A Cultural History of Sport in the Age of Enlightenment

About the Author

Rebekka von Mallinckrodt is professor of early modern history at the University of Bremen. She has worked in the fields of religious studies, the history of the body, postcolonial and slavery studies. From 2015 to 2021, she is leading the ERC Consolidator Grant Project “The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and its Slaves.” With regard to sports and physical exercise she has published Bewegtes Leben – Körpertechniken in der Fru¨hen Neuzeit/Life on the Move – Body Techniques in the Early Modern Period (Harrassowitz, 2008), Sports and Physical Exercise in Early Modern Culture (with Angela Schattner, Routledge, 2016), and numerous articles on the cultural and social history of running, swimming, and diving.

Wray Vamplew is Emeritus Professor of Sports History at the University of Stirling, where he was appointed as Scotland's first Chair in Sports History, and Global Professorial Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. He has authored and edited more than twenty books, including most recently, Numbers and Narratives: Sport, History and Economics (2018).

Mark Dyreson is aProfessor of Kinesiology, Penn State, USA. He has authored and edited 10 books, including, most recently, Sports History: Issues, Debates and Challenges (2016) Sport in the Americas (2018).

John McClelland is a Professor Emeritus of French literature and former associated professor of the history of sport, University of Toronto, Canada. He has published numerous works, including Body and Mind: Sport in Europe from the Roman Empire to the Renaissance (2006).

Product Description

A Cultural History of Sport in the Age of Enlightenment covers the period 1650 to 1800, a period often seen as a time of decline in sporting practice and literature. In fact, a rich sporting culture existed and sports were practised by both men and women at all levels of society. The Enlightenment called into question many of the earlier notions of religion, gender, and rank which had previously shaped sporting activities and also initiated the commercialization, professionalization and associativity which were to define modern sport.

The 6 volume set of the Cultural History of Sport presents the first comprehensive history from classical antiquity to today, covering all forms and aspects of sport and its ever-changing social, cultural, political, and economic context and impact. The themes covered in each volume are the purpose of sport; sporting time and sporting space; products, training and technology; rules and order; conflict and accommodation; inclusion, exclusion and segregation; minds, bodies and identities; representation.

Rebekka von Mallinckrodt is Professor at the University of Bremen, Germany.
Volume 4 in the Cultural History of Sport set
General Editors: Wray Vamplew, Mark Dyreson, and John McClelland