Table of Contents

Introduction: the origins of rugby league 1 Rugby league and the First World War 2 League on the dole? The game in the depression years 3 Masters and servants: the professional player 1919–39 4 Wembley and the road from Wigan Pier 5 Rugby league in the ‘People’s War’ 6 From boom to bust 1945–70 7 ‘Chess with muscles’: the rules of the game 8 The Kangaroo connection: Anglo-Australian rugby league 9 ‘Sporting apartheid’: rugby union’s war against rugby league 10 The working-man’s game: class, gender and race 11 The other amateurs: beyond the heartlands 12 From slump to Super League 1975–95 13 A proletariat at play

About the Author

Tony Collins is Senior Research Fellow at the International Centre for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University,Leicester,UK and editor of the jour□nal Sport in History. His publications include the award-winning Rugby’s Great Split

Reviews

'It is only a slight exaggeration to say that this is the book rugby league has needed for the past 111 years.' - The Independent, September 2006 'There is no doubt that Tony Collins's Rugby League in 20th Century Britain is the major [sports] publishing event of the year. Treasures lurk on every page to make it worth every penny.' - Independent 'A landmark in the historiography of British sport', Matthew Taylor, Sport in History