Illinois Authors

Chronicling a century of highs and lows at Wrigley Field, George Will explores the home of the hapless Chicago Cubs in relation to his upbringing, the growth of Chicago, the history of baseball, and the nature of sports fandom.

Scribner, New York, NY : ©1998.

Contains over seventy essays by columnist George Will in which he tells stories of America's favorite pastime, and includes an examination of baseball's evolution through the twentieth century.

Examining the connection between baseball and our country's history, How Baseball Explains America is a fascinating, one-of-a-kind journey through the sport known as America's pastime. Longtime USA Today baseball columnist Hal Bodley explores just how essential baseball is to understanding the American experience. He takes readers into the Oval Office with George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton as the former presidents share their thoughts on the game, he contrasts the highs and lows of Pete Rose's journey with the ethical challenges that Americans face, and he looks at baseball's struggle with performance enhancing drugs alongside America's war on drugs. An unabashedly celebratory explanation of America's love affair with baseball and the men who make it possible, this work sheds light on topics such as the role Jackie Robinson's signing with the Dodgers played in the civil rights movement, how baseball's westward expansion mirrored the growth of our national economy, and the military lineage of such legends as Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. It is a must read for anyone interested in more fully understanding not only the game but also the nation in which it thrives.

Macmillan ; New York : ©1990.

Examines the elements of baseball by examining four men who are exemplars of the game's exacting craftsmanship.

Crown Forum, New York : 2008.

America's most widely read and most influential commentator casts his gimlet eye on our singular nation. Moving far beyond the strict confines of politics, George F. Will offers a fascinating look at the people, stories, and events--often unheralded--that make the American drama so endlessly entertaining and instructive. With Will's signature erudition and wry wit always on display, One Man's America chronicles a spectacular, eclectic procession of figures who have shaped our cultural landscape--from Playboy founder Hugh Hefner to National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr., from Victorian poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, from cotton picker--turned--country singer Buck Owens to actor-turned-president Ronald Reagan. Will crisscrosses the country to illuminate what it is that makes America distinctive. He visits the USS Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor and ponders its enduring links to the present. He travels to Milwaukee to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of an iconic brand, Harley-Davidson. In Los Angeles he finds the inspiring future of education, while in New York he confronts the dispiriting didacticism of the avant-garde. He ventures to the Civil War battlefields of Virginia to explore what we risk when we efface our own history. And on the outskirts of Chicago he investigates one of the darkest chapters in American history, only to discover a shining example of resilience and grace--the best the country has to offer.--From publisher description.

Free Press ; New York : ©1992.

The world's oldest democracy - ours - has an old tradition of skepticism about government. However, the degree of dismay about government today is perhaps unprecedented in our history. Americans are particularly convinced that Congress has become irresponsible, either unwilling or incapable of addressing the nation's problems - while it spends its time and our money on extending its members' careers. Many Americans have come to believe fundamental reform is needed, specifically limits on the number of terms legislators can serve. In Restoration, George Will makes a compelling case, drawn from our history and his close observance of Congress, that term limits are now necessary to revive the traditional values of classical republican government, to achieve the Founders' goal of deliberative democracy, and to restore Congress to competence and its rightful dignity as the First Branch of government. At stake, Will says, is the vitality of America's great promise self-government under representative institutions. At issue is the meaning of representation. The morality of representative government, Will argues, does not merely permit, it requires representatives to exercise independent judgment rather than merely execute instructions given by constituents. However, careerism, which is a consequence of the professionalization of politics, has made legislators servile and has made the national legislature incapable of rational, responsible behavior. Term limits would restore the constitutional space intended by the Founders, the healthy distance between the electors and the elected that is necessary for genuine deliberation about the public interest. Blending the political philosophy of the Founders with alarming facts about the behavior of legislative careerists, Restoration demonstrates how term limits, by altering the motives of legislators, can narrow the gap between the theory and the practice of American democracy.

Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London : 1984.

Free Press ; New York : ©1990.

The author discusses the triumph of American democratic ideals abroad, the failings of the budget and the President, and other topics.

Simon and Schuster, New York, N.Y. : 1988, ©1987.

Scribner, New York, NY : ©1997.

In this volume, Mr. Will, distinguished political columnist and cultural critic, examines many episodes of the conservatives' tribulations and the liberals' accommodations to the new political landscape. These writings present a map of the landscape, a guide for people perplexed by the gap between contemporary political theories and practices. Here are essays about the peculiar goings-on on campuses, where "rights"--Including a right to Chinese take-out food - multiply. Mr. Will is as pleased by the thirtieth anniversary of The Public Interest quarterly as he is appalled by the horrific new "sport" of "extreme fighting," which raises questions about the limits of permissible commerce. Here are snapshots of something trivial, the 1996 presidential campaign, that illustrated something momentous, the marginalization of the presidency. Mr. Will examines the achievements and misadventures of judicial activism, the writing of national standards for the teaching of history, and the West's response to genocide in the Balkans. But as always in Mr. Will's writings, there is time for the pure fun of life in a nation blessed with ESPN and Corvettes.

Free Press, New York : ©2002.

The columnist imparts his views on such topics as Whitewater, Monica Lewinsky, the impeachment trial of Clinton, the debate over partial-birth abortions, the 2000 election, baseball, and the deaths of his mentor and father.