A collection of essays exploring the relationship between sport and war, bringing together established authors that include Peter Beck, Hans Bonde, J.A. Mangan and Gertrud Pfister, and emerging authors such as Penelope Kissoudi, Orestis Kustrin, Callum McKenzie and Roberta Vescovi.

Prologue - combative sports and combative societies, J.A. Mangan; from the battlefield to the arena - gladiators, militarism and the Roman republic, Donald G. Kyle; lasting legacy? spartan life as a Germanic educational ideal - Karl Otfried Muller and Die Dorier, Orestis Kustrin and J.A. Mangan; ball games, from the Roman gentleman to the Renaissance warrior, John McClelland; military drill - rather more than brief and basic - English elementary schools and English militarism, J.A. Mangan and Callum McKenzie; wartime opportunities - ladies' football and the First World War factories, Ali Melling; antidote to war - the Balkan games, Penelope Kissoudi; children into soldiers - sport and fascist Italy, Roberta Vescovi; confronting George Orwell - Philip Noel-Baker on international sport, particularly the Olympic movement, as peacemaker, Peter J. Beck; compromise and confrontation - Danish sport under the swastika, Hans Bonde; Cold War diplomats in tracksuits - the Frauleinwunder of East German sport, Gertrud Pfister; fitness wars - purpose and politics in communist state-building, Vassil Girginov; epilogue - many mansions and many architectural styles, J.A. Mangan.