Description
Book SynopsisHow the city's marginalized communities have historically used sports as a tool for resilience and resistanceTo cities, sports have never been just entertainment. Progressive urbanites across the United States have used athletics to address persistent problems in city life: the fights for racial justice, workers' rights, equality for women and LGBTQ+ city dwellers, and environmental conservation. In Seattle, sports initiatives have powered meaningful reforms, such as popular stadium projects that promoted investments in public housing and mass transit. At the same time, conservative forces also used sports to consolidate their power and mobilize against the civic good. In Heartbreak City Shaun Scott takes the reader through 170 years of Seattle history, chronicling both well-known and long-forgotten events, like the establishment of racially segregated golf courses and neighborhoods in the regressive 1920s and the 1987 Seahawks players' strike that galvanized organized labor. At every
Trade Review"Shaun Scott’s Heartbreak City unfolds like a baseball game. First through its structure: divided chronologically, recounting a people’s history of Seattle into nine innings—and some extra bits—corresponding to key eras between the start of white settlement and today. Then through a vibrant array of characters shaping how history unfolds: divulging their shared hopes, committing errors, moving through losses, rallying. Heartbreak City is as much about casting a light on keystone, bygone sports dynasties. . . . as it is about questioning Seattle’s teams, champions, and projects the city rallies behind."
* The Stranger *
