COURSE TITLE: The Origins and Growth of Modern Sport, 1850-1945
COURSE CODE: HIST 1018
LEVEL: UG 1
NO OF CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITE(S): None
COURSE RATIONALE
It is important for any student of Sports Studies – whether going on to specialise in sport management, economics, history, government or sociology of sport – to understand the forces that gave rise to and shape modern sport and to understand the resulting sport value systems. 2 Understanding these traditional value systems is necessary to make sense of many of the contemporary issues in sport.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is meant to be an introductory course for students doing a Major or Minor in Sports Studies, or who have a general interest in sports and wish to have an understanding of the origins and growth of modern sport. The course covers a broad range of social, economic and political issues related to the development of sport from the middle of the nineteenth century to the end of the Second World War. The course starts with a brief look at the emergence of sporting traditions around the world – focussing on the forms and purposes of these traditions. It then examines the reformation of sport in Britain in the middle of the nineteenth century. It looks specifically at how changes to British society resulting from the Industrial Revolution and the phenomenon of Muscular Christianity impacted the development of sport. The course then examines the growth of sports in north-west Europe and North America, as well as the spread of sports through imperial efforts – resulting in a global dominance of Western sport. It explores the formal organisation of sports in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with the formation of ruling bodies, codified rules, formal competitions and the beginnings of international sporting contests. It also seeks to explore the emerging value systems surrounding sport: ones that were frequently classist, sexist and racist.
