Essay Information
KP241 – Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Sport
Five pages in length
Double spaced text (typed)
Referenced in APA style
Full bibliography
Students are to answer one of the three questions set out below
Bibliography must include at least five different academic works (articles, books, or chapters) from a list provided. Students may seek academic material not on the list
The paper should be submitted in class on week 10 (22/03/2010)
Question 1 – We know that sport in pre-Greek societies was vastly different than the sporting culture of Classical Greece. What were some of the unique characteristics of Greek sports? Discuss with reference to the Ancient Olympic Games.
Bibliography
John E Findling & Kimberly D. Pelle eds., Historical Dictionary of the Modern Olympic Movement (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1996).
– R. K. Barney, “Prologue: The Ancient Games,” xxi-xl.
M. I. Finlay & H. W. Pleket, The Olympic Games: The First Thousand Years (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin & Co, Ltd, 1976).
Nigel Crowther, Sport in Ancient Times (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2007), Chapters 6 & 7.
E. Norman Gardiner, Athletics of the Ancient World (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1930).
Allen Guttmann, Sports: The First Five Millennia (Amherst: The University of Massachussetts Press, 2004), chapter 3.
H.A. Harris, Sport in Greece and Rome (London: Thames and Hudson, 1972).
– Chapter 1, “Greek Athletics,” pp13-43.
Stephen G. Miller, “Turns and Lanes in the Ancient Stadium,” American Journal of Archaeology 84, no.2 (April, 1980), 159-66.
H. W. Pleket, “Games, Prizes, Athletes and Ideology,” Stadion 1 (1975), 49-89.
Michael B. Poliakoff, “Stadium and Arena: Reflections on Greek, Roman, and Contemporary Social History,” Olympika 2 (1993), 67-78.
David C. Young, The Olympic Myth of Greek Amateur Athletics (Chicago: Ares Publishers, 1984).
Question 2 – Religion has played an important role in the regulation and development of sport. Discus some of the main changes in religious philosophy regarding sport with reference to asceticism, the Militia Christi, Puritanism, and muscular Christianity.
Bibliography
Anne Bloomfield, “Muscular Christian or Mystic: Charles Kingsley Reappraised,” The International Journal of the History of Sport 11, no.2 (1994), 172-190.
Dennis Brailsford, “Religion and Sport in Eighteenth-Century England: ‘For the Encouragement of Piety and Virtue, and for the Preventing or Punishing of Vice, Profaneness and Immorality,’” The British Journal of Sports History (now The International Journal of the History of Sport) 1, no. 2 (September, 1984), 166-183.
Dennis Brailsford, “Puritanism and Sport in Seventeenth Century England,” Stadion 1, no.2, 1975, 316-330.
John Marshall Carter, Medieval Games: Sports and Recreations in Feudal Society (New York: Greenwood Press, 1992), chapter 6.
Deobold B. Van Dalen & Bruce L. Bennett, A World History of Physical Education (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Inc., 1971), 93-96.
Brian Harrison, “Religion and Recreation in 19th C England,” Past and Present 38 (December, 1967), 98-125.
Richard Holt, Sport and the British: A Modern History (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989).
J. A. Mangan, “Darwinism, Sport and English Upper Class Education,” Stadion 7, no.1 (1981), 93-116.
Joachim K. Rühl, “Religion and Amusements in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century England: ‘Time might be better bestowed, and besides wee see sin acted,’” The British Journal of Sports History 1, no. 2 (September, 1984), 125-165.
Keith A. P. Sandiford, “Cricket and the Victorian Society,” Journal of Social History 17, no.2 (Winter, 1983), 303-317.
Malcolm Tozer, “From ‘Muscular Christianity’ to ‘Esprit de Corps:’ Games in the Victorian Public Schools of England,” Stadion 7, no.1 (1981), 117-130.
Question 3 – Sport was a useful tool for the British Empire. Try to explain the socializing nature of sport in Britain’s colonies and some of the results or legacies of the process. Discus with reference to the West Indies, Australia, or New Zealand.
Bibliography
Richard Holt, Sport and the British: A Modern History (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989).
C.L.R. James, Beyond a Boundary (London: Serpent’s Tail, 1994).
Wray Vamplew ed., Sport and Colonialism in 19th Century Australia (1986)
– Chapter 2, “The Legacy of British Victorian Social Thought: Some Prominent Views on Sport, Physical Exercise and Society in Colonial Australia”
– Chapter 3, “Athleticism, Gentleman and Empire in Australian Public Schools: L.A. Adamson and Wesley College, Melbourne”
– Chapter 4, “Recreational and Sporting Values on the Fringe of an Imperial Empire: The Shaping of a British Heritage in Colonial New Zealand”
John Nauright ed. Sport, Power and Society in New Zealand (1999)
– Chapter 2, “Rugby and the Forging of a National Identity”
Brian Stoddart, “Caribbean Cricket: The Role of Sport in Emerging Small Nation Politics,” International Journal 43, no.4 (1988), 618-642.
Brian Stoddart, “The Elite Schools and Cricket in Barbados: A Study in Colonial Continuity,” The International Journal of the History of Sport 4 (December, 1987)
Wray Vamplew and Brian Stoddart, Sport in Australia: A Social History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), Chapters 1 and 4.