From ancient Egyptian archery and medieval Japanese football to contemporary American baseball, every sport has been shaped by―and in turn has helped shape―the culture of which it is part. Yet as Allen Guttmann shows in this far-ranging study, for all their differences sports have followed a similar historical trajectory from traditional to modern forms. In Sports: The First Five Millennia, Guttmann traces this evolution across continents, cultures, and historical epochs to construct a single comprehensive narrative of the world's sports.