The Cultural Bond: Sport, Empire, Society

For Britain's empire-builders, sport was much more than merely an agreeable recreation. It became elevated to the status of a moral discipline, a symbol of imperial solidarity and superiority, even a salve for conscience. The contributors to this volume examine the aspects of the cultural associations, symbolic interpretations and emotional significance of the idea of empire and, to some extent, with the post-imperial consequences. Collectively and cumulatively, their view is that sport was an important instrument of imperial cultural association and subsequent cultural change, promoting at various times and in various places imperial unity, national identity, social reform, recreational development and post-imperial goodwill.