This Sporting Life: Sport and Liberty in England, 1760-1960

History

Colls, Robert

Europe

Oxford University Press

Why did killing a fox mean liberty? What did parish revels have to do with the Peterloo Massacre? What did animal cruelty have to do with the English constitution? What did the Factory Acts mean for modern football? In This Sporting Life, Robert Colls explains sport as one of England's great civil cultures. The lived experiences of people from all walks of life are reclaimed to tell England's history through its great sporting cultures, from the horseback pursuits of the wealthy and politically connected, to the street games in working-class neighbourhoods which needed nothing but a ball. It observes people at play, describes how they felt and thought, carries the reader along to a match or a hunt or a fight, draws out the sounds and smells of humans and animals, showing that sport has been as important in defining British culture as gender, politics, education, class, and religion.

The English are now in need of a new sense of home and belonging, and a re-assessment of who they are. This is a history of who they were, with present needs in mind. It begins by considering how the English state created an English nation which from very early days refused to see itself simply as the state's creature. It considers also how that nation survived shattering revolutions in industry, urban living and global conflict while at the same time retaining a softer, more humane vision of themselves and their land. From this rich store of history and possibility, the book connects how the meaning of England has changed and changed again in the past with how it is changing now in the future.

The Identity of England

The English are now in need of a new sense of home and belonging, and a re-assessment of who they are. This is a history of who they were, with present needs in mind. It begins by considering how the English state created an English nation which from very early days refused to see itself simply as the state's creature. It considers also how that nation survived shattering revolutions in industry, urban living and global conflict while at the same time retaining a softer, more humane vision of themselves and their land. From this rich store of history and possibility, the book connects how the meaning of England has changed and changed again in the past with how it is changing now in the future.

An intellectual who did not like intellectuals, a socialist who did not trust the state, a writer of the left who found it easier to forgive writers of the right, a liberal who was against free markets, a Protestant who believed in religion but not in God, a fierce opponent of nationalism who defined Englishness for a generation. Aside from being one of the greatest political essayists in the English language and author of two of the most famous books in twentieth-century literature, George Orwell was a man of many fascinating contradictions, someone who liked to go against the grain because he believed that was where the truth usually lay. George Orwell: English Rebel takes us on a journey through the many twists and turns of Orwell's life and thought, from the precocious public school satirist at Eton and the imperial policeman in Burma, through his early years as a rather dour documentary writer, down and out on the streets of Paris and London and on the road to Wigan pier, to his formative experiences as a volunteer soldier in the Spanish Civil War. Above all, the book skilfully traces Orwell's gradual reconciliation with his country, a journey which began down a coal mine in 1936 to find its exhilarating peaks during the dark days of the Second World War.

George Orwell: English Rebel

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

The Pitmen of the Northern Coalfield: Work, Culture and Protest, 1790-1850

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Manchester Univ Pr

The Pitmen of Northern Coalfield: Work Culture and Protest 1790-1850

Americas

An affectionate portrait of North East England - past, present and future - this book describes the region as one of lively prosperity and continual economic renewal. Drawing on history, goegraphy, popular culture, political economy, music, literature and sport, "Geordies" celebrates the culture of the North East. It shows how the region not only has a thriving artistic centre, an unrivalled public transport system and some of the most racially integrated communities in Britain, but also maintains a sense of humour.

Geordies: Roots of Regionalism

Edinburgh Univ Pr

Colliers' Rant

Taylor & Francis Books Ltd

The collier's rant: Song and culture in the industrial village

Rowman and Littlefield

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Books by Colls, Robert