Join us as Max Portman talks to Samuel M Clevenger, assistant professor in the department of Kinesiology at Towson University, as they discuss his most recent book 'Physical culture and the biopolitics of the international garden city movement: Planning healthy recreation', published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2025.

Max and Sam cover a multitude of different areas discussing how sport and physical culture played a key and very understated role in the garden city movement. They discuss how the movement came to pass and how the garden city movement, space and urban planning have all played crucial roles in our understanding of how urban areas are constructed, how and where we engage in sports and physical culture and how class plays a key role in it all.

They also cover other places that fit into certain ideals of urban planning such as Bournville and Saltaire and how sport plays an important, but understated role within the make-up of urban planning.

One of historians and academics with an interest in physical culture, urban planning and the usage of space in making up society.

This podcast is a British Society of Sports History (BSSH) production from the UK's leading society for the history of sport.. You can find the podcast on all social media & major podcast platforms here.

Likewise, Click through to the BSSH website for further information on our events and to find out how to join the British Society of Sport History: https://www.sportinhistory.com/

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“For centuries the Jewish race in Britain has absorbed British culture ... But not all connect Jews with any marked leanings towards our own national amateur sports and pastimes” [Leeds Mercury, 1926, “The Jew as Amateur Sportsmen”]

Statements like these can be found manifold in English newspapers during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. While Anglo-Jewry grew significantly during these decades, so did the press reporting – in general as well as regarding coverage of Jewish athletes and sports. Articles about “the Jew” in sports can be found in mainstream newspapers like the Daily Mail, local publications such as the Leeds Mercury, far-right propaganda papers by the British Union of Fascists and, on the opposite pole of the discursive spectrum, the Jewish Chronicle. At the heart of this societal discourse was the notion of the “unsportive Jew”, rhetorically creating an outgroup in a society that closely interconnected values and norms with sports. The discourse and its social impact were complex. With some rare exceptions, the depiction of Jewish athletes and sports in mainstream newspapers was seldom openly hostile or derogatory. These underlying notions were covered behind an apparent civility. However, a close analysis reveals a net of interwoven narratives, racialisations and stereotypes about Jews that diachronically evolved over decades and were transferred onto the realm of sports with its physical as well as cultural connotations. The discourse was by no means solely focused on physicality and physical activity but was strongly impacted by the normative nature ascribed to English sports. This is not surprising since sport was considered inherently “British” based on the norms and values associated with it. The continuous discursive depiction of Jews as an outgroup in a social realm that had distinctly nationalised connotations, abetted the perception of Jews as an outgroup beyond sports and placed them outside the “imagined community” of English (sports) society.

Lisa Jenkel is a PhD student at the University of Basel in Switzerland and a curator at the FC St. Pauli-Museum in Hamburg, Germany. Her research is located at the intersection of sports history with Jewish and Women’s studies. Employing discourse analytical methods, she examines the cultural and societal influence sport had on these groups and vice versa. Lisa has recently finished her thesis on Anglo-Jewish sports history, the content of which will be presented in this seminar.

This podcast is a British Society of Sports History (BSSH) production from the UK's leading society for the history of sport.. You can find the podcast on all social media & major podcast platforms here.

Likewise, Click through to the BSSH website for further information on our events and to find out how to join the British Society of Sport History: https://www.sportinhistory.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join us for our latest episode as Max Portman interviews Alan Hester, lifelong Reading fan and founder and namesake of Alan Hester Associates about his book 'Tiny Keeper: Steve Death, Record Breaker, Shy Genius and Maverick', published by Pitch Publishing in March 2025.

Tiny Keeper, a labour of love about a boyhood idol based on interviews with other heroes, is his first sports book and tracks the life of Steve Death, who played 471 games for Reading over 13 years and is still regularly voted as the best goalkeeper in Reading's long history.

In just shy of an hour, Alan & Max discuss how Steve's diminutive stature of only 5 foot Seven (and a half) prevented him from playing at the top level of English football despite his exceptional ability, his displeasure at conformity and with authority and how a man with no ego endeared him to a town in Berkshire who still fondly remembers him almost 45 years after last played for the Royals.

A must-listen for any football and sports fans who grew up in the 1970s, loves classic football and who love maverick players who make us fall in love with the "beautiful game".

Alan Hester is an internationally published author of books on leadership, success and confidence, including Management Starts With You (2017) and Get Out Of Your Own Way (2018). His books have been translated into Chinese, Arabic and Greek and sold by Hachette in the USA.

This podcast is a British Society of Sports History (BSSH) production from the UK's leading society for the history of sport.. You can find the podcast on all social media & major podcast platforms here.

Likewise, Click through to the BSSH website for further information on our events and to find out how to join the British Society of Sport History: https://www.sportinhistory.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.