Baseball History from Outside the Lines gathers the best recent historical literature about the game. These well-written essays describe developments in the game's past, assess their impact, and explain how they reflect the period in which they occurred. The essays also explore baseball's influences outside the field of play as well as the effect of external factors on the game. The contributors discuss such key issues as demographics, communities, social mobility, race and ethnicity, baseball as a business, player-management relations, amateurs, women, and international play.

John E. Dreifort is a professor of history at Wichita State University. He enjoys teaching courses on the history of baseball and is the father of a major-league player.

"While previous histories by David Q. Voigt and Harold Seymour cover the development of baseball, the essays assembled here stress the game's social and cultural aspects. The essays range from the entry of African Americans, Jews, and other ethnics to labor relations and the movement West of franchises. Of special note are the spread of baseball to Japan, Canada, and Latin America. . . . This book is ideal for academic and large public libraries."—Library Journal

“The best and most important essays that are based on archival scholarship and critical analysis and are at the same time written in a readable fashion. . . . Dreifort’s efforts in compiling this scholarly anthology make a significant contribution to baseball literature in itself. The volume brings together important works, and as Dreifort intended, effectively fulfills a need for supplemental literature for courses in both baseball history and sport history as well s provides enjoyable reading for the casual baseball enthusiast.”—Jerry J. Wright, International Jounal of the History of Sport

"A rich collection of issues that touch upon baseball and center on American culture during the last century. . . . A solid example of scholarship that centers on baseball as a tool to evaluate American life."—James Lake, Florida Historical Quarterly

"This collection not only provides a substantial sample of the rich body of recent publications in scholarly journals and monographs, but it also helps to fill a large lacuna in baseball literature. It features essays that look in depth at some of baseball's most critical issues. I expect that all serious students of baseball will want to own this volume."—Benjamin G. Rader, author of Baseball: A History of America's Game