A Brief Legal History of Prize Fighting in Nineteenth Century America

This article examines the value for historians of sport of works of fiction in which sport is a central motif. The novel that is explored in this context is Eva Menasse's Vienna which offers a unique representation of Austrian soccer throughout a significant part of the twentieth century and thereby provides a vivid account of the more general relationship between soccer, society and identity. It is argued that the novel also allows us to reflect on the ways in which professional athletes view their world. Does Vienna add to the uninitiated's knowledge about the ‘facts’ of Austrian football in the period depicted? Perhaps not. Does it increase our understanding of the place of football in Austrian society at that time and, indeed, in the lives of individuals in many societies even during times of crisis? Here the answer is almost certainly an unequivocal ‘yes’.