Mental Health, Gender, and the Rise of Sport
Will be published approx. on 23. July 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
234 pages
978-1-6669-5508-8 (ISBN)
Description
Long before therapy apps and wellness culture, Americans turned to sport to steady minds unsettled by modern life.
Mental Health, Gender, and the Rise of Sport examines the historical role of sport as both a mental and physical remedy during the late-nineteenth-century epidemic of neurasthenia, a debilitating neurological condition that gripped American society. Gerald R. Gems argues that the rapid expansion of organized sport and sport spectatorship coincided with-and responded to-the anxieties produced by an accelerating economic and social order. Activities such as baseball, boxing, cycling, and football offered psychological escape and physical discipline at a time when modern life was widely believed to exhaust the nervous system. Sports provided not only therapeutic relief but also a means to challenge rigid gender norms, domestic confinement, and restrictive fashions that reinforced female subordination. As women claimed physical autonomy through sport, athletic participation became interwoven with broader feminist currents. Tracing these developments forward, the book shows how sport emerged as a recurring prescription for both mental health crises and social change well into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Revealing sport's enduring role as both therapy and catalyst, this work reframes athletics as a central force in shaping modern ideas of health, gender, and social reform.
Mental Health, Gender, and the Rise of Sport examines the historical role of sport as both a mental and physical remedy during the late-nineteenth-century epidemic of neurasthenia, a debilitating neurological condition that gripped American society. Gerald R. Gems argues that the rapid expansion of organized sport and sport spectatorship coincided with-and responded to-the anxieties produced by an accelerating economic and social order. Activities such as baseball, boxing, cycling, and football offered psychological escape and physical discipline at a time when modern life was widely believed to exhaust the nervous system. Sports provided not only therapeutic relief but also a means to challenge rigid gender norms, domestic confinement, and restrictive fashions that reinforced female subordination. As women claimed physical autonomy through sport, athletic participation became interwoven with broader feminist currents. Tracing these developments forward, the book shows how sport emerged as a recurring prescription for both mental health crises and social change well into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Revealing sport's enduring role as both therapy and catalyst, this work reframes athletics as a central force in shaping modern ideas of health, gender, and social reform.
Reviews / Votes
This succinct monograph provides not only a general study of sports history in the United States from the late 19th to early 20th centuries but also a study of how sports have provided diversion and reassurance during periods of great societal change ... Mental Health, Gender, and the Rise of Sport is an entertaining and informative read, made more so by plenty of illustrations and suitable sources. * Choice * Motivated by the all too recent devastating effects of COVID-19 on the sport and exercise lives of Americans, Gerald Gems, respected historian of American sport, presents us with an analysis of an historical 'alarm' that embedded itself in American sport culture just as COVID did. In his academically rigorous Mental Health, Gender, and the Rise of Sport, Gems traces the persistence of a nervous and psychological disorder called neurasthenia, a malady that produced 'lassitude and hysteria' in Americans as they faced the explosive expansion of sport between the end of the Civil War and the opening of World War I. No bookshelf on the assessment of American sport history should be without this thoughtful and provocative monograph. -- Robert K. Barney, Western University This particular book, by Gerald R. Gems, goes far beyond his stated intent of linkage between sport and neurasthenia. Academics in sports studies programs should implement this as required reading. This book is also great reading for the public, especially the sport fanatic, and those attached to these fanatics wishing to understand the devotional aspect shown to sports. Delaying reading this work is truly restricting one's understanding of sport in the American culture. -- James R. Coates Jr., University of Wisconsin, Retired One of the book's most striking aspects is its scholarly rigor. The sheer depth of his research sets a benchmark for what a careful, comprehensive study looks like, reminding us of the diligence required to produce truly substantive scholarship. * Journal of Sport History *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
9 BW Photos
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-6669-5508-8 (9781666955088)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Gerald Gems is professor emeritus at North Central College and past president of the North American Society for Sport History.
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Modernization: A Society in Flux
Chapter 2: Neurasthenia: A National Epidemic
Chapter 3: The Rise of Sport: The Expression of Physical Vitality
Chapter 4: Baseball; Creating the National Game
Chapter 5: Cycling: Upsetting Gender Norms
Chapter 6: Boxing: Reasserting Masculinity
Chapter 7: Football: A Surrogate Form of Warfare
Chapter 8: Sport as Therapy: Stress Relief
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Introduction
Chapter 1: Modernization: A Society in Flux
Chapter 2: Neurasthenia: A National Epidemic
Chapter 3: The Rise of Sport: The Expression of Physical Vitality
Chapter 4: Baseball; Creating the National Game
Chapter 5: Cycling: Upsetting Gender Norms
Chapter 6: Boxing: Reasserting Masculinity
Chapter 7: Football: A Surrogate Form of Warfare
Chapter 8: Sport as Therapy: Stress Relief
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
About the Author