Reading Football

Is football an athletic contest or a social event? Is it a game of skill, a test of manhood, or merely an organized brawl? Michael Oriard, a former professional player, asks these and other intriguing questions in Reading Football, the first contemporary book about football's formative years. American football began in the 1870s as a game to be played, not watched. Within a brief ten years, it had become a great public spectacle with an immense following, a phenomenon caused primarily by the voluminous commentary about the game conducted in popular newspapers and magazines. Oriard shows how this constant narrative in football's early years developed many different stories about what the game meant: football as pastime, as the sport of gentlemen, as a science, as a game of rules and their infringements. He shows how football became a series of cultural stories about power, luck, strategy, and deception. These different interpretations have been magnified by football's current omnipresence on television. According to Oriard, televised football now plays a cultural role of enormous importance for men, yet within the field of cultural studies the influence of football has been ignored until now. From the book: "A receiver sprints down the sideline, fast and graceful, then breaks toward the middle of the field where a safety waits for him. From forty yards upfield the quarterback releases the ball; it spirals in an elegant arc toward the goalposts as the receiver now for the first time looks back to pick up its flight. The pass is a little high; the receiver leaps, stretches, grasps the ball--barely, fingers clutching--at the very moment that the safety drives a helmet into his unprotected ribs. The force of the collision flings the receiver backward, slamming him to the turf. . . . This familiar tableau, this exemplary moment in a football game, epitomizes the appeal of the sport: the dramatic confrontation of artistry with violence, both equally necessary."

Volume two of a bibliography documenting all that has been written in the English language on the history of sport and physical education in Britain. It lists all secondary source material including reference works, in a classified order to meet the needs of the sports historian.

Volume three of a bibliography documenting all that has been written in the English language on the history of sport and physical education in Britain. It lists all secondary source material including reference works, in a classified order to meet the needs of the sports historian.

The Ladybird Book of Football is a gem from the Ladybird vintage archive. First published in 1964, this is a classic Ladybird hardback book, packed with information about football for all ages. This new edition, published to mark the European Football Championship, is exactly the same as the original, with a dust jacket and beautifully reproduced images.

A study of inferencing from a wide variety of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives, as well as different levels of processing.

This book covers the International Concrete Society Conference held at the Cardiff International Arena and will be of interest to architects and planners, facility managers and consultants in the fields of engineering, environmental control and services and leisure managemnet, media facilities and to client organizations planning major sports and '

Football is at the heart of British national identity, intrinsically linked to our social history. Through more than forty fascinating stories Football Nation reveals the hidden and not-so-hidden history of the game since 1945. From the mass audiences of austerity Britain and the introduction of floodlights at Accrington Stanley in the 1950s, through the escalating hooliganism of the 1970s and the arrival of the first all-seater stadium at Coventry in the 1980s, to the Hillsborough disaster and the coming of the Premiership, Andrew Ward and John Williams reveal the truth about the national game as it was once and is today in the age of satellite TV, celebrity lifestyle and extreme wealth. Looking back at the days when footballers were amateurs who travelled to the match with the fans, right through to the present day where top-flight players command a higher weekly wage than the average spectator can earn in a year, Football Nation is informed, wryly amusing, often surprising and always vastly entertaining. It offers an entirely fresh perspective on the history of the beautiful game in Britain.

A football fan's dream come true – every complete UK Panini sticker album 1986-1993 reproduced as facsimiles for the very first time. 'This book delivers a thousand memories' – Mark Lawrenson WELCOME TO THE GLORIOUS WORLD OF PANINI FOOTBALL STICKERS. Collecting PANINI football stickers has always been a joy. Tearing open those packets and excitedly filling an album is a rite of passage for millions of kids - and adults. It's so popular, it even has its own language - 'swapsies', 'got, got, need' and 'shinies'. Licensed by PANINI, this landmark illustrated book showcases PANINI'S UK domestic football 1986-1993. All the great teams of this era are shown in full PANINI sticker album glory. Inside the book: – Nearly 4,000 images of iconic PANINI stickers, album covers and sticker packet designs. – Hundreds of clubs including Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Celtic, Rangers, Manchester City, Spurs, Newcastle United, Dundee United, Nottingham Forest, Sunderland, Aston Villa, Aberdeen and West Ham United. – Photographs and pen portraits of the great players of the day, such as Peter Beardsley, Chris Waddle, Mark Hughes, Gary Lineker. Bryon Robson, Paul Gascoigne, Alan Shearer, Eric Cantona, Ian Rush and John Barnes.