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The real All Americans
The focus of this paper is to provide a review of Sally Jenkins, “The real All Americans”. The paper summarises the books thesis through the provision of arguments presented by the writer. The review starts with the background information of the writer and her inspiration for writing the book. It later looks into the strengths and weaknesses portrayed in the book followed by recommendations.
Sally Jenkins, The real Americans is a book reflective of the American history in relation to the football sport. Jenkins is well known for her work in the American post as a sports columnist. This background gave her the jurisdiction to write books on significant sports figures in books like It’s not about the bike and The real All Americans. The main thesis of the book is based on the history of the American football and its growth into the countries national sports. The author focuses on the role of the Carlisle Indian School and their monumental role in defining football as a sport (Jenkins, p. 213).
The book was written in 2008 which is considered recent in terms of the date of publications. Despite this Jenkins reflects on the inception of the sport into American colleges which dates back to the late 1890s. During this time, America was still finding its identity due to the existence of different nationalities. Amongst the cultures that were seeking integration were the native Indians. The Carlisle Indian School was pivotal in the representation of native Indians in the country. The school was founded by Col Richard Pratt in 1879 making it a recognized educational institution. The author focuses on the history of football in regard to the college competitions. The games comprised of immense violence amongst different college teams during the competitions. Most of the current rules had not yet been established making the players vulnerable to a number of injuries, maiming and even death. The author derives a large part of the information from the national history books, school colleges and former football figures. This helps her interpret the situation despite the time of its occurrence. Jenkins shows a concise interpretation of the content of the sport in relation to its history. This displays her knowledge and professionalism in the world of sport as a whole (Jenkins and Stauffer, p. 246).
One of the advantages of the book is the revelation of the stages that the sport underwent to become part of the American culture. The native Indians played a significant part in the creation of this culture. They did this by defying the odds to compete amongst the Ivy League schools at the time. The book not only focuses on sports but looks at the fighting back of the Indians to regain their place as true Americans. One of the disadvantages of the book was that information was mostly one-sided. This formed provision for bias against in that the reader does not get the opinion of other involved parties (Jenkins and Stauffer, p. 126).
One of the recommendations of the book is the involvement of more third parties so as to increases the level of credibility. Despite this, I would highly recommend the book to my peers due to the amount of education received in all aspects of the country’s history. It is essential to recommend this particular group due to their lack of appreciation for American culture. The book removes the ignorance that a majority of the population has by giving readers a new perspective.
Works cited
Jenkins, Sally. The Real All Americans: The Team That Changed a Game, a People, a Nation. New York: Broadway Books, 2008. Print.
Jenkins, Sally, and John Stauffer. The State of Jones: The Small Southern County That Seceded from the Confederacy. New York: Doubleday, 2009. Print.
