A Devilish Pastime: ​A history of football in all its forms
  • Welcome
  • Introduction
  • Chapters & extracts
    • 1. Folk football and the Puritans
    • 2. Chaos in pre-FA times
    • 3. Rugby in the 1860s
    • 4. American football spreads in the 1880s and 90s
    • 5. The Football League is born
    • 6. Soccer hits Latin America
    • 7. Gaelic football takes shape – 1880s–90s
    • 8. Melbourne goes Aussie Rules mad
    • 9. Rugby union and South Africa – 1990s
    • 10. The NFL's shaky start
    • 11. Rugby league after WW2
    • 12. Soccer in the seventies
    • 13. Canadian football hits US TV
    • 14. Speedball and volata
    • Epilogue: Mudball in Harrow
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Chapters

Picture
1. Chasing the sun
Ancient ball games, and the rise and fall of folk football.  read extract

2. Growing pains
Football’s 19th-century revolution in Britain’s public schools.  read extract

3. The codes come of age
Soccer and rugby gradually grow apart in the 1860s and 70s.  read extract

4. Pigskin pioneers
Early football in the United States, and how Ivy League students turned rugby into a game of their own.  read extract

5. Workers’ playtime
The working-class invasion of soccer and rugby in northern England, leading to professionalism and rugby’s ‘Great Split’.  read extract

6. The world’s game, part 1
Soccer conquers Europe and South America.  read extract

7. The Gaelic game
The story of Gaelic football, and its place in Irish culture and politics.  read extract

8. The men of mark
Australian Rules football, from its birth in 19th-century Melbourne to today.  read extract

9. Carrying the union flag
Rugby union’s evolution since the 1895 breakaway by the Northern Union.  read extract

10. Gridiron glory
American football graduates from its college roots into the big-money behemoth of today.  read extract

11. In a league of their own
How rugby league grew into a distinct sport, with its own rules, style and culture.  read extract

12. The world’s game, part 2
Soccer’s world domination continues after World War II.  read extract

13. Radically Canadian?
The tangled roots of Canadian football.  read extract

14. Oddballs
A round-up of some lesser-known football sports.  read extract

Epilogue: The ghosts of football past  read extract


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opyright © 2012–2019 Graham Hughes
  • Welcome
  • Introduction
  • Chapters & extracts
    • 1. Folk football and the Puritans
    • 2. Chaos in pre-FA times
    • 3. Rugby in the 1860s
    • 4. American football spreads in the 1880s and 90s
    • 5. The Football League is born
    • 6. Soccer hits Latin America
    • 7. Gaelic football takes shape – 1880s–90s
    • 8. Melbourne goes Aussie Rules mad
    • 9. Rugby union and South Africa – 1990s
    • 10. The NFL's shaky start
    • 11. Rugby league after WW2
    • 12. Soccer in the seventies
    • 13. Canadian football hits US TV
    • 14. Speedball and volata
    • Epilogue: Mudball in Harrow
  • Author
  • Reviews
  • Buy
  • Contact
  • Blog