As Britain's great power status came to be increasingly challenged in
the decades before the First World War, one by-product of the resultant
uncertainty was the weakening of the Victorian middle-class consensus of
what constituted ideal manhood. Not only a source of wealth and power,
Britain's Empire also provided alternative models of masculinity and
nationhood. Consequently, the empire and the commonwealth played an
important role in defining imperial gender relations in both Britain and
in the colonies and dominions. "May The Best Man Win" investigates the
continual re-assessment and reassertion of various masculine ideals
associated with sport in the British empire between 1880 and 1935.