People of Prowess: Sport, Leisure and Labor in Early Anglo-America.

In this work, which is part of the publisher's Sport and Society series, the author attempts a sophisticated study of changing patterns of sport, leisure and labor in colonial society, focusing particularly on Massachusetts and the Chesapeake area. The sophistication is rooted in the author's insistence on the interconnectedness of labor and leisure and the wide range of social, economic and political influences that drive change in each over the two hundred years under consideration here. Interwoven into the analysis of changing cultural practices in Anglo-North America is an evaluation of similarities to, and differences from, contemporary English ways. Though the primary focus is on Anglo-American males, the author does not ignore practices among women, native Americans and African Americans.

Struna argues that one factor in the vulnerability of early colonization, particularly in the Chesapeake area, was the way in which migrants brought "leisure preferences" from an English society of chronic under-employment where they had enjoyed frequent opportunities, formal and informal, for relaxation and rest from labor. At least in part out of necessity, more restrained and restricted patterns of leisure developed. Such a trend was advanced by the changing nature of the settler population and the efforts of colonial legislatures to regulate against excess and idleness. A new work order was established alongside a strict Sabbatarianism. The conflict between old ways and the new order was particularly evident in the Chesapeake and, in Struna's opinion, paralleled the struggle going on in England.

By mid-seventeenth century, as the colonies were "able to sustain themselves economically and demographically," (p. 57) a popular culture of leisure was remade along class lines with genteel and vernacular forms. By the end of the century, "differentiation by rank in sporting contests had become stark." (p. 105) Such distinctions were not only a reflection of the colonists' English heritage but also, "of everyday boundary making that shaped and ordered ordinary life." (p. 95) According to Struna the elite style of recreation emphasized exclusiveness, orderliness and fair play while still placing value on physical displays of prowess. Her assertion that such a culture of leisure was linked "to a broader and long-running sporting style of the British gentlemen" (p. 111) involves something of a premature anticipation of the Victorian era.

Particularly among the colonial elite, the eighteenth century was marked by both diversification and commercialization of leisure. There also developed a broadening sense that properly ordered leisure could in fact be an agent of individual and social improvement. Though its principal foundations were set in improvement of the mind, this appreciation could also extend to physical recreation. Struna devotes considerable attention to the tavern as the locus of a contrasting and burgeoning vernacular culture of leisure, generally less restrained than that of the elite, and certainly less likely to be endowed with virtues of improvement. There was also less uniformity, with localism more clearly marking the vernacular culture of leisure. Throughout the century, and in many ways not simply determined by climate, the United States, in terms of its leisure practices, "remained a land of multiple styles." (p. 193)

From her first chapter, "Sport in the Old World," Struna takes considerable pains to attend to both the persistence of an English influence and its erosion by the distinct experiences and circumstances of colonial America; a story of transmission and adaptation. Interestingly, she demonstrates that there was not a simple evolution through which the ways of the old world were steadily replaced by those of the new. An example of revived "Englishness" occurs within the elite sporting culture of the eighteenth century when quarter-mile racing, earlier necessitated by the inferior breeding of local stock, was rivalled by thoroughbred racing as it became possible to import superior horses from England. Further, the development of commercialized leisure was often paralleled by the adoption of English or European fashions. Within the vernacular culture the often disorderly leisure styles of contemporary England were duplicated but the specific forms of leisure activity were more likely to diverge, becoming more distinctly American.

The almost sixty pages of endnotes bear full witness to the thoroughly scholarly foundations of this study which draws on a wide range of original and secondary sources. There are certainly more diverse materials employed here than in the most recent comparable study, Bruce Daniels, Puritans at Play: Leisure and Recreation in Colonial New England. This particular strength of People of Prowess relates to an occasionally occurring problematic of the work. The story that Struna has to tell is complex. Within it she is attempting to maintain a number of intertwining analytical themes. The task of carrying the reader with her through the complexities of the subject matter is formidable. Much of the time, the author is successful in this endeavor. There are, however, times when clarity becomes the victim of the effort to maintain both the detail of description and the various analytical themes. People of Prowess is not always an easy read.

The effort to relate colonial history to the contemporary society in England contributes depth to this study. Unfortunately it also creates a problem in that the author's familiarity with the English background does not match her mastery of colonial history. The consequence is a number of errors of geography and chronology. While none of these directly bears upon the author's essential analysis they do diminish her credibility in the mind of the reader.

Some such minor misgivings notwithstanding, the claim of one of the series' editors that People of Prowess will be recognized as, "the history of 'sports' for this era of American history," is valid and is likely to remain so for some time to come.

Norman Baker SUNY Buffalo