Militarism Hunting Imperialism

<p>The late Victorian and Edwardian officer class viewed hunting and big game hunting in particular as a sound preparation for imperial warfare. For the imperial officer in the making the ‘blooding’ hunting ritual was a visible ‘hallmark’ of stirling martial masculinity. Sir Henry Newbolt the period poet of subaltern self-sacrifice typically considered hunting as essential for the creation of a ‘masculine sporting spirit’ necessary for the consolidation and extension of the empire. Hunting was seen as a manifestation of Darwinian masculinity that maintained a pre-ordained hierarchical order of superordinate and subordinate breeds.</p><p><em>Militarism Hunting Imperialism</em> examines these ideas under the following five sections:</p><ul> <li>martial imperialism: the self-sacrificial subaltern</li> <li>‘blooding’ the middle class martial male</li> <li>the imperial officer hunting and war</li> <li>martial masculinity proclaimed and consolidated</li> <li>martial masculinity adapted and adjusted.</li> </ul><p>This book was published as a special issue of the <em>International Journal of the History of Sport</em>.</p>