Guttmann, A: Sports

From ancient Egyptian archery and medieval Japanese football to contemporary American baseball, every sport has been shaped by -- and in turn has helped shape -- the culture of which it is part. Yet as Allen Guttmann shows in this far-ranging study, for all their differences sports have followed a similar historical trajectory from traditional to modern forms. In Sports: The First Five Millennia, Guttmann traces this evolution across continents, cultures, and historical epochs to construct a single comprehensive narrative of the world's sports.