Games People Played : A Global History of Sport

Games People Played is, surprisingly, the first global history of sport. The book shows how sport has been practiced, experienced and made meaningful by players and fans throughout history. It assesses how sports developed and diffused across the globe, as well as many other aspects, from emotion, discrimination and conviviality; politics, nationalism and protest; and how economics has turned sport into a huge consumer industry. It shows how sport is sociable and health-giving, and also contributes to charity, however it also examines its dark side: its impact on the environment, the use of performance-enhancing drugs, and match fixing. Covering everything from curling to baseball, boxing to motor racing, this book will appeal to anyone who plays, watches and enjoys sport, and wants to know more of its history and global impact.

MEDIA REVIEWS

'Games People Played is the culmination of a life spent working on the history of sports, and it ranges far and wide . . . Vamplew is as informative and comprehensive as one could want . . . An outstanding guide to [sports] role in history.' – David Papineau, Wall Street Journal; 'Wray Vamplew is among the first generation of British historians to have challenged and changed that, writing on, among other things, the history of horseracing, the history of professionalism, rural sports and sport’s relationship with alcohol and violence. Games People Played is no less omnivorous, offering, in miniature, a global history of sport, the history of the world’s leading sports and a historically informed, thematic survey of the best sociological, economic and political work on sport. It is, perhaps, best thought of as a summation not only of the author’s work, but that of a whole generation of historians, and demonstrates unequivocally that their work is neither marginal nor trivial. Indeed, it has become a necessary component of understanding our world.' – David Goldblatt, TLS;

'Wray Vamplew’s Games People Played is one of the smartest books written about sports. Not only does Vamplew detail the evolution of sports across cultures and countries, he thoughtfully discusses how sport historians do their jobs – sifting through documents, testing established myths, and searching for truth and meaning. For an American reader, conditioned by American sports, the book shows us how indebted we are to English and European sporting organizations. No one who reads the book will ever think of sports the same way.' – Randy Roberts, Distinguished Professor of History at Purdue University and author of A Team for America: The Army-Navy Game that Rallied a Nation (2011);