May the Best Man Win: Sport, Masculinity, and Nationalism in Great Britain and the Empire, 1880-1935

As Britain's great power status came to be increasingly challenged in the decades before the First World War, one by-product of the resultant uncertainty was the weakening of the Victorian, middle-class consensus of what constituted ideal manhood. Britain's empire was not only the source of wealth and power, but it simultaneously provided alternative models of masculinity and nationhood. Consequently, the empire and the commonwealth played an important role in defining imperial gender relations in both Britain and in the colonies and dominions. May the Best Man Win investigates the continual re-assessment and reassertion of various masculine ideals associated with sport in the British empire between 1880 and 1935.

Author: P. McDevitt
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
Published: 04/01/2008
Pages: 179
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.64lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.44d
ISBN: 9780230606357

About the Author
PATRICK F. McDEVITT is an Associate Professor of History at the University at Buffalo, USA.