From Ritual to Record

by Allen Guttmann

This is a classic. The book argues very well how modern sports arose mainly in England in the 19th century and to a lesser degree in the United States. This entity called sports, which had myriad precursors in the form of localised games, competitions and various physical pursuits that were quite disorganised and, above all, not intelligible to outsiders, changed in the 19th century in these capitalist countries that created a world of organised leisure.