Orwell was wrong. Sports are not “war without the shooting,” nor are they “war by other means.” Although sports have generated animosity throughout human history, they also require rules. Those rules limit violence, even death. Thus sports have been a significant part of a historical “civilizing process.” As the historical profession has taken its cultural turn over the past few decades, scholars have turned their attention to a subject once seen as marginal. As researchers have come to understand the centrality of the human body in human history, they have come to study this most corporeal of human activities. Taking early cues from physical educators and kinesiologists, historians have explored sports in all their forms. There has been a veritable explosion of excellent work on this subject, just as sports have assumed an even greater share of a globalizing world’s cultural, political, and economic space. Practiced by millions and watched by billions, sports provide an enormous share of content on the Internet. This volume combines the efforts of sports historians with essays by historians whose careers have been devoted to more traditional topics. It shows how sports have evolved from ancient societies to the world today. The goal is to introduce those from outside this subfield to this burgeoning body of scholarship as well as show those who may want to study sport with rigor and nuance how to embark on a rewarding journey and tackle profound matters that have affected and will continue to affect all of humankind.
Processes and Trends of Modern Transformation of the Socio-Economic Space of Russia and the World
