Sport, Economy and Society in Britain 1750-1914

Neil Tranter draws on the recent surge of academic interest in this topic to provide a concise, up-to-date survey of a dramatic change in the cultural life of Victorian and Edwardian Britain: the radical transformation in the extent and nature of Britain's involvement in sports. Neil Tranter examines key questions such as the principal features of this new sporting culture, how and why it spread, and the economic consequences of this cultural change. He also looks at who the particpants were, and to what extent women were involved in this sporting "revolution."

• Up-to-date survey of all the relevant literature outlining the main areas of controversy among scholars • First synthesis of its kind • An introduction to the early origins of modern sport which indicates the key questions requiring further study

Contents
1. Author's introduction; 2. Growth or decline? The initial impact of urban-industrialisation; 3. The 'revolution' in sport; 4. A conspiracy of the elites?; 5. For health, prestige, or profit?; 6. No place for women?; 7. Agenda for research; Bibliography.

Reviews
‘ … extremely welcome … and excellent introduction to the issues which historians of sport confront, and sets out the findings of the most recent research in an exemplary way … an admirable book, and it is difficult to see how it could have been done better’. History

‘Tranter has produced an important book. It should enable a wide range of teachers to introduce sports history to a cross disciplinary audience; an area of study that has often been trivialised, yet one that has been central to the fabric of British life since pre-industrialisation.’ Journal of European Area Studies