
Sport and the British
A Modern History
Richard Holt(Author)
Oxford University Press
2nd Edition
Published on 4. September 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
592 pages
978-0-19-955720-2 (ISBN)
Description
So many of the world's sports have their origins in Britain. Why is this? How did sports innovate and evolve in step with social upheaval, and political and cultural change? Why did British forms of play become so influential around the world?
Richard Holt explores all of these questions and more in this new edition of Sport and the British: A Modern History. For over thirty years Sport and the British has been the standard work on the history of sport in Britain, and the new edition provides a complete rewrite of the original text, incorporating the most up-to-date research.
Holt weaves a narrative of the excitement, passion, and variety of sports played the eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth, from street corner 'kickabouts' to the Commonwealth and Olympic Games. Sport and the British crosses class, race, culture, and gender, illuminating how the transformation of games speaks to the wider history of Britain and its global impact on the history of sport.
Richard Holt explores all of these questions and more in this new edition of Sport and the British: A Modern History. For over thirty years Sport and the British has been the standard work on the history of sport in Britain, and the new edition provides a complete rewrite of the original text, incorporating the most up-to-date research.
Holt weaves a narrative of the excitement, passion, and variety of sports played the eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth, from street corner 'kickabouts' to the Commonwealth and Olympic Games. Sport and the British crosses class, race, culture, and gender, illuminating how the transformation of games speaks to the wider history of Britain and its global impact on the history of sport.
Reviews / Votes
Review from previous edition Rightly lauded in hardback a year ago, this affordable paperback edition places sport within the context not just of British history but of the people's history. * Independent * this is an outstanding history of sport's social role in nineteenth and twentieth-century Britain ... everyone can learn from Holt's approach to sports history * Economic History Review * an ideal introductory text ... The range and richness of the subjects are inviting to historians, and Holt supplies us with an indispensable vade-mecum. * English Historical Review *More details
Series
Edition
2nd Revised edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Edition type
Revised edition
Dimensions
Height: 139 mm
Width: 216 mm
Thickness: 33 mm
Weight
794 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-955720-2 (9780199557202)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Richard Holt read Modern History at St John's College, University of Oxford. He was a lecturer in Modern History at Stirling University from 1974 to 1990, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Leuven from 1991 to 1993, and Research Professor at the International Centre for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University from 1995 to 2013. At De Montfort Holt co-directed an International Masters in the Humanities, Law, and Management of Sport from 1996, and was Centre Director from 2008 and 2013. He has supervised and examined doctoral students in Britain and France, and has been a consultant editor for the ODNB, the NPG, and the BBC.
Author
Professor EmeritusProfessor Emeritus, International Centre for Sports History and Culture, De Montfort University
Content
Introduction
I: Old Ways of Playing
II: New Ways of Playing
III: Amateurism and the Victorians
IV: The Spread of Sport
V: Democracy and Spectacle
VI: Nations and Identities
VII: Imperial, International, and Olympic Sport
VIII: Affluence, Media, and the State
Epilogue and Conclusion
Appendix
I: Old Ways of Playing
II: New Ways of Playing
III: Amateurism and the Victorians
IV: The Spread of Sport
V: Democracy and Spectacle
VI: Nations and Identities
VII: Imperial, International, and Olympic Sport
VIII: Affluence, Media, and the State
Epilogue and Conclusion
Appendix