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BestsellerE-book
Author Nicholson, James C., author.

Title Racing for America : the horse race of the century and the redemption of a sport / James C. Nicholson.

Publication Info. Lexington : University Press of Kentucky, [2021]
©2021

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (236 pages).
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Series Horses in history
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary "On October 20, 1923, at New York's Belmont Park, Kentucky Derby champion Zev toed the starting line alongside Papyrus, winner of England's greatest horserace, the Epsom Derby. The $100,000 purse for the novel intercontinental showdown was the largest in the history of America's oldest sport. Few happenings had ever received more attention in American newspapers. For weeks leading up to the race, reporters filled sports pages with updates, gossip, and fawning profiles of the equine contestants and the people associated with them, including Zev's owner, the maligned oil tycoon Harry F. Sinclair. Americans rallied around the oilman's colt even as Sinclair was engaged in a brazen scheme to defraud the United States of millions of barrels of publicly owned oil. As details of Sinclair's central role in one of the most infamous corruption scandals in American history continued to emerge, Zev would become an apt mascot for a nation struggling to reconcile its traditional values with the modern complexities of the Roaring Twenties. In Racing for America, with a focus on the major players involved in the Race of the Century, James C. Nicholson exposes the central role of politics, money, and ballyhoo in the Jazz Age resurgence of the sport of kings, which only a few years earlier had nearly been driven out of existence in the United States by Progressive reformers. Though the Zev-Papyrus face-off was one of the most-hyped sporting events of the early twentieth century, Nicholson reveals why it soon faded from American popular memory when Zev's tainted legacy proved to be incompatible with tenets of national mythology that celebrate America as a place where hard work and fair play lead to prosperity"-- Provided by publisher
Contents Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. American Dreams -- 2. Progress -- 3. Rancocas -- 4. Tempest -- 5. British Invasion -- 6. America First -- 7. Magnificent Losers -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Belmont Park (Elmont, N.Y.) -- History -- 20th century.
Belmont Park (Elmont, N.Y.)
History.
Chronological Term 20th century
Subject Zev (Horse), 1920-1943.
Papyrus (Horse), 1920-1941.
Sinclair, Harry F., 1876-1956.
Sinclair, Harry F., 1876-1956.
Papyrus (Horse), 1920-1941.
Zev (Horse), 1920-1943.
Horse racing -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
United States.
United States -- Social life and customs -- 1918-1945.
Manners and customs.
Chronological Term 1918-1945
Subject Horse racing.
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Sports.
Chronological Term 1900-1999
Genre/Form Electronic books.
Electronic books.
History.
Other Form: Print version: Nicholson, James C. Racing for America. Lexington : University Press of Kentucky, 2021 9780813180649 (DLC) 2020046387 (OCoLC)1157051453
ISBN 9780813180649 (electronic book)
0813180643 (electronic book)
9780813180663 (electronic book)
081318066X (electronic book)
9780813180656 (electronic book)
0813180651 (electronic book)
0813180643
Music No. EB00823101 Recorded Books