Sports have a long history of being intertwined with American politics.
Drawing on his experience as a former presidential speechwriter, Curt Smith examines the relationship between baseball and the American presidency in a new book: “The Presidents and the Pastime.”
In this episode, he joins Julian Zelizer to discuss the book, which provides a narrative of how American leaders from Theodore Roosevelt to Donald Trump have treated baseball, making it a quintessentially American sport.
Smith was the speechwriter for President George H.W.Bush. Smith is also America's "leading voice of authority on baseball broadcasting," author of 15 books, GateHouse Media columnist and National Public Radio affiliate series host. He's currently a senior lecturer at the University of Rochester.
ABOUT THE HOST
Zelizer is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He is also a CNN Political Analyst and columnist for the Atlantic. He is the author of several books including, most recently, "The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society," which was just awarded the DB Hardeman Prize for the Best Book on Congress. He has edited and authored 19 books on American political history and published over 700 hundred op-eds, including his popular weekly column on CNN.com.