This project is a historical analysis of the political economy of professional baseball across North America and the Caribbean from 1946 to 1965. Labor militancy, industry competition, racial desegregation, international recruitment, and federal regulatory scrutiny all came to bear on the structures of so-called “organized baseball” and set a pattern for the American sport industry. Examining the collision of these factors, the project seeks to explain the social and economic transformation of this labor market through the collective action of players, the entrenchment of monopoly, and the prospect of state intervention as it expanded across racial and national boundaries. Study of sport offers a mix of trends found across other industries and peculiar features that lead to novel interpretations. It also concentrates attention on one of the most culturally scrutinized labor markets in American society, whose participants today have their contracts, movements, collective bargaining agreements, and job performances broadcast in the public sphere.
