A journey through the national pastime's roots in America's small towns and wide-open spaces: "An absorbing read." — The Tampa TribuneIn the film Field of Dreams, the lead character gives his struggling farming community a magical place where the smell of roasted peanuts gently wafts over the crowded grandstand on a warm summer evening, just as the star pitcher takes the mound. In The Farmers' Game, David Vaught examines the history and ch...

A dramatic history of a group of families in post-gold rush California who turned to agriculture when mining failed."It is a glorious country," exclaimed Stephen J. Field, the future U.S. Supreme Court justice, upon arriving in California in 1849. Field's pronouncement was more than just an expression of exuberance. For an electrifying moment, he and another 100,000 hopeful gold miners found themselves face-to-face with something commensurate to their capacity to d...

WHAT HAPPENS?When the Values of Duty, Honor, Country clash at West Point with the religious teachings of the Liberty Baptist Church in Burnt Prairie . . .Join us on this journey in the Vietnam War era when the author was confronted by Colonel Al Haig, soon to join President Nixon's White House and later to serve as President Reagan's Secretary of State, . . .And Admiral Moorer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a federal courtroom. . .Waging a vigoro...

Finalist for the 2023 CASEY AwardGaylord Jackson Perry was born in 1938 as the younger son of a tobacco sharecropper in Martin County, North Carolina. He and his older brother Jim grew up against a background of backbreaking work six days a week in a community that boasted not a single paved road until the 1950s. Their only relaxation was playing baseball, first with their father and later at school.While both brothers would go on to succeed as pitchers in ...

2008 Winner of the Albert J. Beveridge Award of the American Historical Association"It is a glorious country," exclaimed Stephen J. Field, the future U.S. Supreme Court justice, upon arriving in California in 1849. Field's pronouncement was more than just an expression of exuberance. For an electrifying moment, he and another 100,000 hopeful gold miners found themselves face-to-face with something commensurate to their capacity to dream. Most failed to hit pay dirt in gold. Thereaf...