Sport, War and the British: 1850 to the Present (Routledge Research in Sports History)

Synopsis

Spanning the colonial campaigns of the Victorian age to the War on Terror after 9/11, this study explores the role sport was perceived to have played in the lives and work of military personnel, and examines how sporting language and imagery were deployed to shape and reconfigure civilian society’s understanding of conflict. From 1850 onwards war reportage – complemented and reinforced by a glut of campaign histories, memoirs, novels and films – helped create an imagined community in which sporting attributes and qualities were employed to give meaning and order to the chaos and misery of warfare. This work explores the evolution of the Victorian notion that playing-field and battlefield were connected and then moves on to investigate the challenges this belief faced in the twentieth century, as combat became, initially, industrialised in the age of total warfare and, subsequently, professionalised in the post-nuclear world. Such a longitudinal study allows, for the first time, new light to be shed on the continuities and shifts in the way the ‘reality’ of war was captured in the British popular imagination. Drawing together the disparate fields of sport and warfare, this book serves as a vital point of reference for anyone with an interest in the cultural, social or military history of modern Britain.

Copyright:

2020

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

Book Size:

182 Pages

ISBN-13:

9781000048360

Related ISBNs:

9780367340780, 9781032237992, 9780429323799

Publisher:

Taylor and Francis

Date of Addition:

08/27/23

Copyrighted By:

Peter Donaldson, The right of Peter Donaldson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

History, Military, Nonfiction, Sports

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.