Bloomer Girls : Women Baseball Pioneers, Paperback by Shattuck, Debra A., ISBN 0252081862, ISBN-13 9780252081866, Like New Used, Free P&P in the UK

Disapproving scolds. Sexist condescension. Odd theories about the effect of exercise on reproductive organs. Though baseball began as a gender-neutral sport, girls and women of the nineteenth century faced many obstacles on their way to the diamond. Yet all-female nines took the field everywhere. <p>Debra A. Shattuck pulls from newspaper accounts and hard-to-find club archives to reconstruct a forgotten era in baseball history. Her fascinating social history tracks women players who organized baseball clubs for their own enjoyment and even found roster spots on men&#39;s teams. Entrepreneurs, meanwhile, packaged women&#39;s teams as entertainment, organizing leagues and barnstorming tours. If the women faced financial exploitation and indignities like playing against men in women&#39;s clothing, they and countless ballplayers like them nonetheless staked a claim to the nascent national pastime. Shattuck explores how the determination to take their turn at bat thrust female players into narratives of the women&#39;s rights movement and transformed perceptions of women&#39;s physical and mental capacity.</p><p>Vivid and eye-opening, <i>Bloomer Girls</i> is a first-of-its-kind portrait of America, its women, and its game.</p>