Rugby and the First World War : Society, Politics, and Sport(Palgrave Studies in Sport and Politics)

There are many books on the First World War, ranging from serious academic analyses to works aimed at a more general readership. There are also many books about rugby. But there are very few detailed academic analyses of the intersection between these two fields. This edited collection aims to address that gap, by presenting a range of analyses that explore how rugby was used and developed during and after the Great War. It presents these analyses in a specifically international and socio-political framework, and considers a number of aspects of the relationship between rugby and World War One, such as: how rugby was used to support the war, by being a tool for recruitment and for training; the significant role rugby played on the home front; the consequences of the war for the development and expansion of rugby in the post-war era; and the long-lasting social and political implications arising out of the role played by rugby during the war.