The modern Olympic movement was inspired by the classical world. But, says Richard Bosworth, when the Italian capital hosted the Games in 1960, the organisers had to offer an image of the city that also took account of its Christian, Renaissance and Fascist pasts.
Mike Marqusee revisits S.M. Toyne’s article, The Early History of Cricket, on the origins and growth of the game, first published in History Today in June 1955.
S.M. Toyne charts the inception and development of this most quintessentially English sport.
Football became a potent expression of Algeria’s struggle for independence, never more so than during the dramatic events that preceded the 1958 World Cup, as Martin Evans explains.
Objects loaded with the history of the Troubles are scattered around Belfast, but sensitivity means the debate about how and where to exhibit them rumbles on, says James Morrison.
When the England football team visited Germany in May 1938, diplomatic protocol resulted in the team giving a Nazi salute.
Plant-based diets high in carbohydrates made the Roman ‘barley men’ appear more spectacular.
Since at least the 18th century, the traditional English summer sport has inspired cartoonists, as Mark Bryant demonstrates.
Byron’s love affair with bare-knuckle boxing was shared by many of his fellow Romantics, who celebrated this most brutal of sports in verse. John Strachan examines an unlikely match.
In 1908 the Olympic movement visited Britain for the first time. Stephen Halliday describes how the British Olympic Association prepared for the Games with barely two years notice.
