An exploration of the ways in which modern sports have spread from their Western roots to all corners of the globe. Could this be another form of cultural imperialism?

Sports in America, particularly big-time collegiate and professional sports, have never been more popular. Modern sports events bring us breathtaking demonstrations of grace and power and provide the focal point for the leisure time of hundreds of thousands of Americans. But the world of sports is also increasingly a scene of moral corruption and physical abuse. In A Whole New Ball Game, Allen Guttmann examines the American fascination with sport and what that fascination reveals about our culture.

Like the transformation of American society in the twentieth century, the...