The Beginnings of a Commercial Sporting Culture in Britain, 1793-1850
The Beginnings of a Commercial Sporting Culture in Britain, 1793-1850

Author: Adrian Harvey

Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13:

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Many historians have described early industrial Britain as a bleak age where the masses possessed little time, energy or money to devote to sport. Adrian Harvey reveals a very different picture of Britain at this time to show a rich, diverse and commercial sporting culture accessible to almost everyone. Far from being tied to a recreational calendar that was dependent upon established, traditional holidays, sporting events occurred within their own leisure timetable. Indeed, by the 1840s, it was common for sporting events to be conducted on a regular basis every week. sport had the capacity to capture the public's imagination, and the importance of the spectating audience transformed the staging of events into a major source of revenue. The increasing amount of money involved in sport created a situation in which the participants were often unable to regulate and administer activity, especially as they were confronted with instances of substantial corruption and fraud. The public perception of activity in many sports changed dramatically, with the existence of professionals expanding and the social elite withdrawing from the various roles that they had previously performed as organizers, supervisors and competitors. half of the 19th century that is based upon sporting periodicals, newspapers and sporting archives. Harvey depicts a society that is not suffering from a severe attack on recreations by commerce, industry and government, but one in which the principal problems experienced stemmed from criminal activity. As such, this book provides a revision of many misconceptions about the early history of sport in Britain.

The Beginnings of a Commercial Sporting Culture in Britain, 1793–1850
The Beginnings of a Commercial Sporting Culture in Britain, 1793–1850

Author: Mr Adrian Harvey

Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

Published: 2013-06-28

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 1409479528

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Many historians have described early industrial Britain as a 'bleak age' where the masses possessed little time, energy or money to devote to sport. Adrian Harvey reveals a very different picture of Britain at this time to show a rich, diverse and commercial sporting culture accessible to almost everyone. Far from being tied to a recreational calendar that was dependent upon established, traditional holidays, sporting events occurred within their own leisure timetable. Indeed, by the 1840s, it was common for sporting events to be conducted on a regular basis every week. Harvey demonstrates how newspapers and periodicals began to recognize that sport had the capacity to capture the public's imagination, and the importance of the spectating audience transformed the staging of events into a major source of revenue. The increasing amount of money involved in sport created a situation in which the participants were often unable to regulate and administer activity, especially as they were confronted with instances of substantial corruption and fraud. The public perception of activity in many sports changed dramatically, with the existence of professionals expanding and the social elite withdrawing from the various roles that they had previously performed as organizers, supervisors and competitors. This is the first in-depth study of sporting culture in Britain during the first half of the nineteenth century that is based upon sporting periodicals, newspapers and sporting archives. Harvey depicts a society that is not suffering from a severe attack on recreations by commerce, industry and government, but one in which the principal problems experienced stemmed from criminal activity. As such, this book provides a much-needed revision of many misconceptions about the early history of sport in Britain.

British Sporting Literature and Culture in the Long Eighteenth Century
British Sporting Literature and Culture in the Long Eighteenth Century

Author: Sharon Harrow

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-03-09

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 1317171438

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Sport as it is largely understood today was invented during the long eighteenth century when the modern rules of sport were codified; sport emerged as a business, a spectacle, and a performance; and gaming organized itself around sporting culture. Examining the underexplored intersection of sport, literature, and culture, this collection situates sport within multiple contexts, including religion, labor, leisure time, politics, nationalism, gender, play, and science. A poetics, literature, and culture of sport swelled during the era, influencing artists such as John Collett and writers including Lord Byron, Jonathan Swift, and Henry Fielding. This volume brings together literary scholars and historians of sport to demonstrate the ubiquity of sport to eighteenth-century life, the variety of literary and cultural representations of sporting experiences, and the evolution of sport from rural pastimes to organized, regular events of national and international importance. Each essay offers in-depth readings of both material practices and representations of sport as they relate to, among other subjects, recreational sports, the Cotswold games, clothing, women archers, tennis, celebrity athletes, and the theatricality of boxing. Taken together, the essays in this collection offer valuable multiple perspectives on reading sport during the century when sport became modern.

Sport and Ireland
Sport and Ireland

Author: Paul Rouse

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2015-10-08

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 0191063037

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This is the first history of sport in Ireland, locating the history of sport within Irish political, social, and cultural history, and within the global history of sport. Sport and Ireland demonstrates that there are aspects of Ireland's sporting history that are uniquely Irish and are defined by the peculiarities of life on a small island on the edge of Europe. What is equally apparent, though, is that the Irish sporting world is unique only in part; much of the history of Irish sport is a shared history with that of other societies. Drawing on an unparalleled range of sources - government archives, sporting institutions, private collections, and more than sixty local, national, and international newspapers - this volume offers a unique insight into the history of the British Empire in Ireland and examines the impact that political partition has had on the organization of sport there. Paul Rouse assesses the relationship between sport and national identity, how sport influences policy-making in modern states, and the ways in which sport has been colonized by the media and has colonized it in turn. Each chapter of Sport and Ireland contains new research on the place of sport in Irish life: the playing of hurling matches in London in the eighteenth century, the growth of cricket to become the most important sport in early Victorian Ireland, and the enlistment of thousands of members of the Gaelic Athletic Association as soldiers in the British Army during the Great War. Rouse draws out the significance of animals to the Irish sporting tradition, from the role of horse and dogs in racing and hunting, to the cocks, bulls, and bears that were involved in fighting and baiting.

The Birth of Industrial Britain
The Birth of Industrial Britain

Author: Kenneth Morgan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-11-14

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 1317862104

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The Industrial Revolution had a profound and lasting effect on socioeconomic and cultural conditions in Britain. The Birth of Industrial Britain examines the impact of early industrialisation on British society in the century before 1850, coinciding with Britain’s transition from a late pre-industrial economy to one based on industrialisation and urbanisation. This fully revised and updated second edition provides a comprehensive range of pedagogical material to support the text, including a Glossary of terms, people and parliamentary acts, new primary source documents and a brand new Chronology and ‘Who’s Who’ section. The Birth of Industrial Britain provides an essential up-to-date synthesis of the impact of the Industrial Revolution on British society for students at all levels.

Wrestling in Britain
Wrestling in Britain

Author: Benjamin Litherland

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-03-09

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 1351180428

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At the intersection of sport, entertainment and performance, wrestling occupies a unique position in British popular culture. This is the first book to offer a detailed historical and cultural analysis of British professional wrestling, exploring the shifting popularity of the sport as well as its wider social significance. Arguing that the history of professional wrestling can help us understand key themes in sport, culture and performance that span the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it addresses topics such as: attitudes towards violence, representations of masculinity, the media and celebrity culture, consumerism and globalisation. By drawing on a variety of intellectual traditions and disciplines, the book explores the role of power in the development of popular cultural forms, the ways in which history structures the present, and the manner in which audiences construct identity and meaning through sport. Wrestling in Britain: Sporting Entertainments, Celebrity and Audiences is fascinating reading for all students and researchers with an interest in media and cultural studies, histories and sociologies of sport, or performance studies.

The Victorians and Sport
The Victorians and Sport

Author: Mike Huggins

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2004-12-17

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 9781852854157

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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.

A History of Leisure
A History of Leisure

Author: Peter Borsay

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2006-02-27

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 0230214134

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Leisure is a key aspect of modern living. How did our ancestors experience recreation in the past, and how does this relate to the present? To answer these questions, Peter Borsay examines the history of leisure in Britain over the past 500 years, analysing elements of both continuity and change. A History of Leisure - Explores a range of pastimes, from festive culture and music to tourism and sport - Emphasises a conceptual and critical approach, rather than a simple narrative history - Covers a range of themes including economy, state, class, identities, place, space and time - Treats the constituent parts of the British Isles as a fluid and dynamic amalgam of local and national cultures and polities Authoritative and engaging, this text challenges conventional views on the history of leisure and suggests new approaches to the subject. Borsay draws upon the insights provided by a variety of disciplines alongside that of history - anthropology, the arts, geography and sociology - to offer an essential guide to this fascinating area of study.

The Association Game
The Association Game

Author: Matthew Taylor

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-10-18

Total Pages: 529

ISBN-13: 1317870085

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The story of British football's journey from public school diversion to mass media entertainment is a remarkable one. The Association Game traces British football from the establishment of the earliest clubs in the nineteenth century to its place as one of the prominent and commercialised leisure industries at the beginning of the twenty first century. It covers supporters and fandom, status and culture, big business, the press and electronic media and development in playing styles, tactics and rules. This is the only up to date book on the history of British football, covering the twentieth century shift from amateur to professional and whole of the British Isles, not just England.

The Sporting Life
The Sporting Life

Author: Nancy Fix Anderson

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2010-02-26

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13:

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This lively and intriguing study looks at the way sports both reflected and shaped Victorian society. Just as our own games have a lot to say about modern American culture, so sports are a prism through which we can gain valuable insights into Victorian society. The Sporting Life: Victorian Sports and Games is an engaging and perceptive account of how sport developed during Britain's heyday, who played (and who wasn't allowed to play), and what it all conveys about gender, race, imperialism, and national pride. Drawing extensively on 19th-century writings, The Sporting Life begins with a survey of sports in pre-Victorian England and the impact of industrialism in the early 19th century. We read of the effects of evangelicalism and utilitarianism, both of which first opposed sport, then used it for their own purposes. We learn of the association of sports with masculinity, an identification women challenged late in the century. Finally we learn how English sports became part of the imperial game, used to promote—and resist—the spread of Victoria's vast empire.