Table of Contents

List of Plates; Abbreviations; Introduction; I. OLD WAYS OF PLAYING; 1. Before the Victorians; 2. Cruelty and Sloth: The Abolitionists; 3. Field Sports and the Decline of Paternalism; 4. Survival and Adaptation; II. AMATEURISM AND THE VICTORIANS; 1. Public Schools; 2. The Body in Victorian Culture; 3. The Age of the `Gentleman Amateur'; 4. Female Sport and Suburbia; III. LIVING IN THE CITY: WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITIES; 1. Rational Recreation; 2. The Life of the
Street; 3. Spectating and Civic Pride; 4. Gambling, Animals, and Pub Sports; 5. Flight from the City; IV. EMPIRE AND NATIONS; 1. Colonial Elites; 2. The Imperial Idea and `Native' Sport; 3. Dominian
Culture and the `Mother Country'; 4. Celtic Nationalism: Ireland, Wales, and Scotland; 5. Enlishness and Britishness; V. COMMERCIALISM AND VIOLENCE; 1. Shareholders and Professionals; 2. Press, Television, and Profit; 3. Hooligans; VI. CONCLUSION; Appendix; Bibliography; Index.

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About the Author

Richard Holt was Lecturer in History at the University of Stirling.

Reviews

Rightly lauded in hardback a year ago, this affordable paperback edition places sport within the context not just of British history but of the people's history. Independent this is an outstanding history of sport's social role in nineteenth and twentieth-century Britain ... everyone can learn from Holt's approach to sports history Economic History Review an ideal introductory text ... The range and richness of the subjects are inviting to historians, and Holt supplies us with an indispensable vade-mecum. English Historical Review