Out of print - see e-book version

Spanning the wide world of sports, this volume is filled with everything you could possibly want to know about hundreds of sports. Along with detailed information on how sports are played worldwide, the Encyclopedia of World Sport explores the emotions and issues surrounding the sporting life and looks at sport as an essential part of the human experience. Readers will find fascinating entries on baseball and badminton, tennis and takraw, as well as on an incredible range of activities played around the globe from ancient times up to the present. Lucid and authoritative, this work - called "the newest sporting bible" by The Times of London - covers dozens of popular American sports, obscure activities such as buzkashi and jousting, and indigenous games in nations around the world.

This is a book for sports fans on every level - from people who plan their vacations around the World Series schedule, to casual browsers of the daily sports pages. But it will also help anyone to understand the social, cultural, and nationalist roots that make sports so essential to the lives of hundreds of millions of fans and participants worldwide.