Sport and Revolutionaries

This collection examines the role of sport in the lives of key revolutionary thinkers and leftist activists. In contrast to those who take a more romantic view of sport and believe in its apolitical nature, the eight essays help make clear how sport has served as a site for political activism and the revolutionary thought and practices of such individuals as Henry Mayers Hyndman, Vladimer Ilyich Lenin, Fidel Castro, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, Harry Edwards, Charles Perkins, and Darius Dhlomo. Written by noted scholars with long publication lists, the essays in turn provide insights into the close connection among sport, politics, and revolutionary movements in countries varying widely in their history, governmental policies, and treatment of individuals and groups. Taken as a whole, the essays, which adopt a very broad definition of revolutions, are written with the hope of encouraging more serious thought regarding the transformative potential of sports which can be both individually liberating and responsible for co-opting the lower classes and helping maintain power among the political and economic elite in capitalistic as well as socialist societies. This bookw as published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

John Nauright is Professor of Sport and Leisure Cultures, Director of the Centre for Sport, Tourism and Leisure Studies, and Head of Research in the School of Sport and Leisure Management at the University of Brighton. He is the author and editor of sixteen books and numerous refereed articles in Sports Studies. David K. Wiggins is Professor and Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Sport and Leisure at George Mason University, former Editor of Quest and the Journal of Sport History, and Fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology. He is the author and editor of numerous books and essays on the history of sport.

1. Last Man Picked. Do Mainstream Historians Need to Play with Sports Historians? Paul Ward 2. Sports History: Outside of the Mainstream? A Response to Ward's 'Last Man Picked' Matthew L. McDowell 3. Cracks in the (Self-Constructed?) Ghetto Walls? Comments on Paul Ward's 'Last Man Picked' Malcolm MacLean 4. 'The Postmodernist Always Rings Twice: Reflections on the "New" Cultural Turn in Sports History' John Hughson 5. The Sporting Image: A Personal Journey Utilising History to Develop Academic Inquiry and Creativity Iain Adams 6. 'Ordinary working men . . . transformed into giants on the rugby field': 'Collective' and 'Individual' Memory in Oral Histories of Rugby League Rob Light 7. Asylums and Sport: Participation, Isolation and the Role of Cricket in the Treatment of the Insane Rob Ellis 8. What's the Point of Sports History? Martin Johnes