The Progressive Era, a time of transition and technological advancement, involves the separation of America by a white upper class society and a lower class of immigrants. The American Dream lingers in minds of lower class society -- the idea that hard work and morality yields material success and happiness; it means hope, happiness, and security are truly possible. Roger Kahn, author of The Boys of Summer, who covers a team for the New York Herald Tribune, chronicles the dreams and adventures of their young lives, making it comfortable to identify with his heroes. The team, of course, is the mid-20th-century legendary Brooklyn Dodgers, the group of Robinson, Snyder, Hodges, and Reese. It is a team of great triumph whose tenuous lives are filled with dignity and pathos. Of all notorious Dodger ball players, none seems as able as Jackie Robinson to trample the thorns of life...