Episode 88 of the Tennis Abstract Podcast welcomes David Berry, author of the book A People’s History of Tennis.
The conversation, like his book, spans the entire history of tennis, with a particular focus on the ways in which the sport isn’t conservative at all. As Berry explains, women were a crucial part of lawn tennis from the very beginning, and a key decision in the game’s first decade ensured that the men’s and women’s games would remain intertwined. We also discuss the role of the local tennis club, the importance of public parks tennis around the world, and the fascinating yet mostly forgotten years of “Worker’s Wimbledon.”
It’s been a good year for tennis books, and of the ones I’ve read, Berry’s book is the best. The scope is ambitious, and I guarantee you will discover corners of the sport’s history you didn’t know anything about. Yet it’s a concise, quick read. Check it out!
Fans of the TA podcast will also want to check out Dangerous Exponents, the new Covid-19 podcast that Carl Bialik and I are doing. We released episode 4, about the virus in schools, earlier this week.
(Note: this week’s episode is about 60 minutes long; in some browsers the audio player may display a different length. Sorry about that!)
Click to listen, subscribe on iTunes, or use our feed to get updates on your favorite podcast software.