Download this VSI Reading Guide as an Adobe PDF (28 KB)

Questions for Thought and Discussion

• What is Sport?
• How do the Ancient Greeks organise their sports?
• Why do Ancient Roman sports appear so violent?
• Why is the advent of rules so important in the development of sport?
• How important is gambling in the emergence of modern sport?
• Why does Britain emerge as the birthplace of modern sport?
• How does sport spread around the world?
• Why does the United States develop its own forms of sport?
• Do you think that the amateur ethos in sport is important?
• Is contemporary sport too linked to big business?
• Why have international bodies such as FIFA and the International Olympic Committee become so powerful?
• Is there too much money in modern sport?
• Should sports be ethical?
• Do sports federations take strong enough action against athletes who break the rules?
• Should we care how athletes behave off the field of play?
• Is sport a good thing?

Other titles by the author

• With John Bale (eds.), Sport and Postcolonialism(Oxford: Berg, 2003)
• With Roisin Higgins Places We Play: Ireland’s Sporting Heritage (Cork: Collins Press, 2011)
• With Jason Franks Liberal Peace Transitions, (Edinburgh University Press, 2009)
• With Mark Duncan and Paul Rouse The GAA: A People’s History (Cork: Collins Press, 2014)

Further Reading

• T. Collins Sport in Capitalist Society (London: Routledge, 2013)
• D. Goldblatt The Ball is Round: A Global History of Football (London: Penguin, 2007)
• R. Holt, Sport and the British (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981)
• M. Mandelbaum The Meaning of Sports: Why Americans Watch Baseball, Football and What They See When They Do (New York: Perseus, 2005)