Illinois Authors

Steven Allen Riess

Born: 1947 in New York, New York
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: Steven received his Ph. D. , at the University of Chicago and is a retired history professor, formerly the Bernard Brommel Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of History at Northeastern Illinois University. He currently lives in suburban Chicago.

Biography: In 1976, Steven Allen Riess joined the faculty at Northeastern. In addition to teaching the first half of the U.S. survey, he also teaches the History of American Sport, History of Chicago, American Ethnic History, and History of Crime and Violence. Along with the books that he has written, he has also edited, [http://www.amazon.com/Sports-America-Colonial-Twenty-First-Century/dp/0765617064/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420582356&sr=1-3&keywords=sports+in+america%2C+riess ''Sports in America from Colonial Times to the Twenty-First Century: An Encyclopedia''], [http://www.amazon.com/Companion-American-History-Blackwell-Companions/dp/0470656123/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420582356&sr=1-4&keywords=sports+in+america%2C+riess ''Companion to American Sport History ''], [http://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Sports-Reader-Years-Society/dp/025207615X/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420582356&sr=1-5&keywords=sports+in+america%2C+riess ''The Chicago Sports Reader: 100 Years of Sports in the Windy City'']and [http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Major-League-Baseball-volumes/dp/0313329915/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420582356&sr=1-8&keywords=sports+in+america%2C+riess ''Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball Clubs''.]

Primary Literary Genre(s): History; Non-Fiction

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Email: s-riess@neiu.edu
Website: http://blog.historians.org/2012/08/aha-member-spotlight-steven-a-riess/
Steven Allen Riess on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=steven+allen+riess

Selected Titles

	City games : ISBN: 0252062167 OCLC: 23739530 University of Illinois Press, Urbana : 1991, ©1989.
	Major problems in American sport history : ISBN: 0669353809 OCLC: 36655779 Houghton Mifflin, Boston : ©1997.
	Sport in industrial America, 1850-1920 / ISBN: 0882959166 OCLC: 31515705 Harlan Davidson, Wheeling, Ill. : ©1995.
	The American sporting experience : ISBN: 0880112107 OCLC: 10696848 Leisure Press, New York : ©1984.
	The sport of kings and the kings of crime : ISBN: 081560985x OCLC: 785782990 Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, N.Y. : ©2011. "Riess narrates the history of horse racing, detailing how and why New York became the national capital of the sport from the mid-1860s until the early twentieth century. The sport's survival depended upon the racetrack being the nexus between politicians and organized crime. The powerful alliance between urban machine politics and track owners enabled racing in New York to flourish. Gambling, the heart of racing's appeal, made the sport morally suspect. Yet democratic politicians protected the sport, helping to establish the State Racing Commission, the first state agency to regulate sport in the United States. At the same time, racetracks became a key connection between the underworld and Tammany Hall, enabling illegal poolrooms and off-course bookies to operate. Organized crime worked in close cooperation with machine politicians and local police officers to protect these illegal operations. In The Sport of Kings and the Kings of Crime, Riess fills a long-neglected gap in sports history, offering a richly detailed and fascinating chronicle of thoroughbred racing's heyday."
	Touching base : ISBN: 0252067754 OCLC: 39962525 University of Illinois Press, Urbana : ©1999.