ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a new and extensive analysis of the role of the historical profession in the writing of sports history in Britain, France and the United States with additional reference to Germany, Italy and Australia. The chapter has three parts: it looks first at the differing national traditions of historical writing on sport by historians; then it examines their work in relation to that of sociologists, anthropologists and physical educators; finally, these differing disciplinary perspectives are critically examined in detail through concrete examples drawn from both traditional and modern sports in Britain, Europe and beyond. Sports history not only has its own specialist academic journals but can also be found in a wide variety of mainstream history publications. Attempting this review of the role of history within sports history reveals how little those involved in the subject have reflected on the different disciplinary approaches to it.
