A discussion of Michael A. Messner's new book, The High School: Sports, Spirit, and Citizens, 1903-2024 (Rutgers University Press, 2025). The author will be joined in conversation by CJ Pascoe (University of Oregon) and Jeffrey Montez de Oca (University of Colorado, Colorado Springs), moderated by Alice Echols (USC). Organized in partnership with the Department of Sociology and the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies. Registration is required. REGISTER HERE

About the Book: High school yearbooks provide both a vivid snapshot of student life and a reflection of what the adults in the community valued the most. For instance, athletics are often covered more than academics, and boys’ sports routinely receive more attention than girls’ sports. But how have those values changed over time?
 
In The High School, acclaimed sociologist Michael A. Messner reads through 120 years of El Gabilan, the yearbook from his own alma mater, Salinas High School in California, where his father taught and coached. Treating the yearbooks as a historical archive, Messner makes surprising discoveries about the school he thought he knew so well. For example, over fifty years before Title IX, the earliest yearbooks gave equal spotlights to boys’ and girls’ athletics, while the cheerleaders were all boys.
 
Tracing American life and culture from 1903 to 2024, Messner illuminates shifts in social practices at his high school that reflect broader changes in American culture across the twentieth century. The High School spotlights how the meanings and iconography of certain activities have changed radically over the decades, even as the “sports spirit complex”—involving athletes, cheerleaders, band members, and community boosters—has remained a central part of the high school experience. By exploring evolving sports cultures, socioeconomic conditions, racial demographics, and gender norms, Messner offers a fresh perspective on a defining feature of American teenage life.

About the Author: Michael A. Messner is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California. He is the author of such works as Power at Play and Taking the Field. This is his twentieth book.

Open to attendants outside of USC. An excerpt of the book will be made available to registered attendants. Registration before the event is required. 

This event is part of the Levan Institute for the Humanities' “Book Chats” series, conversations about new books published by USC scholars in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. To see more events in this series, including recordings of past events, visit https://dornsife.usc.edu/levan-institute/book-chats/.