The British World and the Five Rings constitutes the first history of the former British Empire's engagement with the Olympic Games. It focuses not only on Britain and her Dominions, but on the Empire as a whole.

1. Prologue-- Britain, Empire, and the Olympic Experience 2. For a 'United' Kingdom and a 'Greater' Britain: The British Olympic Association and the Limitations and Contestations of 'Britishness' 3. Flights to Empire: Australia's Imperial Engagement with the Olympic Games: 1900-1938 4. (Dis)located Olympic patriots: Sporting connections, administrative communications and imperial ether in interwar New Zealand 5. `The Emblem of One United Body . . . One Great Sporting Maple Leaf': The Olympic Games and Canada's Quest for Self Identity 6. 'In our case, it seems obvious the British Organising Committee piped the tune', the campaign for recognition of Ireland in the Olympic Movement, 1935-56 7. Rhodesia and the Olympic Games: Representations of masculinity, war, and Empire, 1965-1980 8. Epilogue: The 'British World', Other Worlds, and the Five Rings: Possibilities for Trans-Imperial Histories and Historical 'What Ifs'