Athleticism in the Victorian and Edwardian Public School: The Emergence and Consolidation of an Educational Ideology

by J. A. Mangan

Overview

Games obsessed the Victorian and Edwardian public schools. This obsession has become widely known as athleticism. Now commonly regarded as an indulgence, it was in fact much more: a combination of hedonism and idealism. This is a major study of the games ethos which dominated the lives of many Victorian and Edwardian public school boys. It includes much hitherto unpublished material about schools, people, practices and attitudes, and adds insights and subtlety to earlier, uncomplicated generalizations. Dr Mangan's readable and engrossing study of athleticism is a work of substantial and fluent scholarship. It is an original and stimulating contribution to the history of public schools, educational ideologies and secondary education which will interest the general reader as well as the social scientist, historian and educationalist.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521090391
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/20/2008
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	364
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

J. A. Mangan

Table of Contents

Prologue; Part I: The growth of the ideology; 1. Reformation, indifference and liberty; 2. Licence, antidote and emulation; 3. Idealism, idealists and rejection; 4. Compulsion, conformity and allegiance; Part II: The forces of ideological consolidation; 5. Conspicuous resources, anti-intellectualism and sporting pedagogues; 6. Oxbridge fashions, complacent parents and imperialism; 7. Fez, 'blood' and hunting crop: the symbols and rituals of a Spartan culture; 8. Play up and play the game: the rhetoric of cohesion, identity, patriotism and morality; Epilogue.

Editorial Reviews

'One of the four most important books published in the last twenty years on sports history.' - Allen Guttmann, Amherst College

'Original, exhaustively-researched and stimulating.' - Francis Wheen, The New Statesman

'One of the four most important books published in the last twenty years on sports history.' - Allen Guttmann, Amherst College

'Original, exhaustively-researched and stimulating.' - Francis Wheen, The New Statesman

'One of the vital works for those engaged in both the history of education and the cultural history of sport.' - History of Education Review

From the Publisher