
A Fateful Love
Essays on Football in the North-East of England 1880-1930
Gavin Kitching(Author)
Peter Lang Verlag
Published on 26. February 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
262 pages
978-1-78997-834-6 (ISBN)
Description
How did the world's most popular sport begin? How was the ancient family of pastimes called «folk football» transformed into a new codified game - «association football» - which attracted such large numbers of players and paying spectators? Gavin Kitching tackles the question through a strikingly original and deeply researched history of the game in one of its most passionate strongholds: the north-east of England. Making extensive use of previously neglected newspaper reports and other sources, he shows how, in just a few years of the 1870s and 1880s, soccer evolved from its origins as a collective scramble into a dispersed and intricate passing game, exciting and rewarding for players and spectators alike. But the booming popularity of football in the Victorian North-East also had deeply ambiguous consequences - for footballers, for the clubs for which they played, and for the local press which reported the game and further fuelled its popularity. Kitching analyses these ambiguities in chapters on the professionalization and commercialisation of elite soccer in Newcastle and Sunderland and in an account of the «shamateur» Northern League clubs of the Durham coalfield. A Fateful Love concludes by tracing these ambiguities through to the present day. The visual excitement and beauty that created professional football lives on, but the media-driven «commodification» which has marked it from its beginnings has now reached levels which raise profound concerns for the game's future.
Reviews / Votes
<<A Fateful Love unpicks the intricate complexities of football's origins and rapid commercialization in a way that not only explains the past but also illuminates current debates about the meaning of the game. Combining mastery of the archive, deft theoretical insights, and the feeling for the game of a lifelong fan, Gavin Kitching's new book is an important contribution to our understanding of how and why football became so important to so many people.>>(Tony Collins, author of Sport in Capitalist Society and How Football Began)
More details
Series
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Edition type
New edition
Illustrations
2 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
407 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78997-834-6 (9781789978346)
DOI
10.3726/b17028
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
03/2021
1st Edition
Peter Lang Verlag
€72.49
Available for download

E-Book
03/2021
1st Edition
Peter Lang Verlag
€72.49
Available for download
Person
Gavin Kitching was born and brought up in a mining village on the Durham coalfield but now lives in Australia. He is Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of New South Wales, Sydney.
Content
CONTENTS: <<From Time Immemorial>>: The Alnwick Shrovetide Football Match and the Continual Remaking of Tradition 1828-1890 - What's in a Name? Playing <<Football>> in the Mid-Victorian North-East - Mercutio and Friends: The Press and the Commercialisation of North-Eastern Football 1885-1892 - Shamaterurism, Corruption and Prejudice on the Eve of Professionalism: The Sunderland AFC/Sunderland Albion Split of 1888 - The Curiously Contorted Class Struggle: Crook Town FC, the Durham Football Association, and the FA, 1927-1933 - Conclusions: Football as a Commodity.