First published in 1979, this classic study of the development of rugby from folk game to its modern Union and League forms has become a seminal text in sport history. In a new epilogue the authors provide sociological analysis of the major developments in international ruby that have taken place since 1979, with particular attention to the professionalism that was predicted in the first edition of this text. Sports lovers, rugby fans and students of the history and sociology of sport will find it invaluable. Rugby football is descended from winter 'folk games' which were a deeply rooted tradition in pre-industrial Britain. This was the first book to study the development of Rugby from this folk tradition to the game in its modern forms. The folk forms of football were extremely violent and serious injuries - even death - were a common feature. The game was refined in the public schools who played a crucial role in formulating the rules which required footballers to exercise greater self-control. With the spread of rugby into the wider society, the Rugby Football Union was founded but class tensions led to the split between Rugby Union and Rugby League. The authors examine the changes that led to the professionalisation of Rugby Union as well as the alleged resurgence of violence in the modern game.

Publisher Description

The story of the creation of Britain's national game has often been told. According to the accepted wisdom, the refined football games created by English public schools in the 1860s subsequently became the sports of the masses. Football, The First Hundred Years, provides a revisionist history of the game, challenging previously widely-accepted beliefs. Harvey argues that established football history does not correspond with the facts. Football, as played by the 'masses' prior to the adoption of the public school codes is almost always portrayed as wild and barbaric. This view may require considerable modification in the light of Harvey's research. Football's First One Hundred Years provides a very detailed picture of the football played outside the confines of the public schools, revealing a culture that was every bit as sophisticated and influential as that found within their prestigious walls. Football, The First Hundred Years sets forth a completely revisionist thesis, offering a different perspective on almost every aspect of the established history of the formative years of the game. The book will be of great interest to sports historians and football enthusiasts alike.

This revised edition of a classic text explores the development of rugby from a folk game into its modern forms. Updated with a substantial new foreword and epilogue.

"Beautifully written and brilliantly argued, The Playing Fields of Eton takes us on a three-century tour of modern mental and physical life. We visit gymnasiums and dueling fields, murderball courts and Olympic venues, and while immersed in thought-provoking stories of people wrestling with the twin pursuit of equality and excellence, we find ourselves learning what it might mean to be modern. With equal measures of erudition and gentle humor, Mika LaVaque-Manty convincingly refutes the view that egalitarian progress forecloses possibilities for human excellence." ---Elisabeth Ellis, Texas A&M University "A very insightful and clearly written philosophical inquiry into the nature of sport." ---Marion Smiley, Brandeis University "A marvelously original analysis of the tensions---and interdependence---between equality and excellence in modern political life. From eighteenth-century dueling to contemporary doping in sports, LaVaque-Manty illuminates the bodily life of democracy at play, and challenges us to think in new ways about the connections between achievement and autonomy. The Playing Fields of Eton is an important book that pushes liberal and democratic theory in fruitful new directions." ---Sharon Krause, Brown University Can equality and excellence coexist? If we assert that no person stands above the rest, can we encourage and acknowledge athletic, artistic, and intellectual achievements? Perhaps equality should merely mean equality of opportunity. But then how can society reconcile inherent differences between men and women, the strong and the weak, the able-bodied and the disabled? In The Playing Fields of Eton, Mika LaVaque-Manty addresses questions that have troubled philosophers, reformers, and thoughtful citizens for more than two centuries. Drawing upon examples from the eighteenth-century debate over dueling as a gentleman's prerogative to recent controversies over athletes' use of performance-enhancing drugs, LaVaque-Manty shows that societies have repeatedly redefined equality and excellence. One constant remains, however: sports provide an arena for working out tensions between these two ideals. Just as in sports where athletes are sorted by age, sex, and professional status, in modern democratic society excellence has meaning only in the context of comparisons among individuals who are, theoretically, equals. LaVaque-Manty's argument will engage philosophers, and his inviting prose and use of familiar illustrations will welcome nonphilosophers to join the conversation. Mika LaVaque-Manty is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan.

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.

A detailed and coherent account of the social significance and the politics underlying sports, Global Games demonstrates that sports are not a trivial pursuit but are deeply embedded in the way individuals and nations wish to be perceived. Book jacket.

Offering a ‘state of the art’ review of the sociology of sport and investigating those areas where sport has come to influence the sociological mainstream, this book examines how sociology has impacted upon the consciousness of sports fans, administrators and even politicians. As the first book to provide a history of the sociology of sport and to clearly locate the contemporary discipline in the wider currents of sociological discourse, Sport and Sociology is important reading for all students and scholars interested in the relationship between sport and society, whether they are working in sport studies or in the sociological mainstream.

2006 North American Society for Sports History Book of the Year The literature on sport history is now well established, taking in a wide range of themes and covering every activity from aerobics to zorbing. However, in comparison to most mainstream histories, sport history has rarely been called upon to question its foundations and account for the basis of its historical knowledge. In this book, Booth offers a rigorous assessment of sport history as an academic discipline, exploring the ways in which professional historians can gather materials, construct and examine evidence, and present their arguments about the sporting past. Part 1 examines theories of knowledge, while Part 2 goes on to scrutinize the uses of historical knowledge in popular and academic studies of sport history. With clear structure, examples, summary tables and a detailed glossary, The Field provides students, teachers and researchers with an unparalleled resource to tackle issues fundamental to the future of their subject, and sets the agenda for the debate to come.

Walter Camp made the development of football—indeed, its very creation—his lifelong mission. From his days as a college athlete, Camp's love of the game and dedication to its future put it on the course that would allow it to seize the passions of the nation. Roger R. Tamte tells the engrossing but forgotten life story of Walter Camp, the man contemporaries called "the father of American football." He charts Camp's leadership as American players moved away from rugby and for the first time tells the story behind the remarkably inventive rule change that, in Camp's own words, was "more important than all the rest of the legislation combined." Trials also emerged, as when disputes over forward passing, the ten-yard first down, and other rules became so public that President Theodore Roosevelt took sides. The resulting political process produced losses for Camp as well as successes, but soon a consensus grew that football needed no new major changes. American football was on its way, but as time passed, Camp's name and defining influence became lost to history. Entertaining and exhaustively researched, Walter Camp and the Creation of American Football weaves the life story of an important sports pioneer with a long-overdue history of the dramatic events that produced the nation's most popular game.