This book explores the relationship between sport and democratization. Drawing on sociological and historical methodologies, it provides a framework for understanding how sport affects the level of egalitarianism in the society in which it is played. The author distinguishes between horizontal sport, which embodies and fosters egalitarian relations, and vertical sport, which embodies and fosters hierarchical relations. Christesen also differentiates between societies in which sport is played and watched on a mass scale and those in which it is an ancillary activity. Using ancient Greece and nineteenth-century Britain as case studies, Christesen analyzes how these variables interact and finds that horizontal mass sport has the capacity to both promote and inhibit democratization at a societal level. He concludes that horizontal mass sport tends to reinforce and extend democratization.

Advance Praise: “In his brilliantly original new book, Dartmouth Professor Paul Christesen persuasively contends that horizontal mass sport promotes democratization at a societal level in modern liberal democracies –- but far from looking only at contemporary Europe, North America, and Australasia, he casts his comparativist net as far and as wide as ancient Greece, and Britain and Germany in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.” –Paul Cartledge, Cambridge University

“Christesen’s broad and insightful study systematically examines whether ancient and modern sport are fundamentally the same or different, and how broad participation in sport assists the growth of democracy. Anyone interested in the social and political significance of ancient and modern sport should read this erudite but accessible book.” –Donald G. Kyle, University of Texas at Arlington