Sport in History: An Introduction

`An excellent book covering all the key themes and well grounded in the literature surrounding the topic. The writing is clear, lively and accessible and the use of case studies is innovative and effective'.---Martin Johnes, Senior Lecturer in History, Swansea University, UK

What do we understand by the word `sport'? How has the phenomenon of sport come about? How have historians attempted to explain its development?

This introductory text grapples with these questions, offering a thematic review of the historical development of sport. The book examines the subject on a global scale, exploring the relationship between sport history and topics such as modernization, globalization, identity, gender and the media. Informed by the latest research, the book provides students with a variety of ways into the topic through case studies, key issues, questions and suggested further reading sections. Ideal for those approaching the subject for the first time, Sport in History offers wideranging insights on the place of sport in modern society and provides methodological tools for thinking about sport from a historical perspective.

Jeffrey Hill is Emeritus Professor of Historical and Cultural Studies at De Montfort University UK, where he teaches on the FIFA International MA in the Management, Law and Humanities of Sport. He has published books and articles on both sport and popular politics, including Sport, Leisure and Culture in Twentieth-Century Britain (2002) and Sport and the Literary Imagination (2006).