Book Review

Canada and the United States

Richard O. Davies and Richard G. Abram argue in their history of sports betting that gambling has propelled the popularity of many American sports, particularly college and professional football and basketball. Their argument is at odds (pun intended) with almost every standard history of these sports. Yet they prove their thesis and, in so doing, they expose the major flaw in their book: it is far too short, and the authors do not develop their important argument at the length it deserves.

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In the introduction, Davies and Abram state that "gambling on athletic events" contains broad "significance for the student of American history and popular culture," and can provide "powerful insights into such larger issues as gender roles, class structure, ethnicity, modernization, local and national politics, and economic enterprise" (p. 3). Indeed it can, and, as they persuasively argue, most historians, including sports historians, have ignored the crucial role that sports betting has played in the development of many sports and in many aspects of American popular culture. In their book, which is organized chronologically, frequently they begin to explore their central questions, but too often they abort their discussion to move on to the next topic and/or decade.

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