J. A. (University of Strathclyde, UK) Mangan 
Athleticism in the Victorian and Edwardian Public School [PDF ebook] 
The Emergence and Consolidation of an Educational Ideology

Games obsessed the Victorian and Edwardian public schools. The obsession has become widely known as athleticism. When it appeared in 1981, this book was the first major study of the games ethos which dominated the lives of many Victorian and Edwardian public schoolboys. Written with Professor Mangan”s customary panache, it has become a classic, the seminal work on the social and cultural history of modern sport.