Muscular Christianity in Colonial and Post-Colonial World

MacAloon, John J. (EDT)

ISBN 10: 0415494915 / ISBN 13: 9780415494915

Published by Routledge, 2007

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 6545679-n

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Muscular Christianity in Colonial and Post-Colonial World
• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0415494915
• ISBN 13: 9780415494915
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

This Volume explores the enormous impact the ethos of Muscular Christianity has had an on modern civil society in English-speaking nations and among the peoples they colonized. First codified by British Christian Socialists in the mid-nineteenth century, explicitly religious forms of the ideology have persistently re-emerged over ensuing decades: secularized, essentialized, and normalized versions of the ethos - the public school spirit, the games ethic, moral masculinity, the strenuous life - came to dominate and to spread rapidly across class, status, and gender lines. These developments have been appropriated by the state to support imperial military and colonial projects. Late nineteenth and early twentieth century apologists and critics alike widely understood Muscular Christianity to be a key engine of British colonialism. This text demonstrates the need to re-evaluate the entire history of Muscular Christianity comes chiefly from contemporary post-colonial studies. The papers explore fascinating case materials from Canada, the U.S., India, Japan, Papua, New Guinea, the Spanish Caribbean, and in Britain in a joint effort to outline a truly international, post-colonial sport history.

About the Author

John J MacAloon is Professor and Deputy Dean of the Social Sciences Division at the University of Chicago. He is author of the classic, The Great Symbol: Pierre De Coubertin and the origins of the modern Olympic Games.