New Dimensions of Sport in Modern Europe: Perspectives from the ‘Long Twentieth Century’

Abstract

This collection offers new perspectives on European sport history in the ‘long twentieth century’ designed to challenge and deconstruct what might be considered ‘traditional’ or more familiar Euro-centric conceptions and geographies of sport and leisure—especially those deriving from the leading hotbeds of European sport history. This special issue introduction adds to the growing corpus of explorations of sport and leisure in late-modern European history from a variety of countries: France, Spain, Finland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Slovenia. With topics ranging from sport during empire to mega-events, sport literature to women's sport attire, and several different sports, the insight provided by this new research demonstrates a greater understanding of the connections between sport and society in the long twentieth century in Europe.