Europe versus America?

Abstract

The simple shibboleths of sports history - that the British showed the Europeans how to play sport, while the Americans taught them how to turn it into a commodity - can no longer be sustained. As Tomlinson and Young rightly maintain, it is time to work towards a new history of European sport that can incorporate the richness and diversity of experiences to which the contributions in this focus section point. Such an approach should recognise that not only has the accretion of research into sports history undermined the sterotype of Europe as a passive recipient of sporting innovations, so too it will require a rethinking of our understanding of the roles of Britain and the United States of America. [opening paragraph]