ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains the emergence of working class swimming, middle class hockey and upper class field sports as a way of approaching some developments from the middle of the nineteenth century onwards. It reviews the themes of the commercial, imperial and technological milieus shaping public attitudes to sport, along with campaigns for suffrage and education up to 1914. The book explores how women also helped to lead circuit design, fund track building and contributed to motor racing's society image. It also argues that sporting internationalism was well developed by the 1920's and makes connections between women's football and wider Olympic networks, to offer a revisionist view of the Games. The book discusses the 1948 London Games as an important media moment in the post-war rehabilitation of the Olympic movement.
