Full Description
Emerging from the 'history from below' movement, sport history was marginalised for decades by those working within more traditional historical fields (and institutions). Although a degree of ignorance still exists, sport history has now acquired a level of credibility through the dedicated work of professional historians. And yet, as this authority has been established, changes to UK higher education funding (the removal of direct state funding, the Research Excellence Framework, and tuition fees) and academic publishing (open access) have the potential to damage, or even end, sports research. This book examines sport history from a variety of perspectives. Do mainstream historians need to engage, or 'play', with sports historians? Has the postmodernist 'cultural turn' in sports history been helpful to the sub-discipline? How can the teaching of sports studies be more innovative and inspiring? How can oral history and sport history be utilised in the study of other branches of historical interest. Although changes are required in dealing with the current political reality of UK higher education, sport history still has a great deal to offer students, future employers and the public alike. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.
Contents
1. Introduction 2. Last Man Picked: Do Mainstream Historians Need to Play with Sports Historians? 3. Sports History: Outside of the Mainstream? A Response to Ward's 'Last Man Picked' 4. Cracks in the (Self-Constructed?) Ghetto Walls? Comments on Paul Ward's 'Last Man Picked' 5. 'The Postmodernist Always Rings Twice: Reflections on the "New" Cultural Turn in Sports History' 6. The Sporting Image: A Personal Journey Utilising History to Develop Academic Inquiry and Creativity 7. 'Ordinary working men ... transformed into giants on the rugby field': 'Collective' and 'Individual' Memory in Oral Histories of Rugby League 8. Asylums and Sport: Participation, Isolation and the Role of Cricket in the Treatment of the Insane 9. What's the Point of Sports History?
