Orwell was wrong. Sports are not "war without the shooting", nor are they "war by other means." To be sure sports have generated animosity throughout human history, but they also require rules to which the participants agree to abide before the contest. Among other things, those rules are supposed to limit violence, even death. More than anything else, sports have been a significant part of a historical "civilizing process." They are the opposite of war.
As the historical profession has taken its cultural turn over the last few decades, scholars have turned their attention to subject once seen as marginal. As researchers have come to understand the centrality of the human body in human history, they have come to study this most corporeal of human activities. Taking early cues from physical educators and kinesiologists, historians have been exploring sports in all their forms in order to help us answer the most fundamental questions to which scholars have devoted their lives. We have now seen a veritable explosion excellent work on this subject, just as sports have assumed an even greater share of a globalizing world's cultural, political and economic space. Practiced by millions and watched by billions, sports provide an enormous share of content on the Internet. This volume combines the efforts of sports historians with essays by historians whose careers have been devoted to more traditional topics. We want to show how sports have evolved from ancient societies to the world we inhabit today. Our goal is to introduce those from outside this sub-field to this burgeoning body of scholarship. At the same time, we hope here to show those who may want to study sport with rigor and nuance how to embark on a rewarding journey and tackle profound matters that have affected and will affect all of humankind.

Robert Edelman is currently leading a multi-year research project on the global history of sport during the Cold War.
Wayne Wilson is Vice President for Education at LA84 Foundation, where he is responsible for the digital library, commissioned research projects, conference development and the coaching education program.

Introduction - Robert Edelman and Wayne Wilson
Part I. THEORIZING SPORT HISTORY
1. Sport and Social Theory - Douglas Hartmann
2. Sport and Political Doctrine in a Post-Ideological Age - John Hoberman
3. The "Somatic/Linguistic Turn and Histories of Exercise and Sport - Richard Gruneau
4. Sport History and the Historical Profession - David McDonald
Part II. PRE-MODERN SPORT
5. Ancient Greek and Roman Sport - Donald G. Kyle
6. Medieval Sport - Angela Gleason
7. Early Modern Sport - Mike Huggins
Part III. THE BIRTH AND ESTABLISHMENT OF MODERN SPORT, 1820-1940
8. Industrialization and Sport - Wray Vamplew
9. Sport and Urbanization - Michael T. Friedman and Jacob Bustad
10. Communications and Journalism - John Carvalho
11. Diffusion and Empire - Laurent Dubois
Part IV. PATTERNS OF DIFFUSION
12. The Global Spread of Football - Matthew Taylor
13. Baseball's Global Diffusion - Rob Ruck
14. Cricket: The Indianization of an Imperial Game - Amit Gupta
15. Surfing: A Global Phenomenon - Douglas Booth
Part V. SITES OF SPORT DEVELOPMENT
16. Sport in China - Susan Brownell
17. South Asian Sport - Boria Majumdar
18. Diffusion and Transformation of Western Sports in North Asia - Sayuri Guthrie-Shimizu
19. Sport in the Middle East - Alon K. Raab
20. Sport in Africa - Pascal Charitas
21. Sport in Russia and Eastern Europe - Mauricio Borrero
22. Sport in West and North Europe - Christopher Young
23. Sport in Southern Europe - Andrew McFarland
24. Sport in Latin America - Brenda Elsey
25. The Changing Field of Sports History in Australasia - Gary Osmond
Part VI. NEW GLOBALIZATIONS & THEIR DISCONTENTS
26. Contemporary Globalization and Recent Olympic Leadership - Stephen R. Wenn and Robert K. Barney
27. WADA and Doping in World Sport - Thomas M. Hunt
Part VII. RECONSIDERING ESTABLISHED CATEGORIES AND CONTEMPLATING NEW ONES
28. Class and Sport - Lewis H. Siegelbaum and Sasu Siegelbaum
29. Gender Matters in Sport History - Patricia Vertinsky
30. Race and Sport - Daniel Widener
31. Sport and National Identity - Dilwyn Porter
32. History of Sport and Religion in the United States and Britain - Amy Koehlinger
Part VIII. EMERGING AREAS OF INTEREST
33. The Visual Turn in Sport History - Mike O'Mahony
34. Sports and Sexuality - Erik N. Jensen