Sport and the British

Abstract The love of sport was seen by the British themselves and by foreign visitors as a defining national characteristic. Sport was both a private world of its own and part of a wider civic culture—a lens through which to explore changing notions of class, community, and masculinity as well as the struggle for female emancipation. This study, which brings together a vast body of new research, spans traditional village sports, rooted in religious holidays and the cycle of the agricultural year, to the world of modern sport: private clubs, written codes, and national associations followed by the media-driven commercialization of spectator sport. Why did Britain ‘invent’ so many of the world’s most successful sports? How did they spread across the Empire, into Europe and to South America from the late nineteenth century onwards? ‘Amateurism’ was a new set of sporting arrangements and values devised by the Victorians. What was it and why did it have such a global reach for so long? How was professional spectator sport transformed by the mass press, radio, newsreels, and television? What was the role of religion, education, and militarism in the spread of grass roots sport? How did national teams express the distinctive national cultures of the United Kingdom? Why did post-war British governments embrace interventionist policies such as ‘Sport for All’ and the funding of Olympic athletes.