Beating Napoleon at Eton: Violence, Sport and Manliness in England's Public Schools, 1783-1815

Waite, Kevin

doi:10.2752/147800414x13983595303390

Beating Napoleon at Eton: Violence, Sport and Manliness in England's Public Schools, 1783-1815

Waite, Kevin

Authors

Dr Kevin Waite kevin.a.waite@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor UKRI Research, Development and Engagement Fellow

Abstract

Despite the popular aphorism that ‘the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton’, historians have been slow to appreciate the value Georgian elites vested in their public schools and public school sport. In fact, the stereotype of these schools as anarchic and pedagogically insignificant still endures. I argue that the schools of this period came to enjoy a growing popularity precisely because of their rough nature. Contemporaries praised the violence of both the dormitories and the playing fields as productive of vigorous future leaders, capable of defending Britain in a world at war. Such rhetoric, I argue, anticipated the late Victorian cults of sport and manliness.

Citation

Waite, K. (2014). Beating Napoleon at Eton: Violence, Sport and Manliness in England's Public Schools, 1783-1815. Cultural and Social History, 11(3), 407-424. https://doi.org/10.2752/147800414x13983595303390

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Sep 24, 2014
Online Publication Date	May 1, 2015
Publication Date	Sep 1, 2014
Deposit Date	Sep 24, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Dec 13, 2018
Journal	Cultural and Social History
Print ISSN	1478-0038
Electronic ISSN	1478-0046
Publisher	Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	11
Issue	3
Pages	407-424
DOI	https://doi.org/10.2752/147800414x13983595303390

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Copyright Statement
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Cultural and Social History on 01 May 2015, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.2752/147800414X13983595303390.