Saturday, January 19, 2008

What is Michael Oriard reading?

The latest contributor to Writers Read: Michael Oriard, Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture at Oregon State University.

His books include Brand NFL: Making and Selling America's Favorite Sport (2007), King Football: Sport & Spectacle in the Golden Age of Radio and Newsreels, Movies & Magazines, the Weekly & the Daily Press (2001), and Reading Football: How the Popular Press Created an American Spectacle (1993), all from University of North Carolina Press.

One book he mentions:
The best book on football that I've read this fall is Sally Jenkins's The Real All-Americans, which nicely balances a Hollywood-ready triumphal tale of college football's ultimate underdogs, the Carlisle Indians of the 1890s and early 20th century, with a nuanced portrait of the school's superintendent, Richard Henry Pratt, a genuinely altruistic and rightly beloved father figure who nonetheless believed that the best thing he could do for his Indian students was to exterminate their native languages and cultures. [read on]
Learn more about Michael Oriard and his more recent books.

Writers Read: Michael Oriard.

--Marshal Zeringue