How I Learned to Love Baseball and American History, In That Order

Lecture

The Baker Museum Lecture Series
How I Learned to Love Baseball and American History, In That Order

Jonathan Eig, author

Bestselling author Jonathan Eig shares how baseball can help us better understand American history. Eig will describe how his groundbreaking biography of Lou Gehrig changed our understanding of what it means to be an American hero; how he earned the trust of Jackie Robinson’s wife in writing an intimate portrait of Robinson’s first season in major league baseball; and how baseball helps us better understand almost every facet of American life, including race, immigration, business and popular culture.

This presentation is part of the exhibition Baseball Heroes: Works from the Jay H. Baker Collection.

A professionally administered negative COVID-19 rapid antigen or PCR test, along with a valid matching photo ID, is required for all visitors 12 and older. In lieu of a negative COVID-19 test, voluntary proof of being fully vaccinated against COVID-19, along with a valid matching photo ID, may be presented. Masks are encouraged, and they are required for children between the ages of 2 and 11 unless a negative COVID-19 test or voluntary proof of being fully vaccinated (for children ages 5-11 eligible for vaccination) is presented on their behalf. Certain artists and ensembles may require masks. For more information, please visit our COVID-19 Protocols.

Jonathan Eig

Jonathan Eig

Ken Burns calls Jonathan Eig a “master storyteller.” Joyce Carol Oates calls his book Ali: A Life “an epic of a biography.”

Eig is the author of five books, three of them New York Times best sellers. His first book, Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, won the 2005 Casey Award for best baseball book of the year. Ali won the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Ali was named best book of the year by Sports Illustrated, one of the 10 best nonfiction books of the year by The Wall Street Journal and one of the New York Times’ notable books of 2018. Esquire magazine called Ali one of the 35 best sports books ever written. The book won best biography and best overall book in the British Sports Book Awards. It also won the award for best biography or memoir from the Society of Midland Authors. It was a finalist for the Mark Lynton History Prize, the Plutarch Award, the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, the James Tait Black Prize for best biography, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography and an NAACP Image Award.

Eig served as consulting producer on Muhammad Ali, a four-part PBS documentary directed by Ken Burns. His next book will be a biography of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Program Information

Program Information

View this month's program book to get general information about Artis—Naples and to read articles about this month’s activities. View the program insert* for specific information about this event.

  Program Book

* Program inserts will be available online approximately ten days prior to the event.