It confirms, reinforces and sometimes challenges, stereotypes and myths around nationhood, race and gender. All over the world, people take part in it and watch it in ever larger numbers. An estimated 3 million Britons take part in some sort of sporting activity every week. Globally, a cumulative audience of around 37 billion people watched France '98. But these figures don't get to the heart of the social power and significance of sport in the modern world.
Sport runs through our language and our culture.
Sport is a major topic of conversation for people at all levels and in all roles. The British at Play - a Social History of British Sport from 1600 to the Present' sets out to examine these issues and in doing so, becomes far more than a book about Britain and sport. Precisely because sport is so much a part of society, 'The British at Play' raises issues about social class, gender, violence, commercialism, race and national identity. The material is aimed primarily at students on undergraduate or postgraduate courses in Cultural Studies, although, as we shall see below, it can be of much wider interest. The book is a social history, which means that the development and change of power relations in and through sport can be studied over time.