A Devilish Pastime: A History of Football in All its Forms

Where did football come from? How did it get to be so popular? And why can't we even agree on what the word 'football' means?

A Devilish Pastime – whose title comes from a 16th-century Puritan pamphlet that denounced the game as sinful – begins by looking at the football-like games of the distant past. It goes on to trace football's evolution through the Middle Ages and beyond, and how the sporting revolution of the 19th century led to the emergence of mass-audience sports that have become s...