Chronicles how sporting traditions in Britain were shaped and how they in turn contributed to the shaping of British social conventions. Tracing sporting history from its origins, this book emphasizes how sport served different functions from the modern notion of a leisure-time relief from work.

This lively and stimulating book looks at some of the myths and realities surrounding Britain's legendary enthusiasm for sport; and aims to chronicle how sporting traditions were shaped and how they, in turn, contributed to the shaping of British social conventions and attitudes.

This lively and deeply researched history - the first of its kind - goes beyond the great names and moments to explain how British sport has changed since 1800, and what it has meant to ordinary people. It shows how the way we play reflects not just our lives as citizens of a predominantlyurban and industrial world, but what is especially distinctive about British sport. Innovators in abandoning traditional, often brutal sports, and in establishing a code of `fair play', the British were also pioneers in popular sports and in the promotion of organized spectator events.Modern media coverage of sport, gambling, violence and attitudes towards it, nationalism, and the role of sport in sustaining male identity are also explored, and the book is rich in illuminating and entertaining anecdotes, which it combines with a serious historical understanding of a fascinatingsubject.

WINNER of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2015 In the last two decades football in Britain has made the transition from a peripheral dying sport to the very centre of our popular culture, from an economic basket-case to a booming entertainment industry. What does it mean when football becomes so central to our private and political lives? Has it enriched us or impoverished us? In this sparkling book David Goldblatt argues that no social phenomenon tracks the momentous economic, social and political changes of the post-Thatcherite era in a more illuminating manner than football, and no cultural practice sheds more light on the aspirations and attitudes of our long boom and now calamitous bust. A must-read for the thinking football fan, The Game of Our Lives will appeal to readers of Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby and Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson. It will also be relished by readers of British social history such as Austerity Britain by David Kynaston. 'Brilliantly incisive. Goldblatt is not merely the best football historian writing today, he is possibly the best there has ever been. Goldblatt's book could hardly be more impressive' Sunday Times

Many of the sports that have spread across the world, from athletics and boxing to golf and tennis, had their origins in nineteenth-century Britain. They were exported around the world by the British Empire, and Britain's influence in the world led to many of its sports being adopted in other countries. (Americans, however, liked to show their independence by rejecting cricket for baseball.) The Victorians and Sport is a highly readable account of the role sport played in both Victorian Britain and its empire. Major sports attracted mass followings and were widely reported in the press. Great sporting celebrities, such as the cricketer Dr W.G. Grace, were the best-known people in the country, and sporting rivalries provoked strong loyalties and passionate emotions. Mike Huggins provides fascinating details of individual sports and sportsmen. He also shows how sport was an important part of society and of many people's lives.

This book examines the complex transformation of British sport in the second half of the twentieth century. Focusing on the key role of the media as a driving force for change, it also provides a fascinating account of the wider social and cultural history of post-war British sport.

In this volume, which was originally published in 1989, nine distinguished historians look at the origins, growth and organisation of the major mass-participation sports in Britain. They combine academic expertise with the enthusiasm of the true sports devotee in considering such vital issues as the social background of players and spectators, gambling, public popularity, media coverage and the impact of television, professionalisation and of course the age-old divide between 'gentlemen' and 'players'. Richly illustrated with rarely seen period photographs, the ten essays combine academic research with entertaining anecdotal evidence derived from the folklore of each game. Of interest both to the student of modern British history and serious sports fans everywhere Sport in Britain: A Social History is a fascinating and wide-ranging contribution to its subject.