Introduction

One of the most important turns in the last 20 years in sport history has been the cultural turn which placed meaning, symbols, images, affects, emotions, voices, and experiences at the heart of analysis. The cultural turn has been critical to drawing historians’ attention to the distinction between the past and history. The past and history are now recognized as two different things; so different that history cannot purport to be the past, but rather a selective and positioned representation of the past. The chapter provides a slice of sport history, but what we consider to be an informative slice that demonstrates the adaptive, dynamic, and sophisticated qualities of the subdiscipline. In the spirit of the cultural turn, that promotes a heightened state of authorial self-awareness, we explain and rationalize our decisions about what topics are chosen, and which ones are excluded. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.