Soldiers at Play

The Age of Empire: Games, Gambling, Sport and Recreation from Napoleon to the Boer War

von Adam Langweiler

472 Seiten, Taschenbuch

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

Soldiers at Play: The Age of EmpireGames, Gambling, Sport and Recreation from Napoleon to the Boer WarWhat did soldiers do when they were not fighting?Between battles, marches and military duties, nineteenth-century soldiers faced another enemy: time.They played cards beside campfires, gambled away their pay, wrestled in barrack yards, boxed for pride, raced horses, played cricket across the British Empire and eventually formed organized football and rugby teams. From Napoleon's armies to the soldiers of the American Civil War, from British garrisons in India to the battlefields of South Africa, games became an essential part of military life.Soldiers at Play: The Age of Empire explores the fascinating and often overlooked world of military recreation between the Napoleonic era and the Boer War.Discover how soldiers: - played cards and dice during long periods of inactivity;- gambled on boxing, wrestling, shooting and horse races;- brought baseball into American Civil War camps and frontier posts;- helped spread cricket, football and rugby through military networks;- encountered Indian wrestling and adopted polo from an established Asian sporting tradition;- turned informal races and strength contests into organized regimental sports;- competed in rifle shooting, athletics, gymkhanas and military sports days;- used games to build friendships, rivalries and regimental pride;- continued playing during sieges, campaigns and imprisonment;- transformed military recreation from improvised amusement into organized sport.The book also examines the objects left behind by this forgotten side of soldiering: playing cards, dice, sporting medals, photographs, trophies, cricket equipment, polo mallets, POW-made games and military sports programs.Behind every battlefield was another world-the world of the soldier waiting for orders, arguing over cards, challenging a comrade to a race or searching for enough open ground to start a game.By 1902, sport had become deeply embedded in military culture. The soldier who once improvised entertainment beside a wagon now belonged to an Army with football teams, athletic competitions, shooting trophies and established sporting traditions.And within a few years, those traditions would follow an entirely new generation of soldiers into the trenches of the First World War.Readable, illustrated military history for readers interested in the everyday soldier, forgotten military life, Victorian warfare, the British Empire, the American Civil War, military collectibles and the history of sport.Soldiers at Play: The Age of Empire is the second volume in the Soldiers at Play series.

• Reihe: Soldiers at Play
• ISBN: 9798174203549
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 14.09.2026
• Größe: 234 x 156 mm
• Verlag: Independently published