Tag: Conor Heffernan

Sport in History encourages the study of sport to illuminate broader historical issues and debates. Includes an extensive reviews section, an annual compendium of sports-related accessions to British archives and a 'Sport in Public History' section. The Forum Editor’s pick from the current issue: Lilian Harrison: the making of a pioneering swimmer, 1904–1923 by Matthew Brown & Pablo Ariel Scharagrodsky (open access).

Sport in History encourages the study of sport to illuminate broader historical issues and debates. Includes an extensive reviews section, an annual compendium of sports-related accessions to British archives and a 'Sport in Public History' section. The Forum Editor’s pick from the current issue: Women coaches, professionalisation, and national governing body mergers in England, 1989–2000 by Rafaelle Nicholson (open access).

Conor Heffernans new book Indian Club Swinging and the Birth of Global Fitness: Mugdars, Masculinity and Marketing (Bloomsbury) tells the story of the rise and growth of club swinging as it spread from India to Europe and America, asking why and how it became so popular. Hans Bolling likes a good historical account, and the history of Club Swinging was new to him. He commends and recommends Heffernan’s interesting, readable and well-researched book about a phenomenon that fell out of fashion well over a century ago.

Academics in various disciplines are writing about sport. Sport in Society is a multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary forum for academics to discuss the growing relationship of sport to significant areas of modern life. The Forum Editor’s pick from the current issue: Beyond the Noise: the cultural (or subcultural) politics of Irish surf films by Stephen Boyd (open access).

Soccer, a.k.a (association) football is the most popular mass spectator sport in the world. Soccer & Society is the first international journal devoted to the game of soccer, and aims to focus on the game in the context of a more global world. The Forum Editor’s pick from the current issue: Adverse effects of repressive policies: safety and security issues in Iranian football by Nasrin Biglari, Henk Erik Meier & Seyed Reza Hosseini Niaa.

Daphné Bolz’ and Michael Krüger’s edited and profusely illustrated collection A History of Sport in Europe in 100 Objects (Arete Verlag) is the first attempt to create a kaleidoscopic history of European sport through its rich material culture. In his thorough, knowledgeable and cogent assessment of the book, our reviewer Conor Curran is highly appreciative of the editors’ huge achievement while still pointing out several omissions, often related to the dark sides of sport – violence, drugs, corruption, etc.

The International Journal of the History of Sport is the world’s leading sport history academic periodical with fully-refereed global coverage of the subject. The Forum Editor’s pick from the current issue: ‘This Is Not a Problem but an Issue’: Chinese-Born Table Tennis Players Representing Another Country at the Olympics, 1988–2020 by Gijsbert Oonk & Alexander Oonk (open access).

In his new book, The History of Physical Culture (Common Ground), Conor Heffernan provides an engaged historical overview of physical culture from the Ancient World to the Modern Day. Dr. Greta Bladh, with great interest in physical culture as a scholar as well as a practicer, has read Heffernan’s contribution to Common Ground’s new series of mini-textbooks. While pointing out and lamenting the author’s preference for Eurocentric perspectives, she still finds reading the book well worth the effort.

2021 saw the centenary of the formation of the League of Ireland, the Republic of Ireland’s primary professional association football league. The League of Ireland: An Historical and Contemporary Assessment, edited by Conor Curran (Routledge), draws on the work of a number of leading historians of Irish soccer. Originally published as a 2021 Special Issue of Soccer & Society, our reviewer Dilwyn Porter sees much to commend in the collection but finds the links to the league in the various contributions less evident than expected.

Brittany Reid’s and Taylor McKee’s collected volume Duelism: Confronting Sport Through Its Doubles (Common Ground) curates critical readings from sport scholars across many fields that acknowledge and interrogate the concept of sport by exploring it in connection with its significant doubles, an approach termed “duelism.” Steph Doehler’s reading of the anthology evokes mainly positive reactions, while also indicating that critical comments are called for.