The Israelite House of David was founded in 1903, as a religious colony in Benton Harbor, Michigan. An entrepreneurial group of worshippers, the colony contribu

In 1903, Benjamin Purnell, a long-haired, bearded itinerant preacher, arrived in Benton Harbor. He and his wife, Mary, stepped out of their covered preacher's w

The Israelite House of David was founded in 1903, as a religious colony in Benton Harbor, Michigan. An entrepreneurial group of worshippers, the colony contribu

"A pennant-winning look at baseball at its purest." —Atlanta Journal & Constitution On the field with baseball classics like Men at Work and The Boys of Summe

After identifying early conflicts between churches and baseball in the late-nineteenth century, Price examines the appropriation of baseball by the House of Dav