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13 June 2005 Volume 1, Issue 12 The Duke of Wellington is quoted as having said “The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.” While it is not clear if Wellington actually said this or, if he did, that it was true, the continuing popularity of the quote does point to the importance of sports in history. This issue of World History To Go has sports as its theme because sports is part of history, is a good way to get into and learn about history, and because this month we are publishing our four-volume Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport. Types of Games and Sports
"Sports and music have become the universal languages." Nature of Modern Sports Chinese Cricket Gambling Ancient, medieval, and folk sports (many of which are still played today) are usually thought of as forms of recreation or amusement or as religious rituals. Modern sports which emerged in England in the nineteenth century are thought to be something quite different. Distinguished sports historian Allen Guttmann of Amherst College in his path-breaking book, From Ritual to Record. The Nature of Modern Sport, provides what is now accepted as the standard definition of modern sports. Guttmann writes that modern sport has seven key features: secularism, equality of opportunity to compete under equal conditions, specialization of roles, rationalization, bureaucratic organization, quantification, and the quest for records. In short, modern sport has the same basic attributes as does modern society. Guttmann traces the origins of modern sport to the fascination with measurement which developed during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment and the development of mathematics in the seventeenth century.
Sports and AggressionInside the Berkshire Encyclopedia: Articles devoted to sports through the ages include Dance and Drill, Games, and Sports. For more detail on the history of sports and games, try our new Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport.
One basic question about the role of sports in society and history is whether or not playing or watching violent sports causes aggressive behavior beyond the field or arena. Social scientists have long been of two minds about this. Some argue that violent sports actually control violent behavior by allowing participants and spectators to release pent-up aggression that would otherwise be released in anti-social ways such as by beating children or committing violent crimes or going to war. Others argues that aggression is learned and therefore participating or watching violent sports teaches people that violent aggression is acceptable and thus causes more aggression. Research on sports and aggression in the United States and other societies indicates that the learning model is more accurate. Societies in which combative sports such as boxing, wrestling, and dueling are popular go to war with other societies much more often than societies in which combative sports are not popular. Good historical examples of this pattern are both ancient Sparta and ancient Rome. So, too, are Imperial Britain and the contemporary United States. Research in the United States in the twentieth century shows that during periods of war (World War I, World War II) combative sports such as boxing and football increase in popularity while during periods of peace other sports such as baseball become more popular. It is likely that war and violent sports go together because sports are, as Wellington supposedly claimed, a training ground for warriors. 
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 VIP Teacher OfferThese are just some of the aspects of sports that are relevant to classroom teaching, and we hope they're helpful to you as you plan lessons. I'd love to hear from world history teachers with a special interest in sports, and also want you to know about a special arrangement we're offering, to world history teachers only, on the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History: $460 including shipping within the U.S. This is a 20% discount, we accept credit cards, and will also be happy to be paid in installments ($60 now to get your set, and then $50/month by direct debit). And if that doesn't work, write and propose something else! We'll do anything we can do to help a teacher--to us, always a VIP--who wants a set for her/himself! With warm regards, |
Wellington was saying that the leadership, teamwork, and bravery that British officers learned while playing sports at Eton carried over to their performance in battle and, by extension, to the supremacy of the British Empire. 
In an important article in 1959 anthropologists John Roberts and Malcolm Arth and mathematician Robert Bush defined games (which includes sports) as activities characterized by “organized play, competition, two or more sides, and criteria for determining the winner.” Their definition followed the careful study of hundreds of games and sports around the world. They found that nearly all societies have games and that all games are of three general types – chance, strategy, physical skill – or combinations of the three. Games are so classified depending on the most important factor in determining the winner. In dice games it is chance, in chess it is strategy, in weightlifting it is physical skill. A large and complex nation like the United States or Great Britain has games of all types, although sports that are most popular such as soccer, football, baseball, basketball, and golf are often ones that combine strategy and physical skill. Gambling games and wagering on sport competitions have always been part of sports history. For example, Native Americans wagered heavily on their ball and stick game that we now know as lacrosse. Gambling in general and on sports is associated with uncertainty and feeling that the individual has little control over their own fate. Gambling is seen as a way of redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor, although the reality is that it typically works the other way around.
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