![The James Naismith Reader](/assets/artwork/1x1-42817eea7ade52607a760cbee00d1495.gif)
![The James Naismith Reader](/assets/artwork/1x1-42817eea7ade52607a760cbee00d1495.gif)
![](/assets/artwork/1x1-42817eea7ade52607a760cbee00d1495.gif)
![](/assets/artwork/1x1-42817eea7ade52607a760cbee00d1495.gif)
The James Naismith Reader
Basketball in His Own Words
-
- $21.99
-
- $21.99
Publisher Description
James Naismith invented the game of basketball as a physical education instructor at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. That December of 1891, his task was to create a game to occupy a rowdy class during the winter months. Almost instantly popular, the game spread across the country and was played in fifteen countries by the end of the century. And yet basketball never had an overriding presence in Naismith’s life, as he was also a minister, doctor, educator, and coach.
So what did Naismith think about the game of basketball? In The James Naismith Reader, Douglas Stark answers that question using articles, speeches, letters, notes, radio interview transcripts, and other correspondence, including discussions on the game’s origins, Naismith’s childhood game duck on a rock in Canada, the changing rules, basketball as a representation of Muscular Christianity, and the physical education movement. From Naismith’s original rules written in 1891 to an excerpt from the posthumous publication of his book Basketball: Its Origin and Development, Naismith’s writings range over a fifty-year period, showing his thoughts on the game’s invention and as the game evolved during his lifetime.
The first volume to compile the existing primary sources of Naismith’s views on basketball, The James Naismith Reader reveals what its inventor thought of the game, as well as his interactions with educators and instructors who assisted the game’s growth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this lackluster compilation, sports historian Stark (Breaking Barriers: A History of Integration in Professional Basketball) collects the writings of James Naismith (1861 1939), the inventor of basketball. In 1891, Naismith was a faculty member at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Mass., when his boss challenged him, as Stark writes in the introduction, "to create an indoor game that would be interesting, easy to learn, and easy to play in the winter and by artificial light.' " Naismith included elements of rugby and, when he was unable to find boxes for the goals, he used what was available: peach baskets. Over time, Naismith added more rules to the game, and as he said in a 1932 radio interview, "The most important one was that there should be no running with the ball" and no tackling. Naismith's letters, articles, and speeches, which make up the bulk of the work, however, tend to repeat the sport's origin story rather than expand on it. Stark also only offers perfunctory introductions to the selections, so that, rather than creating a narrative or arc, the pieces feel disconnected from one another. This effort falls flat.