A History of Sport in Wales

Charts the concise history of sport in Wales since 1800. The book locates the character and structure of sport within the wider social, political and economic context that shaped it.

Chapter 1: Explores sport and games during the emergent phase of industrialisation. It explains how wider social and economic change was key to laying the foundations of modern sport.

Chapter 2: Investigates the emergence of modern organised sport in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. It explores the role immigration played in introducing new sports to Wales and argues that sport played a key part in binding together the new industrial communities and forging a wider popular sense of Welsh nationhood.

Chapter 3: Traces the period from the 1920s to the 1950s, showing the growing commercialisation of sport, which did nothing to diminish the thriving playing culture.

Chapter 4: Explores the professional era from the 1950s to the modern day and the dominance of television.