, volleyball, track and field, boxing, judo and cycling. These are among the most popular, although there are some 300 sports in the world.
- the history of both western and non-western sports in depth, as well as the increasing globalization of sports today.
- the challenges facing the world of sports today, such as commercialization and the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Texans love the idea of wide-open spaces and, before World War II, the majority of the state’s people did live and work on the land. Between 1940 and 1950, however, the balance shifted from rural to urban, and today 88 percent of Texans live in cities and embrace the amenities of urban culture. The rise of Texas cities is a fascinating story that has not been previously told. Yet it is essential for understanding both the state’s history and its contemporary character. In The City in Texas, acclaimed historian David G. McComb chronicles the evolution of urban Texas from the Spanish Conquest to the present. Writing in lively, sometimes humorous and provocative prose, he describes how commerce and politics were the early engines of city growth, followed by post–Civil War cattle shipping, oil discovery, lumbering, and military needs. McComb emphasizes that the most transformative agent in city development was the railroad. This technology—accompanied by telegraphs that accelerated the spread of information and mechanical clocks that altered concepts of time—revolutionized transportation, enforced corporate organization, dictated town location, organized space and architecture, and influenced thought. McComb also thoroughly explores the post–World War II growth of San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and Houston as incubators for businesses, educational and cultural institutions, and health care centers.

On the Gulf edge of Texas between land and sea stands Galveston Island. Shaped continually by wind and water, it is one of earth's ongoing creations--time is forever new. Here, on the shoreline, embraced by the waves, a person can still feel the heartbeat of nature. And yet, for all the idyllic possibilities, Galveston's history has been anything but tranquil. Across Galveston's sands have walked Indians, pirates, revolutionaries, the richest men of nineteenth-century Texas, soldiers, sailors, bootleggers, gamblers, prostitutes, physicians, entertainers, engineers, and preservationists. Major events in the island's past include hurricanes, yellow fever, smuggling, vice, the Civil War, the building of a medical school and port, raids by the Texas Rangers, and, always, the struggle to live in a precarious location.

Galveston: A History is at the forefront of a trend in writing urban biographies emphasizing technology as the dynamic force in urban development. David McComb explores this often contradictory relationship between technology and the city, and provides a guide to both Galveston history and the dynamics of urban development.

Texans love the idea of wide-open spaces and, before World War II, the majority of the state's people did live and work on the land. Between 1940 and 1950, however, the balance shifted from rural to urban, and today 88 percent of Texans live in cities and embrace the amenities of urban culture. The rise of Texas cities is a fascinating story that has not been previously told. Yet it is essential for understanding both the state's history and its contemporary character. In The City in Texas, acclaimed historian David G. McComb chronicles the evolution of urban Texas from the Spanish Conquest to the present. Writing in lively, sometimes humorous and provocative prose, he describes how commerce and politics were the early engines of city growth, followed by post-Civil War cattle shipping, oil discovery, lumbering, and military needs. McComb emphasizes that the most transformative agent in city development was the railroad. This technology-accompanied by telegraphs that accelerated the spread of information and mechanical clocks that altered concepts of time-revolutionized transportation, enforced corporate organization, dictated town location, organized space and architecture, and influenced thought. McComb also thoroughly explores the post-World War II growth of San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and Houston as incubators for businesses, educational and cultural institutions, and health care centers.