205. The Global Spread of Football with Thomas Adam
This week we delve deep into the origins of the football codes across Britain, Europe and the Americas with Thomas Adam, author of the new book The Global Spread of football from the 1860s to the 1880s.
His book looks at the emergence of football in England, Germany, Argentina and the United States in the 1860s and 1870s, and looks at the decisive influence of education and educators in the rise of the game. The book is code-agnostic, and so looks at ‘football’ as nineteenth century observers did: one game with many different ways to play. Along the way we also discuss the roads not taken, such as how Germany could have become a rugby nation and the US a soccer bastion.
For more details about the book, go to https://anthempress.com/books/the-global-spread-of-football-from-the-1860s-to-the-1880s-hb
For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com (where you can find the links for this episode) and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony
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204. A Cultural History of the Ashes (part two)
With rugby league's Ashes series imminent, part two of Rugby Reloaded's look at the cultural history of Anglo-Australian rugby league moves onto the post-World War 2 period.
It was an era when the balance of power moved down under, with British players moving to Aussie clubs in the 1960s and 1970s, and the decline of Britain's ability to consistently compete with Australia in test matches.
After 1970, the Lions never won a test series and British efforts to compete were hampered by changes in the British sports economy and poor leadership. But as we look toward the upcoming Ashes series, is there a way forward?
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203. The Boston Game and the Origins of Football in America
Our new episode investigates the origin story of football in America, in conversation with Mike Cronin and Kevin Marston, authors of 'Inventing the Boston Game: Football, Soccer, and the Origins of a National Myth'.
It's a tale of early football, elite myth-making, and the creation of a tradition that was claimed by both gridiron and soccer.
As the book explains, what began as the youthful memories of a group of Boston Brahmins continues today as a culture war between the two eleven-a-side versions of football.
To find out more about the book, click here: https://www.umasspress.com/9781625348432/inventing-the-boston-game/
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202. A Cultural History of the RL Ashes (Part 1)
As the countdown for the Rugby League Ashes series begins, the new 'Rugby Reloaded' is the first of two episodes taking a deep dive into the cultural history of the Ashes to ask what it can tell us about Anglo-Australian relations over the past century.
There was a time that it was seen as a contest between two 'British' nations fighting for rugby supremacy, and when the sheer ferocity of matches reflected the underlying tensions between the 'Mother Country' and the upstart Dominion. Even in the 1950s, Australian rugby league officials were telling RFL officials that they were just a British as them!
For more on the history of rugby and the other football codes, take a look at www.rugbyreloaded.com and follow me on Twitter at @collinstony
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201. David Goldblatt on soccer in Injury Time
On this week's episode I talk to David Goldblatt about his new book 'Injury Time: Football in a State of Emergency' published this month by Mudlark.
It's a look at English soccer over past decade, examining its response to Brexit, Covid and climate change, and looking at the rise of the women's game and the changing role of the sport in society.
In our wide-ranging discussion, we talk about how football has become the new soap opera, the impact of social media, differences between the men's and women's game, and what the future holds for the game.
If you want to find out more, 'Injury Time' is available from https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/injury-time-football-in-a-state-of-emergency-david-goldblatt?variant=55169175650683
New Zealand