ISBN:
9780198208334
,
0198208332
Language:
English
Pages:
xiv, 391 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates
,
illustrations (some color)
,
24 cm
Edition:
First edition
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als Colls, Robert, 1949 - This Sporting Life
DDC:
306.4/83
Keywords:
Sports Political aspects
;
Sports Social aspects
;
Liberty History
;
Sports History
;
Sports Social aspects
;
History
;
Sports Political aspects
;
History
;
Sports and state History
;
Liberty
;
Sports and state
;
Sports ; Political aspects
;
Sports ; Social aspects
;
History
;
England
;
Großbritannien
;
Freiheit der Person
;
Sportliche Aktivität
;
Sportspiel
;
Geschichte 1760-1960
Abstract:
In 'This Sporting Life', Robert Colls explains sport as one of England's great civil cultures. The lived experiences of people from all walks of life are reclaimed to tell England's history through its great sporting cultures, from the horseback pursuits of the wealthy and politically connected, to the street games in working-class neighbourhoods which needed nothing but a ball. It observes people at play, describes how they felt and thought, carries the reader along to a match or a hunt or a fight, draws out the sounds and smells of humans and animals, showing that sport has been as important in defining British culture as gender, politics, education, class, and religion
Abstract:
"This is a history of sport as one of England's great civil cultures. It addresses 'sports' as athletic competitions, 'sport' as fun and games and showing off, and sporting occasions as a mixture of both. The subject does not lend itself to simple definitions, and the book does not try to impose any. By and large, it takes sport as it found it in the lives of the people. Drawing on a wide range of sources, from oil paintings to handbills, from the criminal to the constitutional, all the chapters begin with a 'thick' description of a sporting event before spreading the net to bring in the longer history, and meaning, of the sport in question. No one ever doubted that there was more to sport than sport itself. Prize-fighting and riding found particular favour with the army, cricket and rowing with the public schools, hockey and lacrosse with the education of middle-class girls, scarves and colours with the part sport played in the invention of the modern university. Above all, sport in England was recognized as liberty, the physical freedom to be. Of course, sport was not liberty's only expression. There was always politics. Puritans fought a civil war for liberty and saw sport as a snare and a sin. For the first 100 years of this book, Methodists (and not only them) saw sportsmen as creatures of greed and corruption. This Sporting Life tries to show the reader some part of what it was like to be alive, and feel alive, rich and poor, men and women, young and old, in England, between 1760 and 1960"--
Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index
Permalink
