A Sport-Loving Society Victorian and Edwardian Middle Class England at Play

In a time of unprecedented political and economic transformation, the middle classes of Victorian and Edwardian England became principal players in a new social order. Nowhere did their culture, values and identity gain clearer expression than in their sports, and their influence is still felt in the way we organise, play and think of sport today. A Sport-Loving Society presents a selection of groundbreaking essays from the journals which have defined sport history over the past three decades. These essays explore the role of the social institutions and issues of the Victorian and Edwardian periods in shaping the sports of the English middle classes, including: education the emancipation of women religion culture and class diplomacy and war. Showcasing the work of prominent sport historians, this book demonstrates the value of sport as a vehicle for the study of wider social change.

Introduction, J.A. Mangan; Prologue: setting the scene, Mike Huggins; Part 1 Sport and schools; Chapter 1 The other side of the coin, J.A. Mangan, Callum McKenzie; Chapter 2 English elementary education revisited and revised, J.A. Mangan, Colm Hickey; Part 2 Sport, universities and colleges; Chapter 3 ‘Oars and the man’, J.A. Mangan; Chapter 4 Athleticism in the service of the proletariat, J.A. Mangan, Colm Hickey; Part 3 Sport and emancipation; Chapter 5 The social construction of Victorian femininity, J. A. Mangan; Chapter 6 The “lady blue’, Kathleen E. McCrone; Part 4 Sport and religion; Chapter 7 Sport and the Victorian Sunday, John Lowerson; Chapter 8 To pray or to play?, J. Baker William; Part 5 Sport and recreation; Chapter 9 Culture, class and respectability, Mike Huggins; Chapter 10 Of pride and prejudice, Eric Halladay; Part 6 VI Sport, war and diplomacy; Chapter 11 ‘No business of ours’?, Martin Polley; Chapter 12 Sportsmen and the deadly game, Derek Birley; Epilogue: rounding things off, John Lowerson; Index;

Professor J.A. Mangan is former Director of the International Research Centre for Sport, Socialisation and Society at the University of Strathclyde, UK. He was founding Chairman of the British Society of Sports History and founding editor of The International Journal of the History of Sport. He is author of the acclaimed Athleticism and the Victorian and Edwardian Public School and has written and lectured extensively on sport, culture and society