Description
This book is about the history of rugby league in twentieth century Britain. It looks at the sport's relationship with the changing culture of the north of England, and its centrality to working-class masculinity.
Rugby League in Twentieth Century Britain is the follow-up volume to the award-winning Rugby's Great Split. Following on from that work, the book offers a social and cultural history of rugby league in the twentieth century, from World War One to the 'Super League' controversy of 1995. Based on extensive archival research, it situates the sport in the changing culture of the north of England. It seeks to examine the cultural, social and economic basis of the sport amidst the changes to the industrial and social landscape of the north in the twentieth century. Central to this is the book's discussion of the nature of Northern English identity. In addition, it also looks at rugby league's relationship with the British empire (via its links with Australia and New Zealand), its war with rugby union (using the previously unopened archives of the Rugby Football Union) and the centrality of working-class masculinity to northern culture. Like its predecessor, the book will appeal to sports historians and sociologists, historians interested in regional, cultural and gender history, graduate and undergraduate history, sociology and sports studies students, and followers of rugby league, and sport in general.
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