Introduction: Pre-match instructions -- Part one. Sports history: firing both barrels. Know the score: understanding sports history -- Walk the walk: practising sports history -- Part two. Sport through the ages. Sport before the Industrial Age -- The Industrial Age (and slightly beyond) -- The past century or so -- Part three. Sports. Fighting talk: combat sports -- The killing fields: hunting, shooting, and fishing -- Horses for courses: equestrian sports -- Talking speed: from foot power to wheel power -- Out clubbing: bat and ball sports -- Moving the goalposts: the football codes -- ... Nor any drop to drink: water sports -- Slipping and sliding: winter sports -- Across the pond: American sports -- Part four. Sporting life: social and cultural aspects. Pushing the mind and body: emotion, pain and violence -- Open and closed doors: discrimination in sport -- Playing together: sports clubs and associativity -- Part five. Mixing oil and water: sports, politics and power. Political football: nationalism, propaganda and protest -- Human rights (and wrongs) -- Running or ruining the game: rules and rule-makers -- Part six. Show us the money: the business of sport. Selling the game: sports entrepreneurs and the products they marketed -- Citius, Altius, Fortius et Multo Maiores: mega events -- Playing for pay: the professional athlete -- Part seven. The good, the bad and the ugly: the public image of sport. Charity begins at home ... and away -- How green was my volley: sport and the environment -- Selling out the game: match-fixing and drug-taking -- Stoppage time.