Just as our own games have a lot to say about modern culture, so sports are a prism through which we can gain valuable insights into a past society. "The Sporting Life: Victorian Sports and Games" is an engaging and insightful account of how sport developed during Britain's glory days, who played (and indeed who wasn't allowed to play) and what it all conveys about gender, race, imperialism, and national consciousness. Drawing extensively on 19th - century writings, "The Sporting Life" begins with a survey of sports in pre-Victorian England and the impact of industrialization in the early 19th century. We read of the effects of evangelism and utilitarianism, both of which first opposed sport, then used it for their own purposes. We learn of the association of sports with masculinity, an identification women challenged late in the century, and we also learn how English sports became part of the imperial game, used to promote - and resist - the spread of Victoria's vast empire.