Covering a time of great social and technological change, this history traces the development of the four classic aquatic disciplines of competitive swimming, diving, synchronized swimming and water polo, with its main focus on racing. Working from the beginnings of municipal recreational swimming, the book fully explores the links between swimming and other aspects of English life society including class, education, gender, municipal governance, sexuality and the Victorian invention of the sports amateur-professional divide.

Uniquely focused on swimming -often neglected in analytic sports histories- this is the first study of its kind and will be an important landmark in the establishment of swimming history as a topic of scholarly investigation.

This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

About the Author
Christopher Love is an independent Scholar.

Reviews

"It provides a lot of interesting information for others pursuing research in the area and certainly points the direction to a lot of useful sources of information in this previously neglected area within the wider field of sports history research" Win Hayes

"Overall this book covers a wide range of topics related to swimming and provides a comprehensive overview of the developments of the period" Win Hayes

Book Information
ISBN 9780415390767
Author Christopher Love
Format Hardback
Page Count 166
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g