Professor Tony Collins’ eagerly-awaited new book Rugby League: A People’s History fills a void in the rugby league library. It tells the story of the game in all its glory, from global superstars to local supporters - and everyone in between; professionals and amateurs, men and women, officials and volunteers. It goes back to the start of rugby and explains why league was born, how it grew around the world, and what enabled it to continually triumph over obstacles put in its way. More than just the charting of the game, it is the social history of the life and times of the north of England. Published to mark this year’s 125th anniversary of rugby league’s foundation at the George Hotel in 1895, the book tells the complete history of the sport, going back beyond its birth in Huddersfield to examine its deeper roots in the turbulent social history of the north of England. Along the way it debunks the myth that William Webb Ellis invented the handling game, reveals how rugby was initially more popular than soccer but lost that lead, and explains why it was the RFU’s intransigence that led to the events of 1895. Each chapter begins with the story of a great team, player or match, but covers much more. There are extensive sections on the grassroots, the role supporters have played in sustaining the sport, and the long struggle of women to play. Plus how society and economic changes over the decades have impacted on and shaped the history of the sport. But this is not a parochial book. It explores the expansion of the game to the southern hemisphere and France, and asks why Australia now so completely dominates. It also investigates how rugby league has faced down adversity throughout its existence, whether from the outright hostility of rugby union, bias in the media, or the governmental ban in Vichy France. People have been predicting the death of rugby league since its inception yet, as the book shows, it has regularly renewed and reinvigorated itself.

Published to mark the career of one of sports history's pioneers, this book traces the evolution of sport across three continents. It brings together some of sports history's leading scholars to investigate not only the history of sport but also how that history is written.

This Festschrift marks the retirement of Professor Wray Vamplew ? an internationally-renowned leader in the field of sports history. His 1976 book The Turf was one of the very first academic histories of sport and he has been a prolific writer, scholar and teacher for almost forty years. No-one has played such an important role in the field of sports history across North America, Europe and Australia. President of the Australian, Australian Society of Sports History (ASSH), the British Society of Sports History (BSSH), the European Committee for the History of Sport (CESH) and the International Society for the History of Physical Education and Sport (ISHPES), Vamplew is currently editor of the North American Society for Sports History's (NASSH) journal, the Journal of Sport History.

This collection reflects his interests and his appeal across the three continents: essays deal with sport in America, Australia, Britain and Ireland and focus on the themes of national and regional identity, gender, trade unionism in sport and historiographical debates. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the history of sport and how it is studied today.

This book was published as a special issue of Sport in History.

Since it's first publication, Rugby's Great Split has established itself as a classic in the field of sport history. Drawing on an unprecedented range of sources, this deeply researched and highly readable book traces the social, cultural and economic divisions that led, in 1895, to schism in the game of rugby and the creation of rugby league, the sport of England's northern working class. Tony Collins' analysis challenges many of the conventional assumptions about this key event in rugby history - about class conflict, amateurism in sport, the North-South divide, violence on the pitch, the development of mass spectator sport and the rise of football. This new edition is expanded to cover parallel events in Australia and New Zealand, and to address the key question of rugby league's failure to establish itself in Wales. Rugby's Great Split is a benchmark text in the history of rugby, and an absorbing case study of wider issues - issues of class, gender, regional and national identity, and the impact of the commercialization and recent professionalization of rugby league. This insightful text is for anyone interested in Britain's social history or in the emergence of modern sport, it is vital reading.

Why are the Olympic Games the driving force behind a clampdown on civil liberties? What makes sport an unwavering ally of nationalism and militarism? Is sport the new opiate of the masses? These and many other questions are answered in this new radical history of sport by leading historian of sport and society, Professor Tony Collins. Tracing the history of modern sport from its origins in the burgeoning capitalist economy of mid-eighteenth century England to the globalised corporate sport of today, the book argues that, far from the purity of sport being 'corrupted' by capitalism, modern sport is as much a product of capitalism as the factory, the stock exchange and the unemployment line. Based on original sources, the book explains how sport has been shaped and moulded by the major political and economic events of the past two centuries, such as the French Revolution, the rise of modern nationalism and imperialism, the Russian Revolution, the Cold War and the imposition of the neo-liberal agenda in the last decades of the twentieth century. It highlights the symbiotic relationship between the media and sport, from the simultaneous emergence of print capitalism and modern sport in Georgian England to the rise of Murdoch's global satellite television empire in the twenty-first century, and for the first time it explores the alternative, revolutionary models of sport in the early twentieth century. Sport in a Capitalist Society is the first sustained attempt to explain the emergence of modern sport around the world as an integral part of the globalisation of capitalism. It is essential reading for anybody with an interest in the history or sociology of sport, or the social and cultural history of the modern world.

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.

Since it's first publication, Rugby's Great Split has established itself as a classic in the field of sport history. Drawing on an unprecedented range of sources, this deeply researched and highly readable book traces the social, cultural and economic divisions that led, in 1895, to schism in the game of rugby and the creation of rugby league, the sport of England's northern working class. Tony Collins' analysis challenges many of the conventional assumptions about this key event in rugby history - about class conflict, amateurism in sport, the North-South divide, violence on the pitch, the development of mass spectator sport and the rise of football. This new edition is expanded to cover parallel events in Australia and New Zealand, and to address the key question of rugby league's failure to establish itself in Wales. Rugby's Great Split is a benchmark text in the history of rugby, and an absorbing case study of wider issues - issues of class, gender, regional and national identity, and the impact of the commercialization and recent professionalization of rugby league. This insightful text is for anyone interested in Britain's social history or in the emergence of modern sport, it is vital reading.

"Rugby League in Twentieth Century Britain" is the follow-up volume to the award-winning Rugby's Great Split. Following on from that work, the book offers a social and cultural history of rugby league in the twentieth century, from World War One to the 'Super League' controversy of 1995.
Based on extensive archival research, it situates the sport in the changing culture of the north of England. It seeks to examine the cultural, social and economic basis of the sport amidst the changes to the industrial and social landscape of the north in the twentieth century. Central to this is the book's discussion of the nature of Northern English identity. In addition, it also looks at rugby league's relationship with the British empire (via its links with Australia and New Zealand), its war with rugby union (using the previously unopened archives of the Rugby Football Union) and the centrality of working-class masculinity to northern culture.
Like its predecessor, the book will appeal to sports historians and sociologists, historians interested in regional, cultural and gender history, graduate and undergraduate history, sociology and sports studies students, and followers of rugby league, and sport in general.

Providing a social, economic and political study of field sports and those other activities and customs labelled as rural sports, from the earliest of times to the present day in all of the United Kingdom and Ireland. This book brings together several distinct types of traditional rural sports with particular emphasis on the social history and 'traditional' aspects. It contains several hundred entries focusing on individual sports and others providing analysis of key concepts, themes and terminologies. The Encyclopedia of Traditional British Rural Sports is an invaluable reference that provides students, scholars and sports enthusiasts with a focussed and authoritative source of information on the history and culture of rural sport in Britain.

Published to mark the career of one of sports history's pioneers, this book traces the evolution of sport across three continents. It brings together some of sports history's leading scholars to investigate not only the history of sport but also how that history is written. This Festschrift marks the retirement of Professor Wray Vamplew - an internationally-renowned leader in the field of sports history. His 1976 book The Turf was one of the very first academic histories of sport and he has been a prolific writer, scholar and teacher for almost forty years. No one has played such an important role in the field of sports history across North America, Europe and Australia. President of the Australian, Australian Society of Sports History (ASSH), the British Society of Sports History (BSSH), the European Committee for the History of Sport (CESH) and the International Society for the History of Physical Education and Sport (ISHPES), Vamplew is currently editor of the North American Society for Sports History's (NASSH) journal, the Journal of Sport History. This collection reflects his interests and his appeal across the three continents, the essays deal with sport in America, Australia, Britain and Ireland and focus on the themes of national and regional identity, gender, trade unionism in sport and historiographical debates. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the history of sport and how it is studied today. This book was published as a special issue of Sport in History.

This ambitious and fascinating history considers why, in the space of sixty years between 1850 and 1910, football grew from a marginal and unorganised activity to become the dominant winter entertainment for millions of people around the world. The book explores how the world's football codes - soccer, rugby league, rugby union, American, Australian, Canadian and Gaelic - developed as part of the commercialised leisure industry in the nineteenth century. Football, however and wherever it was played, was a product of the second industrial revolution, the rise of the mass media, and the spirit of the age of the masses. Important reading for students of sports studies, history, sociology, development and management, this book is also a valuable resource for scholars and academics involved in the study of football in all its forms, as well as an engrossing read for anyone interested in the early history of football.

Providing a social, economic and political study of field sports and those other activities and customs labelled as rural sports, from the earliest of times to the present day in all of the United Kingdom and Ireland.
This book brings together several distinct types of traditional rural sports with particular emphasis on the social history and 'traditional' aspects. It contains several hundred entries focusing on individual sports and others providing analysis of key concepts, themes and terminologies.
The Encyclopedia of Traditional British Rural Sports is an invaluable reference that provides students, scholars and sports enthusiasts with a focussed and authoritative source of information on the history and culture of rural sport in Britain.

This ambitious and fascinating history considers why, in the space of sixty years between 1850 and 1910, football grew from a marginal and unorganised activity to become the dominant winter entertainment for millions of people around the world. The book explores how the world's football codes - soccer, rugby league, rugby union, American, Australian, Canadian and Gaelic - developed as part of the commercialised leisure industry in the nineteenth century. Football, however and wherever it was played, was a product of the second industrial revolution, the rise of the mass media, and the spirit of the age of the masses. Important reading for students of sports studies, history, sociology, development and management, this book is also a valuable resource for scholars and academics involved in the study of football in all its forms, as well as an engrossing read for anyone interested in the early history of football.

In September 2013 Tony Collins took advantage of a long-overdue sabbatical to walk the 490 miles of the Camino, from the French border to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. For decades he had helped to provide the evangelical churches of the world with reading material. Now he was deliberately stepping out of his comfort zone: a pilgrimage, carrying his pack, through a land whose language he did not speak, into a religious culture far removed from his own, in search of sources of reverence. He would not walk alone: the Way has many adherents, well over 200,000 completing their Camino during that year. He had expected the Way to be arduous, and so it proved. But he had not expected so bracing an internal journey, his battered soul laid down for examination, past errors offered up for scrutiny. Nor had he expected such moments of intense spiritual encounter; nor so many precious friendships. He discovered, above all, as have many before him, that the Road leaves an indelible mark.

Why are the Olympic Games the driving force behind a clampdown on civil liberties? What makes sport an unwavering ally of nationalism and militarism? Is sport the new opiate of the masses? These and many other questions are answered in this new radical history of sport by leading historian of sport and society, Professor Tony Collins. Tracing the history of modern sport from its origins in the burgeoning capitalist economy of mid-eighteenth century England to the globalised corporate sport of today, the book argues that, far from the purity of sport being 'corrupted' by capitalism, modern sport is as much a product of capitalism as the factory, the stock exchange and the unemployment line. Based on original sources, the book explains how sport has been shaped and moulded by the major political and economic events of the past two centuries, such as the French Revolution, the rise of modern nationalism and imperialism, the Russian Revolution, the Cold War and the imposition of the neo-liberal agenda in the last decades of the twentieth century. It highlights the symbiotic relationship between the media and sport, from the simultaneous emergence of print capitalism and modern sport in Georgian England to the rise of Murdoch's global satellite television empire in the twenty-first century, and for the first time it explores the alternative, revolutionary models of sport in the early twentieth century. Sport in a Capitalist Society is the first sustained attempt to explain the emergence of modern sport around the world as an integral part of the globalisation of capitalism. It is essential reading for anybody with an interest in the history or sociology of sport, or the social and cultural history of the modern world.

Twenty years of professionalism has seen rugby union undergo dramatic transformations, from changes to everyday training cultures to the growth of the Rugby World Cup into one of the largest global sporting events. The Rugby World in the Professional Era is the first book to examine the effect that professionalism has had across a number of different aspects of the game and the wider socio-cultural significance of these changes through case studies from across the globe. Drawing on contributions from scholars from across the rugby-playing world, the book explores the role of rugby's professionalisation through a number of social-scientific lenses, including: labour migration race and indigenous populations the globalisation of the game mega-event management male sexualities media representations of rugby - from broadcasting matches to rugby in museums and on stage and screen Offering insights into under-researched areas of the sport, such as the growth of Rugby Sevens into an Olympic sport, and providing the most up-to-date recent history of the sport available, The Rugby World in the Professional Era is essential reading for anyone with an academic interest in rugby, and any student or scholar with interests in sports history, sports sociology, sport management or the economics of professional sport.

Twenty years of professionalism has seen rugby union undergo dramatic transformations, from changes to everyday training cultures to the growth of the Rugby World Cup into one of the largest global sporting events. The Rugby World in the Professional Era is the first book to examine the effect that professionalism has had across a number of different aspects of the game and the wider socio-cultural significance of these changes through case studies from across the globe. Drawing on contributions from scholars from across the rugby-playing world, the book explores the role of rugby's professionalisation through a number of social-scientific lenses, including: labour migration race and indigenous populations the globalisation of the game mega-event management male sexualities media representations of rugby - from broadcasting matches to rugby in museums and on stage and screen Offering insights into under-researched areas of the sport, such as the growth of Rugby Sevens into an Olympic sport, and providing the most up-to-date recent history of the sport available, The Rugby World in the Professional Era is essential reading for anyone with an academic interest in rugby, and any student or scholar with interests in sports history, sports sociology, sport management or the economics of professional sport.

Life is already difficult for a sixteen year old boy who is at least a lap behind his peers in the 1500 metre event at the Growing Up Olympics. But when his beloved Grandfather passes away, leaving a cryptic clue to the whereabouts of untold riches, the resultant road trip will increase the pace. Escaping the clutches of an over-protective mother, sexually deprived employer and a furious Asian funeral director, Felix Malholly makes his getaway. What follows is a journey involving diamond theft, grave robbery, surfing, terrifying pensioners, stand-up comedy, torture with a chain-saw and a whole lot of fun in between. If it happened to you, how rich would you feel?

An archaeological dig in the English countryside might be considered the safest of pastimes, but not for Simon Tappins. His life is turned upside down when a dramatic discovery sends him back two thousand years into a world time forgot. He is plunged into a dangerous period of British history, a pivotal point when the Roman Empire is collapsing and Saxon hordes are invading, sweeping aside the last legions. Simon is caught between the approaching Saxons and the ferocious but futile last stand of a Roman governor who, with the support of Germanic mercenaries, is intent on escaping with the wealth he has accumulated. Through all this runs Simon's quest to solve a mystery. Only the lost crystal of Thar Cernunnos has the power to take him back to his own time, but while clues crop up regularly, they are always enigmatic, often cryptic, and seemingly impossible to solve. However, it is his emotional involvement with native girl Sen'icca that presents the greatest challenge. If he makes the wrong decision now, in two thousand years' time, the consequences will be fatal. In accurate and fascinating detail many aspects of everyday life in these times are disclosed. The story explores what it was really like to live in a Roman town. The principal character experiences the sounds of the market place, the smells from the wine bars and food shops, and the choking smoke from the industrial quarter. But it is the people and their cultural and political organization which reveals the unique economic ambience of the town during this dangerous period. The story also weaves a strange tale of unearthly powers of priests, the terrifying predictions of Celtic Gods and the struggles, perils and small triumphs of surviving in a time filled with savage conflict.

An archaeological dig in the English countryside might be considered the safest of pastimes, but not for Simon Tappins. His life is turned upside down when a dramatic discovery sends him back two thousand years into a world time forgot. He is plunged into a dangerous period of British history, a pivotal point when the Roman Empire is collapsing and Saxon hordes are invading, sweeping aside the last legions. Simon is caught between the approaching Saxons and the ferocious but futile last stand of a Roman governor who, with the support of Germanic mercenaries, is intent on escaping with the wealth he has accumulated. Through all this runs Simon's quest to solve a mystery. Only the lost crystal of Thar Cernunnos has the power to take him back to his own time, but while clues crop up regularly, they are always enigmatic, often cryptic, and seemingly impossible to solve. However, it is his emotional involvement with native girl Sen'icca that presents the greatest challenge. If he makes the wrong decision now, in two thousand years' time, the consequences will be fatal. In accurate and fascinating detail many aspects of everyday life in these times are disclosed. The story explores what it was really like to live in a Roman town. The principal character experiences the sounds of the market place, the smells from the wine bars and food shops, and the choking smoke from the industrial quarter. But it is the people and their cultural and political organization which reveals the unique economic ambience of the town during this dangerous period. The story also weaves a strange tale of unearthly powers of priests, the terrifying predictions of Celtic Gods and the struggles, perils and small triumphs of surviving in a time filled with savage conflict.

Short-listed for the North American Society for Sport History Book Award 2003Alcohol is never far from sporting events. Although popular thinking on the effects of drinking has changed considerably over time, throughout history sport and alcohol have been intimately linked. The Victorians, for example, believed that beer helped to build stamina, whereas today any serious athlete must abstain from the 'demon drink'. Yet despite current prohibitions and the widespread acceptance of alcohol's deleterious effects, the uneasy alliance of sport with alcohol remains culturally entrenched. It is common for sporting celebrities to struggle with alcoholism, and teams are often encouraged to 'bond' by drinking together. Indeed, many of today's major sporting sponsors are breweries and manufacturers of alcoholic drinks.From hooliganism to commerce, from advertising and sponsorship to health and fitness, if there is one thing that brings athletes, fans and financial backers together it must be beer. This cultural history of drinking and sport examines the roles masculinity, class and regional identity play in alcohol consumption at a broad range of matches, races, courses and competitions. Offering a fresh perspective on the culture and commerce of sporting events, this book will be essential reading for cultural historians, anthropologists and sociologists, and anyone interested in sport.

Short-listed for the North American Society for Sport History Book Award 2003Alcohol is never far from sporting events. Although popular thinking on the effects of drinking has changed considerably over time, throughout history sport and alcohol have been intimately linked. The Victorians, for example, believed that beer helped to build stamina, whereas today any serious athlete must abstain from the 'demon drink'. Yet despite current prohibitions and the widespread acceptance of alcohol's deleterious effects, the uneasy alliance of sport with alcohol remains culturally entrenched. It is common for sporting celebrities to struggle with alcoholism, and teams are often encouraged to 'bond' by drinking together. Indeed, many of today's major sporting sponsors are breweries and manufacturers of alcoholic drinks.From hooliganism to commerce, from advertising and sponsorship to health and fitness, if there is one thing that brings athletes, fans and financial backers together it must be beer. This cultural history of drinking and sport examines the roles masculinity, class and regional identity play in alcohol consumption at a broad range of matches, races, courses and competitions. Offering a fresh perspective on the culture and commerce of sporting events, this book will be essential reading for cultural historians, anthropologists and sociologists, and anyone interested in sport.