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Chariot Races, Tournaments and the Civilizing Process

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Sport and Leisure in the Civilizing Process

Abstract

To the many halls, chambers, nooks and crannies of historical experience there is no single theoretical password. For some rooms, one says ‘Marx’ and the door swings open. For others, one says ‘Weber’ or ‘Durkheim’ or ‘Freud’. For some, the magic name seems to be ‘Elias’. This, at least, has been my experience. The reference to my own experience is intentional. Although positivistic social science frowns upon the use of personal pronouns, it is salutary to recall a remark by Henry David Thoreau: ‘We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking.’ In this introductory section of my four-part essay, I shall comment on the role that Norbert Elias and other theorists have played in my own research in sports studies.

Portions of this essay appeared in another form in Allen Guttmann, Sports Spectators (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986) pp. 28–46.

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Authors
  1. Allen Guttmann
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Leicester, UK

    Eric Dunning (Professor of Sociology) (Professor of Sociology)

  2. Routledge, UK

    Chris Rojek (Senior Editor in Sociology) (Senior Editor in Sociology)

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© 1992 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Guttmann, A. (1992). Chariot Races, Tournaments and the Civilizing Process. In: Dunning, E., Rojek, C. (eds) Sport and Leisure in the Civilizing Process. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11191-6_6

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