In the spring of 2002, the National Baseball Hall of Fame will launch a landmark four-year traveling exhibition that will premier at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and tour to leading museums in nine major cities across the United States. The show will bring the Hall of Fame’s treasures, including rare baseball images and artifacts, to every American in a once-in-a-lifetime celebration of the game that has defined our nation. National Geographic is proud to offer the official companion book to this groundbreaking event. Featuring more than 30 essays by writers, players, scholars, and fans, including John Grisham, Tom Brokaw, Dave Barry, Roger Kahn, Paul Simon, George Plimpton, Penny Marshall, and others, Baseball As America will explore every rich facet of the national pastime. In examining such formative phenomena as immigration, industrialization, popular culture, and technology, it will reveal how baseball has served as both a public reflection of and a catalyst for the evolution of American culture and society. Baseball As America will also examine how the American landscape, our language, literature, entertainment, food, and summertime living all bear the mark of a 19th-century game that has become inextricably intertwined with our nation¼s values and aspirations. A handsome, hardbound volume, Baseball As America also features more than 200 original and archival photographs that bring the game to life on its pages. Perfect for every baseball fan, indeed every American, Baseball As America is a comprehensive panorama of the game America has grown up with. It will foster a new appreciation not only for the game, but also for the very character of our nation.