Sport and the British world : amateurism and national identity in Australasia and beyond / Erik Nielsen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nielsen, Erik (College teacher), author.

Series:

Britain and the world

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Professionalism in sports--Australasia.

Professionalism in sports.

Professionalism in sports--Great Britain.

Nationalism and sports--Australasia--History--20th century.

Nationalism and sports.

Nationalism and sports--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Professionalism in sports--Australasia--History--20th century.

Professionalism in sports--Great Britain--History--20th century.

History.

Great Britain.

Australasia.

Physical Description:

xii, 257 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan 2014.

Summary:

Sport and the British World, 1900-1930 is a ground-breaking transnational study into the way that amateurism in sport was defined in Australia and New Zealand, and the implications that this had on international understandings of Britishness. Australasians selectively applied aspects of dominant English forms of amateurism and contributed to international debates about the nature of sport as a result. They also contributed to understandings of Britishness through their engagement with Britons across the world. The relationship with their counterparts in England was tense, but the Australasians were ultimately unwilling to follow a separate path, while Canada seemed to provide a more hospitable 'British' environment that mixed modern approaches to sport with a specifically British framework. A shared British identity was strong enough to tie Australians and New Zealanders together before the First World War, but its removal after the war saw them separate. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Introduction 1

Amateurism 5

Recent developments in the historiography of amateur sport 8

Nationalism and Britishness in sporting identity 11

The British World 15

Chapter breakdown 21

2 The Commercialisation of Australasian Amateur Athletics 25

The role of finance in amateur sport 27

Club events 30

Intercolonial representative contests 38

The importance of tours in Australian culture 41

The Shrubb-Duffey tour 43

The Rowley tour 51

Conclusion 54

3 The Role of Race and Class in Defining the Australasian Amateur Community 57

The status of Indigenous athletes in Australasia 60

The relationship between team sports and amateurism 66

The Australasian Union and team sports 69

The Miller and Sparrow cases 75

Conclusions 89

4 'Imperialism and Nationalism in Action'? Reconfiguring the Athletic Relationship with Britain 92

'British History' 93

Thwarted Britishness: the Australasian relationship with English amateur organisations 97

Better Britain; the Australasian Union and the sympathetic English 104

Austral(as)ia's Empire: the Australasian Union and like-minded English officials 112

The 1911 Festival or Empire and notions of Britishness 114

Conclusion 119

5 North American Cousins: Relations with the United States and Canada 121

North America and Australasia 122

The Australasian Union and the United States of America 125

The Australasian Union and Canada 131

Tensions with Canada 136

The reassertion of conservatism in Canada 147

Conclusion 149

6 A Question of Nationalism? The Dissolution of the Australasian Amateur Athletic Relationship 152

'Australasia' and the 'Tasman World' 153

Sport and Australasia 156

The Australasian Olympic Team 159

Nationalism and the Australasian Union 166

The dissolution of the Australasian Union 171

Conclusion 180.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 234-249) and index.

ISBN:

9781137398505

1137398507

OCLC:

881839211