Hockey

This really is the HISTORY of hockey, it starts at the very beginning, even going as far back as the 1500s to look at how all the sports have progressed.  The first chapters though deal mainly with the 1800s and the forming of hocking in Canada and how it spread throughout America.  Once we get to the 1900s it focuses on the rest of the world as well.  As a child I used to skate (ice dance), and I also followed the local ice hockey team (Bradford), however, I have only been an NHL fan for the last few years (I’m from England, where most people follow Soccer, Rugby and Cricket).  I found this global history of hockey mesmerising and addictive, I learned so many interesting facts, facts about locations, stadiums, players, and the politics.  There is also in-depth information on European and Russian hockey leagues.  Extremely well informed and written.  It took some reading (definitely not a quick read).  Too many dates and facts and figures for them to be absorbed, but still a super interesting reference.  The book also touched on women’s hockey, gay and LGBQA hockey, I do however wish they had spent more time on the hockey of today, I would have loved to have learned more about hockey over the last decade or two.

this book is incredibly interesting. As a fairly recent hockey fan, it was lovely to learn about the history of the game from a global perspective.

Hockey: A Global History was written by two professors, and it shows: the book is well-researched. But, it might also be a bit dense for the average reader, using words such as "anathema" and "perfunctory." 

The book feels like one part love letter to the sport, one part history, and one part criticism. The authors discuss how the game has become "more corporate and more influenced by the NHL," as well as how opportunities are vastly different for women, people of color, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities. But they also clearly love the sport, and what it can do.

In addition to the book's range, I appreciate that the authors acknowledge that there's never been a golden age of hockey, despite people's predilection for seeing the past with rose-colored glasses. And I feel like they'd be the two to know - I've not seen another book cover this wide an expanse of hockey history. If you want to learn the history of the sport, this is the book to read.

(Full disclosure: I did not finish the entire book. It's long, and detailed! But I read enough to know I'd recommend it for the above reasons - especially how well-researched it is.)