Skip to main content

Allen Barra

Allen Barra is a sports journalist who writes regularly for The Wall Street Journal. He formerly served as an editor for American Heritage, where he wrote about 20th century sports and popular culture. His 2009 book, Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee, was followed by Rickwood Field: A Century in America's Oldest Ballpark in 2010.

Articles by this Author

Geoffrey C. Ward's New History of World War II
Gene Wilder discusses his new World War I adventure
Why 1848?, February/March 2007 | Vol. 58, No. 1
Kurt Andersen gives a neglected year its due
Robert Altman
Just as the year changed the nation, so its World Series changed American sports
In 1964 the most popular movie star in America held a license to kill from the British government
The creator of the immensely popular new Western discusses what makes it truly new.
Grim Reapings, June/July 2006 | Vol. 57, No. 3
The classic that seeped into "Deadwood"—and many other Westerns.
What does the only Western on television today have in common with the most popular TV Western ever?
Act One, February/March 2006 | Vol. 57, No. 1
All the President’s Movies
A spectacular and painstaking PBS series brings the war to the screen
10 films that helped shape a generation
Football Coach, October 2005 | Vol. 56, No. 5
Dashiell Hammett
The Hidden Brando
Slavery Televised
Screenings, June/July 2004 | Vol. 55, No. 3
And starring Pancho Villa as himself
Screenings, April/May 2004 | Vol. 55, No. 2
My Darling Clementine
The Fifty Biggest Changes in the Last Fifty Years
Gods and Generals
Frontiersman, October 2003 | Vol. 54, No. 5
Screening, June/July 2003 | Vol. 54, No. 3
The San Patricios
Film Director, September 2001 | Vol. 52, No. 6
Show Business, June 2001 | Vol. 52, No. 4
A critic looks at 10 movies that show how Americans work together.
Gangster, May/June 1999 | Vol. 50, No. 3
From law officer to murderer to Hollywood consultant: the strange career of a man who became myth

"WEB ONLY STORIES" BY THIS CONTRIBUTOR

Hank Williams was the last echo of the barbaric yawp from Walt Whitman’s America. In just five short years, from 1948 to his death in the backseat of a car on the way to a concert on January 1, 1953, he recorded 66 songs, most of them his own compositions, many of which can still be heard on radio…