Professor Matthew Taylor

Job: Professor of History

Faculty: Arts, Design and Humanities

School/department: School of Humanities

Research group(s): International Centre for Sports History and Culture

Address: De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, UK, LE1 9BH

T: +44 (0)116 257 7399

E: mtaylor@dmu.ac.uk

W: https://www.dmu.ac.uk/sportshistory

 

Personal profile

Matthew Taylor is Professor of History in the International Centre for Sports History and Culture.

A social historian with an expertise in the history of sport and recreation, his research focuses on a range of issues relating to the development of sport in Britain, Europe and the wider world and he has published widely in this area.  He is the author of Sport and the Home Front: Wartime Britain at Play, 1939-45 (Routledge, 2020), The Leaguers: The Making of Professional Football in England, 1900-1939 (Liverpool University Press, 2005) and the co-author (with Pierre Lanfranchi) of Moving With the Ball: The Migration of Professional Footballers (Berg, 2001).  His The Association Game: A History of British Football (Longman, 2008) is the first general study of the history and historiography of British football.  Football: A Short History (Shire Books, 2011) adapted and summarised this research for a general readership.

He has presented numerous papers at international conferences, contributed entries to international encyclopaedias and reviewed for leading journals and book publishers.  He is currently working on a study of transnational history and of sport between c. 1850 and the 1960s.  Other research interests include the history of boxing for men and women, the development of trade unionism in the entertainment industry, Mass Observation writing on sport and leisure and the relationship between community and official attitudes to working-class sport in mid-twentieth century Britain. 

Professor Taylor was editor-in-chief of the journal Sport in History between 2009 and 2014 and is co-editor of the Peter Lang book series Sport, History and Culture.  He is on the editorial board of the International Journal of the History of Sport and the Nordic Sport Science Forum, and on the International Board of Scholars of the International Football Institute at the University of Central Lancashire.  He has written for publications such as BBC History MagazineProspect Magazine and When Saturday Comes, delivered a series of public lectures and contributed to media discussions on the history of sport and sporting culture. He coordinates De Montfort University's 'Football Pioneers' column in the Leicester City FC Matchday Magazine.

Research group affiliations

Publications and outputs

  • Les Classiques du Football: Tony Mason's Association Football and English Society, 1863-1915
    dc.title: Les Classiques du Football: Tony Mason's Association Football and English Society, 1863-1915 dc.contributor.author: Taylor, Matthew dc.description: open access article
  • Resisting Hitler or Playing Games ‘while Rome is burning’? The Meaning of Sport at a Time of War: Britain 1939-45
    dc.title: Resisting Hitler or Playing Games ‘while Rome is burning’? The Meaning of Sport at a Time of War: Britain 1939-45 dc.contributor.author: Taylor, Matthew
  • Women, Sport and the People's War in Britain, 1939-45
    dc.title: Women, Sport and the People's War in Britain, 1939-45 dc.contributor.author: Taylor, Matthew
  • Conflict and Accommodation
    dc.title: Conflict and Accommodation dc.contributor.author: Taylor, Matthew
  • Women, Sport and the People's War in Britain, 1939-45
    dc.title: Women, Sport and the People's War in Britain, 1939-45 dc.contributor.author: Taylor, Matthew; Nicholson, R. dc.description.abstract: Despite considerable progress over recent years, female participation in sport continues to be neglected by historians. This is as true in relation to histories of women as histories of sport. It is especially evident in the context of the historiography of the British home front in Britain in the Second World War. The extensive literature on women in the Second World War has generally been silent on sport and leisure. This article challenges assumptions that the war had little impact on the sporting lives of British women. Utilising newspaper sources, government and military documents, memoirs and the diaries and directives replies in the Mass-Observation archive, it highlights the importance of sport and leisure to women themselves as well as to the government, military and civil defence authorities. Because women were an important part of the home front, their morale, welfare and physical fitness mattered to those in authority. But the impetus for an extension of women’s sport also came from the women themselves, who pressed for the space and the opportunities to participate in sporting activity and extend the boundaries of women’s sport to a degree that has seemed impossible between the wars. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • City, Community and Sport in Birmingham during the Second World War
    dc.title: City, Community and Sport in Birmingham during the Second World War dc.contributor.author: Taylor, Matthew dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version.
  • Un marché pugilistique franco-anglais. Histoire transnationale de l’organisation des spectacles de boxe (1880-1920) à Londres et à Paris
    dc.title: Un marché pugilistique franco-anglais. Histoire transnationale de l’organisation des spectacles de boxe (1880-1920) à Londres et à Paris dc.contributor.author: Taylor, Matthew; Ville, Sylvain dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • Sport and the Home Front: Wartime Britain at Play, 1939-45
    dc.title: Sport and the Home Front: Wartime Britain at Play, 1939-45 dc.contributor.author: Taylor, Matthew
  • Boxing, Race, and British Identity, 1945-1962
    dc.title: Boxing, Race, and British Identity, 1945-1962 dc.contributor.author: Taylor, Matthew; Johnes, Martin dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • United Kingdom
    dc.title: United Kingdom dc.contributor.author: Taylor, Matthew

View a full listing of Matthew Taylor's publications and outputs.

Key research outputs

Books

World of Sport: Transnational and Connected Histories (Routledge, forthcoming)

Sport and the Home Front: Wartime Britain at Play (Routledge, 2020)

Football: A Short History (Shire Books, 2011).

The Association Game: A History of British Football (Longman, 2008).

The Leaguers: The Making of Professional Football in England, 1900-1939 (Liverpool University Press, 2005).

Moving with the Ball: The Migration of Professional Footballers (Berg, 2001), with Pierre Lanfranchi.

 

Edited special issues

'Sport, Recreation and British Labour', Special Issue of Labor History, 55, 5, 2014 (forthcoming), with Dave Dee.

'Sport and Global History', Special Issue of Journal of Global History, 8, 2, July 2013.

'Sport in London', Special Issue of London Journal, 34, 2, July 2009.

Articles and Book Chapters

'City, Community and Sport in Birmingham during the Second World War', Midland History, 46:2, 2021, 246-60.

'Conflict and Accommodation', in Steven Riess (ed.), A Cultural History of Sport in the Modern Age (London: Bloomsbury, 2021), 127-47.

'Boxing, Race and British Identity, 1945-1962', The Historical Journal, 63:5, 2020, 1349-77, with Martin Johnes.

'Women, Sport and the People's War in Britain, 1939-45', Sport in History, 40:4, 2020, 552-75, with Rafaelle Nicholson.

'Un marche pugilistique franco-anglais. Histoire transnationale de l'organisation des spectacles de boxe 1880-1920 a Londres et a Paris', Histoire Urbaine, 57, 2020, 47-66, with Sylvain Ville.

'Sport and Civilian Morale in Second World War Britain', Journal of Contemporary History, 53, 2, 2018, 315-338.

Les joueurs de football sont-ils des esclaves? Conditions d'emploi dans le milieu du football professionnel en Angleterre et au Pays de Galles (1945-1961), Le Mouvement social, Janvier-Mars 2016, 47-68.

 'The People's Game and the People's War: Football, Class and Nation in Wartime Britain, 1939-45', Historical Social Research, 40, 4, 2015, 270-97.

'Parallel Fields: Sports History and Labour History', International Journal of the History of Sport, 32, 15, 2015, 1769-74.

'Trade Unionism in British Sport, 1920-1964', Labor History, 55, 5, 2014, 622-37.

‘The Transatlantic Migration of Sporting Labour, 1920-1939’, Labour History Review, 79, 2, 2014, 167-200.

'Mobility, Migration and History: Football and Early Transnational Networks' in R. Elliott and J. Harris (eds), Football and Migration: Perspectives, Places, Players (Routledge, 2014), with Pierre Lanfranchi.

'Sport, Transnationalism and Global History', Journal of Global History, 8, 2, July 2013, 199-208.

'The Global Ring? Boxing, Mobility and Transnational Networks in the Anglophone World, 1890-1914', Journal of Global History, 8, 2, July 2013, 231-55.

‘“It’s Nice to Belong”: Boxing, Heritage and Community in London’ in J. Hill, K. Moore and J. Wood (eds), Sport, History and Heritage: Studies in Public Representation (Boydell Press, 2012), with Neil Skinner.

'Football's Engineers? British Football Coaches, Migration and Intercultural Transfer, c.1910-c.1950s', Sport in History, 20, 1, March 2010, 138-63.

'Mass-Observation, Sport and the Second World War' in R. Snape and H. Pussard (eds), Recording Leisure Lives: Sports, Games and Pastimes in C20th Britain (LSA Publications, 2010). 

'Boxers United: Trade Unionism in British Boxing in the 1930s', Sport in History, 29, 3, September 2009, 457-78. 

'Round the London Ring: Boxing, Class and Community in Interwar London', London Journal, 34, 2, July 2009, 139-62.

'From Source to Subject: Sport, History and Autobiography', Journal of Sport History, 35, 3, Fall 2008, 469-91.

'Global Players? Football, Migration and Globalization, 1930-2000', Historical Social Research, 31, 1, 2006, 7-30.

Research interests/expertise

History of sport and recreation in Britain and Europe; history of boxing in Britain in the twentieth century; transnational and global histories of sport; work and labour relations in the entertainment industry; sport, community identities and regulation in mid-twentieth century Britain; the migration of athletes and entertainers; sport and leisure in Second World War Britain; Mass Observation and sport; sport and the British Empire. 

Areas of teaching

British nineteenth and twentieth century social and cultural history; Historical methods and the study of history; Sport and leisure in Britain, Europe and the USA.

Qualifications

BA (Hons) History and Politics (Equal), First Class, University of York, 1993.
PhD in History, De Montfort University, 1997.

Courses taught

HIST 1016: What is Sport? History and Meaning

HIST 2001: Sport and Leisure in Twentieth Century Britain

HIST 2019: Sport and the British Empire

HIST2023: Mass-Observing the British at War and Peace, 1937-51

HIST 3095: Transatlantic Sport: Europe and the USA, 1850-1940

HIST5023: Sport and Literature
HIST 5025: Football – Past and Present

FIFA International Master: Professional Sport in Context
FIFA International Master: Internationalization of Sport

Honours and awards

Sport and the Home Front: Wartime Britain at Play, 1939-45 (Routledge, 2020), shortlisted for North American Society for Sports History (NASSH) Monograph Award, 2021 and the British Society of Sports History (BSSH) Aberdare Literary Prize for Sports History, 2021.

The Association Game: A History of British Football (Longman, 2008), shortlisted for Aberdare Literary Prize for Sports History, 2009.

Winner of Sport in History Best Article Award, 2020-21, Rafaelle Nicholson and Matthew Taylor, 'Women, Sport and the People's War, 1939-45', 40: 4, 2020, 552-575.

Winner of Journal of Sport History Best Article Award, 2008, for 'From Source to Subject: Sport, History and Autobiography', 35:3 (Fall, 2008), 469-491.

 

Membership of external committees

British Society of Sports History Executive Committee, January 2009-14

International Board of Scholars, International Football Institute, University of Central Lancashire, 2010-present

Membership of professional associations and societies

British Society of Sports History, 1997-present
Society for the Study of Labour History, 2007-present
Social History Society UK, 2006-present

Conference attendance

‘The Transatlantic Migration of Sporting Labour’, conference paper delivered at ‘A World of Labour: Transnational and Comparative Histories’, An International Conference for the Society for the Study of Labour History, 1-3 September 2008, University of Ulster, Coleraine.

‘Sport and Global History: The Transatlantic Migration of Sporting Labour’, conference paper delivered at the British Society of Sports History Annual Conference, September 2008, Brighton University, Eastbourne.

‘Mass-Observation, Sport and the Second World War’, conference paper delivered at the ‘Recording Leisure Lives’ conference, Leisure Studies Association, 7 April 2009, University of Bolton.

‘Football’s Engineers? The International Migration of British Soccer Coaches’, conference paper delivered at the British Society of Sports History Annual Conference, August 2009, Stirling University.

‘Sport in London’, conference paper delivered at ‘The Legacy of Mega Sporting Events’, 3-4 December 2009, De Montfort University.

‘“The World’s My Football Pitch”: Autobiographical Accounts of Touring and Working Abroad from the 1920s to the 1950s’, conference paper delivered at ‘The British Abroad’ conference, April 2010, University of Newcastle.

‘Boxing, History and Culture: New Themes and Perspectives’, One-Day Symposium, De Montfort University, 30 June 2010, organised the conference, introduced speakers and chaired sessions.

‘Reflections on Sport and the British 21 Years on’, conference paper delivered at the ‘Historians on Sport’ annual conference, De Montfort University, 30 October 2010.

‘Boxing, Class and Community in London Between the Wars’, invited public lecture delivered at the South Wales Centre for Historical and Interdisciplinary Research at the University of Wales, Newport, April 2011.

‘Footballing Lives and the Maximum Wage’, conference paper delivered at the ‘Reflections on the Abolition of the Maximum Wage’ Conference, 9 June 2011.

‘Work, Labour Relations and Trade Unionism in British Sport’, invited conference paper delivered at the ‘Workout – Sports and Labour in History’ conference, hosted by the International Research Centre on Work and Human Lifecycle in Global History at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 25-27 August 2011.

‘Sport and Civilian Morale in the Second World War’, paper delivered at the Institute of Historical Research, Sport and Leisure History research seminar series, 3 October 2011.

‘Observing the British Sports Crowd, 1920-1950: Composition, Behaviour and Regulation’, keynote paper, presented at the ‘Recording Leisure Lives: Sports, Spectacles and Spectators in 20th Century Britain’ conference, Leisure Studies Association, 3 April 2012, University of Bolton/ Bolton Museum.

Consultancy work

 

 

Academic consultant for Royal Mail 'HIstory of FA Cup' stamp series, 2020.

BBC Radio Four, ‘Sport and the British’ 30-part series, first broadcast 2012, contributed 3 programme scripts.

I will be available for consultancy on the social and cultural history of sport in Britain and Europe.

Current research students

Barbara Horley, 1st supervisor

Hazel Perry, 1st supervisor

 

Patrick Redmond, 1st supervisor

Brigid Power, 2nd supervisor

Ben Duncan-Jones, 2nd supervisor

Ethan Hosking, 2nd supervisor

Externally funded research grants information

‘Sport and Civilian Morale in Second World War Britain’, Scouloudi Foundation, Award in aid of research, start date April 2008, end date April 2009, £768.40.

Internally funded research project information

‘Boxers and Boxing between the wars’, Department of Historical and Social Studies Research Committee, to fund research trips for research article, February-June 2008

‘Sports Invaders: The Transatlantic Migration of Sporting Labour’, Department of Historical and Social Studies Research Committee, to fund research trips for research article, July-December 2009

‘Boxing at the Poly: Amateur Boxing in C20th London’, Department of Historical and Social Studies Research Committee, to fund research trips for research article, March-April 2011

‘Sport and Civilian Morale in Second World War Britain’, School of English and History Research Committee, to fund research trip for research article, December 2011

Professional esteem indicators

Nordic Sport Science Forum, member of editorial board, since June 2008
Sport in History, editor, January-September 2009
Sport in History, Editor-in-Chief, September 2009-present
I am also a series editor (with Richard Holt of DMU) of the Peter Lang book series ‘Sport, History and Culture’, 2010-present

Journal Refereeing information:

I have acted as referee for a range of international and national academic journals, including: International Review of the Sociology of Sport, Sport in History, Women’s History Review, Sport in Society, Contemporary British History,  Soccer and Society, International Journal of the History of Sport, Social History and Cultural & Social History.

Other Reviewing Activities:

I have reviewed Book Proposals and Book Manuscripts for a number of publishers, including: Manchester University Press, Berg, Routledge, Rowman & Littlefield, Peter Lang, Pickering & Chatto,

Peer reviews of funding applications:

European Science Foundation, British Academy, Small Research Grant Scheme,  Leverhulme Trust, Emeritus Fellowships, and French National Research Agency.

Case studies

Review of The Association Game in History Today, May 2008, p. 63.

Review of The Association Game on idrottsforum,org, December 2009.

Lecture entitled ‘An Amateur in a Professional Game: Harold Thompson, the Football Association and English Football’ given (with Dr Neil Carter of DMU) at the Royal Society Public Lecture Series on 9 June 2010.

Audience breakdown: 30 in total, of which approx 10 were Royal Society staff, 8 academics and 12 general public.

From feedback forms received, the following comments were made: ‘Well researched presentation’; ‘this was outstanding – more sport-related talks please’; ‘interesting widening of range of issues discussed at Royal Society’; ‘clever idea!’

Rupert Baker of the Royal Society provided the following comment on the significance/ impact of the event: ‘This was the first time the Royal Society Centre for History of Science has included a sport-themed event in its popular series of lunchtime public gatherings.  The talk was a useful opportunity to attract a new audience to the Society, and to bring the football-related side of our Thompson Papers archive to the attention of the public.  All those present agreed that it was a thought-provoking and enjoyable discussion, and senior managers at the Royal Society are now more aware of the breadth of the Society’s archival holdings, and open to the possibility of further, less ‘mainstream’, Library events in future’. 

Interviewed by Louise Duffield for an article ‘This sporting life’ on the impact of sport on people’s lives across the centuries, published in Choice magazine, August 2010.

Feedback from Denise Kennedy, August 2009, a performer who is producing a one-woman show on Bella Burge (Lloyd), a former music hall dresser and later boxing promoter.  Denise had read my article in the London Journal on interwar London boxing.

Feedback from Robert Galvin, April 2010, (non-academic) football historian, who had read my Liverpool University Press book The Leaguers (2005) and required more information about references in the book.

Inquiry from David Gaddis Smith, July 2010, an American journalist who wanted information about newspaper coverage of the 1966 World Cup final.

matt-taylormatt-taylor-book

 

The Association Game