What Went Wrong with Counting? Thinking about Sport and Class in Britain and Ireland

Abstract

This paper argues that the methodologies employed in much of Wray Vamplew's work, that of a ‘traditional’ economic historian, have great relevance in current studies of sports history. The issue of class, and in particular, the middle classes, have been a central theme in much recent sports history work, yet the work presented to date has not been underpinned by the kind of empirical work which Vamplew excelled at. The paper concludes that without a double approach – both empirical and cultural – our understanding of class and other key questions in sports history will be weakened.

Notes

1. The weight of this work is impressive, especially in the IJHS, but see for example in book form, Mike Huggins, Victorians and sport (Hambledon, 2007); J.A. Mangan, ed., Reformers, sports modernisers: Middle class revolutionaries (London, 2002); John Lowerson, Sport and the English middle classes (1995); John Lowerson, Sport and the English middle classes (Manchester, 1995).

2. See the many articles by Boria Majumdar, for example, ‘Tom Brown goes global: The Brown ethic in colonial and postcolonial India’, International Journal for the History of Sport, 23 (5) (2006), pp. 805–20.

3. Mike Huggins, ‘Second-class citizens? English middle-class culture and sport, 1850–1910: A reconsideration’, International Journal of the History of Sport, 17 (1) (2000), pp. 1, 5.

4. Tony Mason, Association Football and English society, 1863–1915 (Brighton, 1980); Matthew Taylor, The leaguers: The making of professional football in England, 1900–39 (Liverpool, 2005); Neil Carter, The football manager: A history (London, 2006); Tony Collins, Rugby league in twentieth century Britain (Abingdon, 2006); Tony Collins, Rugby's great split (London, 2006); Tony Collins, A social history of English rugby union (Abingdon, 2009); Wray Vamplew, ‘Successful workers or exploited labour? Golf professionals and professional golfers in Britain, 1888–1914’, Economic History Review, 61 (1) (2008), pp. 54–79; Keith A.P. Sandiford and Wray Vamplew, ‘County cricketers’ benefits and testimonials, 1946–85’, International Journal of the History of Sport, 16 (1) (1999), pp. 87–116; and Martin Johnes, ‘Pigeon racing and working-class culture in Britain, c.1850–1950’, Cultural and Social History, 4 (3) (2007), pp. 361–83.

5. Wray Vamplew, Pay up and play the game: Professional sport in Britain, 1875–1914 (Cambridge, 2008).

6. Hugh Cunningham, ‘Leisure and culture’, in F.M.L. Thompson, ed., The Cambridge social history of Britain, 1870–1960, vol. 2: People and their environment (Cambridge, 1990).

7. Ian Clarke, ‘Social history of Cornish cricket’ (unpublished PhD thesis, De Montfort University, 2004), ch. 4.

8. Liam O'Callaghan, ‘A social history of Munster rugby’ (unpublished PhD thesis, Leeds Metropolitan University, 2010).

9. Tom Hunt, Sport and society in Victorian Ireland: The case of Westmeath (Cork, 2007); and for an assessment of its importance see IHR reviews in history, available online at http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/paper/rouse.html, accessed 6 May 2009.

10. Tom Hunt, ‘The GAA: Social structure and associated clubs’, in Mike Cronin, William Murphy and Paul Rouse, eds., The Gaelic Athletic Association, 1884–2009 (Cork, 2009), pp. 183–202.

11. See http://irishassociations.ie/wordpress/

12. See http://irishassociations.ie/wordpress/

13. Peter Clark, British clubs and societies, 1580–1800: The origins of an associational world (Oxford, 2000).

14. Clark, ‘Cornish cricket’, ch. 3.

15. See www.gaahistory.com for details.

16. Alan Metcalfe, Leisure and recreation in a Victorian mining community: The social economy of leisure in rural north-east England, 1820–1914 (London, 2005); for example, Neil Tranter, ‘The patronage of organised sport in central Scotland, 1820–1900’, Journal of Sport History, 16 (3) (1989), pp. 227–47; and Neil Tranter, ‘The social and occupational structure of sport in central Scotland in the nineteenth century’, International Journal of the History of Sport, 4 (3) (1987), pp. 301–14.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mike Cronin

Mike Cronin, Boston College, Dublin