Monday, November 17, 2014

Sport in War

R.S.S. Baden-Powell - Sport in War (1900)

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You probably recognize Baden-Powell as the founder of the Boy Scouts but may not have known he was a prolific author.  This book collects pieces from Badminton Magazine (yes really) and is the kind of imperialist gung-ho stuff you'd probably expect.  Modern readers probably won't find it as thrilling - just take a sample about following the enemy as "this man-hunting afforded us plenty of excitement and novel experience" like it was a fox hunt.  "The Sport of Rajahs" is about something called "pig-sticking" which seems to be boar hunting or very similar stuck with an unfortunate name.  All in all not the kind of thing we expect from Boy Scouts nowadays.