Wrestling in Britain

At the intersection of sport, entertainment and performance, wrestling occupies a unique position in British popular culture. This is the first book to offer a detailed historical and cultural analysis of British professional wrestling, exploring the shifting popularity of the sport as well as its wider social significance.

Arguing that the history of professional wrestling can help us understand key themes in sport, culture and performance that span the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it addresses topics such as: attitudes towards violence, representations of masculinity, the media and celebrity culture, consumerism and globalisation. By drawing on a variety of intellectual traditions and disciplines, the book explores the role of power in the development of popular cultural forms, the ways in which history structures the present, and the manner in which audiences construct identity and meaning through sport.

Wrestling in Britain: Sporting Entertainments, Celebrity and Audiences is fascinating reading for all students and researchers with an interest in media and cultural studies, histories and sociologies of sport, or performance studies.

“"Wrestling in Britainprovides a thorough rereading of this important form but, more than this, it contributes to and reimagines narratives of British sports history, performance and popular culture. The scholarship in this volume also provides readers with new insights into celebrity, the development of television, and media production. The first full-length study of British professional wrestling history, it is a welcome, dynamic addition to many diverse fields."- Claire Warden, De Montfort University, UK "As British professional wrestling finds itself in a period of resurgence, Wrestling in Britain serves as a timely interrogation of the history of this unique leisure pursuit. Litherland's work reflects on wrestling's complex relationship with 'reality' across a number of fields, and illustrates a historical context which can help make sense of contemporary practices of sport, celebrity, and fandom."- Tom Phillips, University of East Anglia, UK”

Shortlisted for the British Society of Sports History Lord Aberdare Literary Prize for 2018

"Wrestling in Britain provides a thorough rereading of this important form but, more than this, it contributes to and reimagines narratives of British sports history, performance and popular culture. The scholarship in this volume also provides readers with new insights into celebrity, the development of television, and media production. The first full-length study of British professional wrestling history, it is a welcome, dynamic addition to many diverse fields." - Claire Warden, De Montfort University, UK

"As British professional wrestling finds itself in a period of resurgence, Wrestling in Britain serves as a timely interrogation of the history of this unique leisure pursuit. Litherland’s work reflects on wrestling’s complex relationship with ‘reality’ across a number of fields, and illustrates a historical context which can help make sense of contemporary practices of sport, celebrity, and fandom." - Tom Phillips, University of East Anglia, UK

Benjamin Litherland is a member of the Centre for Participatory Culture at the University of Huddersfield, UK. He is a media and cultural studies scholar, and his existing research portfolio demonstrates a diverse and interdisciplinary approach to the study of media, film, and sports and games

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