This work explores the development of English sport during the eight centuries preceding the industrial era. Focusing on outdoor activities that involved intergroup competition among adults, Thomas Henricks demonstrates that sport was a sophisticated and rational experience, connected to society in many subtle yet important ways. Accessible to readers in many disciplines and on many levels, the book charts the changes in sport preceding the modern era, serves as an introduction to the historical literature on English sport, traces the relationship between sport and shifting social patterns, and develops an original thesis of sport as an identity ceremony for its participants.

The work begins with a detailed introduction to English sport and the historians, and continues with Henrick's thesis of sporting events as identity ceremonies. The next of five chapters trace the development of sport and society through five periods of English history: the feudal society of the early Middle Ages; the decay of feudalism and the later Middle Ages; the centralized administration and middle-class appeal of the Tudor era; the elitist nostalgia and French influence of the Stuart era, followed by the Puritan Revolution; and the celebration of private property and mixture of snobbery and social mingling of Georgian England. Each chapter is organized in a similar manner, beginning with a brief introduction to the social life of the times, followed by presentations of patterns within individual sports and a summary of dominant themes in sport during that era. A concluding chapter considers some sociological aspects of sport and society. Disputed Pleasures will be an important resource for courses in English social history, sociology, and the history of sport, as well as a significant addition to public and academic libraries.