An English Tradition The History And Significance Of Fair Play Jonathan Dukeevans by Jonathan Duke-evans 9780192859990, 0192859994 instant download after payment.

For hundreds of years English people have claimed that fair play is at the core of their national identity. Jonathan Duke-Evans looks at the history of fair play in Britain from earliest times to the present, asking whether it is in fact a British, or alternatively an English, characteristic at all - and if so, whether fair play still matters today?
In An English Tradition?, Jonathan Duke-Evans explores the origins of the idea of fair play, tracing it back to the classical world and the Dark Ages, and finding its genesis deep within England's social structure. Charting its early development through both the tales of chivalry and the stories of popular legend, the book shows how fair play manifested itself in literature, the law, the Christian religion, and the family. It examines the way in which fair play was conceived during the ages of slavery and empire, and it proposes a new account of the birth of modern sport in the encounter between age-old popular games and the Victorian cult of amateurism. Taking in the Scottish, Irish, and Welsh manifestations of fair play, Duke-Evans offers contrasts and comparisons from cultures all around the world, and suggests new perspectives on the relevance of fair play in the twenty-first century.
-   The first book to analyse carefully the place of fair play in British society and national identity in its historical context
 -   Demonstrates that ideas of fair play in England go back to the Dark Ages
  -  Documents the way in which values of fair play became integral to the common law
  -  Explains how organised team sports emerged first in Britain through the appropriation of working people's traditional games by social elites
-    Suggests that the role of amateurism in establishing values of fair play and sportsmanship has been over-rated