Sport, Leisure and Culture in Twentieth-Century Britain

JEFFREY HILL is Professor of Historical and Cultural Studies, and Director of the International Centre for Sports History and Culture, at De Montfort University,Leicester. He has written on the British Labour Movement in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, and on various aspects of sport and popular recreation in Britain.

'This is a clearly written, maturely assessed, and sufficiently comprehensive introduction to the subject. It provides fine summaries of the chosen topics and will be a useful textbook for the hundreds of students still flocking to the study of sport and leisure. They will appreciate the chronologies of events at the end of every chapter and the guides to further reading. Hill is to be congratulated for producing a work that is long overdue.' - Matthew Hilton, University of Birmingham, Economic History Review 'Provocative and illuminating, polemical and instructive, Hill's book is genuinely engaging.' - Adrian Smith, Reviews in History 'As a general cultural history, this book provides an informative historical overview across a wide range of leisure activities.' - Mike Marinetto, Cardiff University, Political Studies 'A thoughtful and well-presented account which all our students will be urged to read.' - Tony Mason, De Montfort University 'A clearly organised and valuable contribution to the study of leisure in the 20th Century.' - Dr Harvey Taylor, University of Northumbria, Carlisle Campus '...clear and accessible for undergraduate readers.' - Professor Peter Beck, Kingston University 'This is a valuable addition to the British sport and leisure history material. It provides clearly articulated frameworks for analysis which students will find particularly useful.' - Ian Henry, Loughborough University 'This book's strength is that it brings together such a wide body of literature, and will provide any student with an ideal introduction to the subject of sport and leisure.' - Peter Miskell, University of Reading, Business History 'Written in crystal-clear prose, even when in the jargon-laden domain of cultural studies, it is, in part, a survey of the historiographical debates that have come to define the field. As such, it is lucid and illuminating. But unlike many syntheses, it also possesses a freshness of its own.' - Andy Croll, Twentieth Century British History 'One of the strengths of the book lies in the clear articulation of the theories that informed the writing...These inform the work but never override the evidence. Evidence is foundational to this book. Hill also locates leisure within the wider context of social history. Very simply, the scholarship is impeccable.' - Alan Metcalfe, Labour/Le Travail

• Introduction: 'Free Time' in the 20th CenturyPART 1: COMMERCIAL SPORT AND LEISUREThe 'Peculiar Economics' of the People's GamesGoing to the Pictures: America and the CinemaMediating the Event: Sport and the MediaPART 2: LEISURE, THE HOME AND VOLUNTARY ACTIVITYLeisure and the Home: Radio and TelevisionYouth and the Problem of LeisureThe Club PrinciplePART 3: PUBLIC POLICY: THE ROLE OF THE STATEState and Politics in Sport and LeisureFrom 'Rational Recreation' to 'Sport for All': The Place of the Municipality in Sport and LeisureConclusionBibliographyIndex.