Until recently sporting history was written by middle-class amateurs, many of whom were Oxbridge graduates. Much of the resulting history of English sport therefore suffers from a narrowness of cultural perspective. The growth of many and varied sporting clubs and the development of sport throughout the country are vast topics which have largely escaped the attention of those historians who have tended to concentrate on the activities of a metropolitan elite.

The Evolution of English Sport uses original material from clubs and sporting organisations to illuminate the evolution of sporting activity nationwide. It draws, for example, upon minutes from over one hundred sports clubs, accounts, annual reports, correspondence, and press reports. It relates these documents to themes such as commercialism, professionalism, amateurism, recreationalism, and club fortunes and concludes with a discussion of the outlook for English sport in the next decade.

This radical and unique approach to the development of sport in England provides a wider perspective than any other work, representing the views of ordinary participants and setting the various sporting activities in the context of their geographical, economic and social environments.