From the myth of William Webb Ellis to the glory of the 2003
World Cup win, this book explores the social history of rugby union
in England.
Ever since Tom Brown s Schooldays the sport has seen itself as
the guardian of traditional English middle-class values. In this
fascinating new history, leading rugby historian Tony Collins
demonstrates how these values have shaped the English game, from
the public schools to mass spectator sport, from strict amateurism
to global professionalism.
Based on unprecedented access to the official archives of the
Rugby Football Union, and drawing on an impressive array of sources
from club minutes to personal memoirs and contemporary literature,
the book explores in vivid detail the key events, personalities and
players that have made English rugby.
From an era of rapid growth at the end of the nineteenth
century, through the terrible losses suffered during the First
World War and the subsequent rush to rugby in the public and
grammar schools, and into the periods of disorientation and
commercialisation in the 1960s through to the present day, the
story of English rugby union is also the story of the making of
modern England.
Like all the very best writers on sport, Tony Collins uses sport
as a prism through which to better understand both culture and
society. A ground-breaking work of both social history and sport
history, A Social History of English Rugby Union tells a
fascinating story of sporting endeavour, masculine identity,
imperial ideology, social consciousness and the nature of
Englishness.
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