Is football an athletic contest or a social event? Is it a game of skill, a test of manhood, or merely an organized brawl? Michael Oriard, a former professional player, asks these and other intriguing questions in Reading Football, the first contemporary book about football's formative years.
American football began in the 1870s as a game to be played, not watched. Within a brief ten years, it had become a great public spectacle with...