ABSTRACT
The origins of this book lay in irritation, not at the demise of amateurism, but at the reaction to its decline, the too easy acceptance of its irrelevance to the future; there was also some triumphalism. One should not be too upset nor too impressed by such facile assumptions about the irrevocability of history. There was much dancing on the graves of capitalism, religion and even nationalism during the twentieth century, but all are still with us and social science is now modest enough, for the most part, to admit that we have no idea which of them will be prospering in the year 2100.
