Covering a time of great social and technological change, this history traces the development of the four classic aquatic disciplines of competitive swimming, diving, synchronized swimming and water polo, with its main focus on racing. Working from the beginnings of municipal recreational swimming, the book fully explores the links between swimming and other aspects of English life society including class, education, gender, municipal governance, sexuality and the Victorian invention of the sports amateur-professional divide. Uniquely focused on swimming -often neglected in analytic sports histories- this is the first study of its kind and will be an important landmark in the establishment of swimming history as a topic of scholarly investigation. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

Covering a time of great social and technological change, this history traces the development of the four classic aquatic disciplines of competitive swimming, diving, synchronized swimming and water polo, with its main focus on racing. Working from the beginnings of municipal recreational swimming, the book fully explores the links between swimming and other aspects of English life society including class, education, gender, municipal governance, sexuality and the Victorian invention of the sports amateur-professional divide. Uniquely focused on swimming -often neglected in analytic sports histories- this is the first study of its kind and will be an important landmark in the establishment of swimming history as a topic of scholarly investigation. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

London hosted the Olympic Games for the third time in 2012, a mega-event where the political, economic and social expectations could hardly be compared with the previous London Games of 1908 and 1948. In addition, the Olympic Games went back to Europe in 2012 after a long period where (apart from Athens in 2004) they were held by cities in other continents. In London, the world watched the Games. Continental Europe, however, generated a particular attitude based on the special relations it had developed historically with England. At the crossing point of history, cultural studies and geopolitics, this book provides new insights on the significance of the Olympic Games. It considers that the Games are the right window to look at both the past and the current relations between England and its closest continental neighbours. It will be ideal for students and academics working in sport sciences, cultural history, political science and European studies; amateur and professional sports historians; Olympic followers and experts in Olympic studies. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

What could be better than diving into cool water on a hot day? In this enormously enjoyable and informative history of swimming, Eric Chaline sums up this most summery of moments with one phrase: pleasure beckons at the water’s edge. Strokes of Genius traces the history of swimming from the first civilizations to its current worldwide popularity as a sport, fitness pastime, and leisure activity. Chaline explores swimming’s role in ritual, early trade and manufacturing, warfare, and medicine, before describing its transformation in the early modern period into a leisure activity and a competitive sport—the necessary precursors that have made it the most common physical pastime in the developed world. The book celebrates the physicality and sensuality of swimming—attributes that Chaline argues could have contributed to the evolution of the human species. Swimming, like other disciplines that use repetitive movements to train the body and quiet the mind, is also a means of spiritual awakening—a personal journey of discovery. Swimming has attained the status of a cultural marker, denoting eroticism, leisure, endurance, adventure, exploration, and excellence. Strokes of Genius shows that there is not a single story of human swimming, but many currents that merge, diverge, and remerge. Chaline argues that swimming will become particularly important as we look toward a warmer future in which our survival may depend on our ability to adapt to life in an aquatic world.

Danish sport has been associated with Europe and the World; not least through I.P. Muller and Niels Bukh and the Danish Gymnastics revolution with its emphasis on male aesthetics and hygiene in the first half of the twentieth century. At the same time, Denmark has stood apart from Europe in the early moments of its history of sport with the rural revolution of the farming communities as a statement of political independence and assertion. However, during the German occupation of Denmark, Danish sport was part of a European collaboration which characterized a number of the occupied countries not least in the Nordic area. After the Second World War, Denmark embraced international body cultures with other European nations in particular Eastern martial arts. Denmark too, as part of trends in the European region and the world, became caught up in sport as a powerful contemporary political statement. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

Globalization is effecting a close convergence of sport and foreign policy. In order to respond to novel social, political, cultural and economic pressures, states are increasingly turning to sport as a foreign policy instrument; and they cannot ignore the corresponding influence that global sport has on their core interests. This book is devoted to exploring this relationship in detail. Although any examination of sport and foreign policy inevitably focuses on issues related to both politics and international relations, the primary intention here is to consider the dimensions associated with foreign policy. This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in Society.