The beginning of boxing in Britain, 1300–1700 [book review]

Mike Huggins, Emeritus Professor of Cultural History at the University of Cumbria, reviews the book 'The Beginning of Boxing in Britain, 1300–1700' by Arly Allen, (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co., 2020). Books about boxing, a form of competition based on blows with the fist, have been published regularly over the past two hundred years. The British Library, for example, currently lists over 1,400 works held there, including solid academic works by writers such as Kasia Boddy, Dennis Brailsford, Elliott Gorn, and Jeffrey Sammons. Boxing aficionados also have the International Boxing Research Organization, founded in 1982 with the hope of establishing a more accurate history of boxing by application of the rules of scholarly research. The vast bulk of this research focuses on “modern” boxing, the history of “pugilism/prizefighting,” or fist fighting in the ancient world. Articles and book reviews referring to boxing in the Journal of Sport History have followed a similar pattern. Arly Allen's book, however, tackles a very different and very challenging topic. He sets out to explore the beginnings of boxing in Britain over the period between 1300 and 1700 CE, although with some references forward and backward in time. Allen's background is in scholarly publishing, but, since retirement, he has turned to the study of boxing history, writing a 2017 book on heavyweight champion Jess Willard and several articles.