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

Waite, Kevin

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