This thesis examines the meaning and significance that professional sculling was created for Australian, and particularly New South Wales, society and it analyses the critical components that changed its meaning for that society and contributed to the sport’s decline. Some major themes examined include organisation, capital, regionalism, patriotism, nationalism, amateurism, professionalism, and social class. The thesis is a chronological study of the period between 1876 and 1927. It examines the fortunes of the world and national champions and the various organisational methods used to sustain the sport as a national symbol and mass spectacle. In the analysis of the sport’s post-war fortunes, specific focus is given to the sport’s prolonged apathy towards organisational and structural concerns, how imperialism and self-interest came to dominate the sport and why professional sculling lost its meaning and significance within a progressive and increasingly erudite society. Among the many findings of this thesis, the traditional belief that gambling and corruption destroyed professional sculling is refuted. The failure of the sport to endure and prosper was of its own making, as it failed to adapt to the increasingly sophisticated organisational demands, institutionalisation and commodification of twentieth-century society. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) (History)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/189458 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Ripley, Stuart Bruce, University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, Education and Social Sciences, School of Humanities |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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