A record of the role of selected middle-class individuals across Europe who made notable contributions to the early evolution of modern sport and who saw success in modern sport as an expression of human qualities to be admired, applauded and encouraged. They viewed sport, sometimes self-interestedly but not always self-interestedly, as a medium of personal, collective and national virtue. It is the first general consideration of a selection of these innovatory pioneers and proselytisers who placed Europe at the forefront of major developments in contemporary world'sport - now a phenomenon of global significance.
| List of Illustrations | ||
| List of Tables | ||
| Preface | ||
| Prologue: Middle-Class 'Revolutionaries' in Pursuit of Moral, Physical, and Political and Social Health | 1 | |
| 1 | The Living Legacy: Classical Sport and Nineteenth-Century Middle-Class Commentators of the German-Speaking Nations | 9 |
| 2 | A Tranquil Transformation: Middle-Class Racing 'Revolutionaries' in Nineteenth-Century England | 35 |
| 3 | Unrecognized Middle-Class Revolutionary? Michael Cusack, Sport and Cultural Change in Nineteenth-Century Ireland | 58 |
| 4 | Missing Middle-Class Dimensions: Elementary Schools, Imperialism and Athleticism | 73 |
| 5 | Mostly Middle-Class Cycling Heroes: The Fin de Siecle Commercial Obsession with Speed, Distance and Records | 91 |
| 6 | 'Golden Boys' of Playing Field and Battlefield: Celebrating Heroes - 'Lost' Middle-Class Women Versifiers of the Great War | 134 |
| 7 | Modernizing Bulgaria: Todor Yonchev - Middle-Class Patriot and the Assertion of a Nation | 162 |
| 8 | Radical Conservatives: Middle-Class Masculinity, the Shikar Club and Big Game-Hunting | 185 |
| 9 | A Dark 'Prince' of Denmark: Niels Bukh, Twentieth-Century Middle-Class Propagandist | 210 |
| 10 | The Apostle of Italian Sport: Angelo Mosso and English Athleticism in Italy | 230 |
| Epilogue: The History of Modern European Sport as a History of Modern European Ideas | 253 | |
| Notes on Contributors | 257 | |
| Abstracts | 260 | |
| Select Bibliography | 265 | |
| Index | 273 |
Overview
A record of the role of selected middle-class individuals across Europe who made notable contributions to the early evolution of modern sport and who saw success in modern sport as an expression of human qualities to be admired, applauded and encouraged. They viewed sport, sometimes self-interestedly but not always self-interestedly, as a medium of personal, collective and national virtue. It is the first general consideration of a selection of these innovatory pioneers and proselytisers who placed Europe at the ...