Product Description

Soccer is much more than a game, or even a way of life. It is a perfect window into the cross–currents of today's world, with all its joys and its sorrows. In this remarkably insightful, wide–ranging work of reportage, Franklin Foer takes us on a surprising tour through the world of soccer, shining a spotlight on the clash of civilizations, the international economy, and just about everything in between. How Soccer Explains the World is an utterly original book that makes sense of our troubled times.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5055 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-01
• Released on: 2005-07-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780060731427
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
The global power of soccer might be a little hard for Americans, living in a country that views the game with the same skepticism used for the metric system and the threat of killer bees, to grasp fully. But in Europe, South America, and elsewhere, soccer is not merely a pastime but often an expression of the social, economic, political, and racial composition of the communities that host both the teams and their throngs of enthusiastic fans. New Republic editor Franklin Foer, a lifelong devotee of soccer dating from his own inept youth playing days to an adulthood of obsessive fandom, examines soccer's role in various cultures as a means of examining the reach of globalization. Foer's approach is long on soccer reportage, providing extensive history and fascinating interviews on the Rangers-Celtic rivalry and the inner workings of AC Milan, and light on direct discussion of issues like world trade and the exportation of Western culture. But by creating such a compelling narrative of soccer around the planet, Foer draws the reader into these sport-mad societies, and subtly provides the explanations he promises in chapters with titles like "How Soccer Explains the New Oligarchs", "How Soccer Explains Islam's Hope", and "How Soccer Explains the Sentimental Hooligan." Foer's own passion for the game gives his book an infectious energy but still pales in comparison to the religious fervor of his subjects. His portraits of legendary hooligans in Serbia and Britain, in particular, make the most die-hard roughneck New York Yankees fan look like a choirboy in comparison. Beyond the thugs, Foer also profiles Nigerian players living in the Ukraine, Iranian women struggling against strict edicts to attend matches, and the parallel worlds of Brazilian soccer and politics from which Pele emerged and returned. Foer posits that globalization has eliminated neither local cultural identities nor violent hatred among fans of rival teams, and it has not washed out local businesses in a sea of corporate wealth nor has it quelled rampant local corruption. Readers with an interest in international economics are sure to like How Soccer Explains the World, but soccer fans will love it. --John Moe

From Publishers Weekly
Foer, a New Republic editor, scores a game-winning goal with this analysis of the interchange between soccer and the new global economy. The subtitle is a bit misleading, though: he doesn't really use soccer to develop a theory; instead, he focuses on how examining soccer in different countries allows us to understand how international forces affect politics and life around the globe. The book is full of colorful reporting, strong characters and insightful analysis: In one of the most compelling chapters, Foer shows how a soccer thug in Serbia helped to organize troops who committed atrocities in the Balkan War—by the end of the war, the thug's men, with the acquiescence of Serbian leaders, had killed at least 2,000 Croats and Bosnians. Then he bought his own soccer club and, before he was gunned down in 2000, intimidated other teams into losing. Most of the stories aren't as gruesome, but they're equally fascinating. The crude hatred, racism and anti-Semitism on display in many soccer stadiums is simply amazing, and Foer offers context for them, including how current economic conditions are affecting these manifestations. In Scotland, the management of some teams have kept religious hatreds alive in order to sell tickets and team merchandise. But Foer, a diehard soccer enthusiast, is no anti-globalist. In Iran, for example, he depicts how soccer works as a modernizing force: thousands of women forced police to allow them into a men's-only stadium to celebrate the national team's triumph in an international match. One doesn't have to be a soccer fan to truly appreciate this absorbing book.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post
Franklin Foer, armed with a terrific idea, took six months off from his job as a staff writer at the New Republic to tour the soccer capitals of the world. He set out to observe soccer as a way to understand the consequences of globalization -- the increasing interdependence of the world's nations -- by studying a sport in which "national borders and national identities had been swept into the dustbin of soccer history." The result is a travelogue full of important insights into both cultural change and persistence.

Foer returned from this global tour convinced that globalization has not and will not soon wipe away local institutions and cultures. On the contrary, he suspects that the opposite has happened: In response to the threat of global integration, local entities have launched counterattacks that are successful but "not always in such a good way." Local blood feuds and corruption have proved to be remarkably persistent. So persistent, in fact, that Foer believes that globalization is not likely to deliver on the promise of a more humane world order that some of its proponents anticipate. That would require a liberal nationalism, a development necessary "to blunt the return of tribalism." Soccer, at its best, shows how this might work. For Foer, the sport demonstrates that "you could love your country -- even consider it a superior group -- without desiring to dominate other groups or closing yourself off to foreign impulses."

Regarding the "not so good ways" that locals respond to globalism, Foer found much to worry about. The world of soccer can be quite ugly. In Serbia, fans of Red Star Belgrade became, as he puts it, "Milosevic's shock troops, the most active agents of ethnic cleansing, highly efficient practitioners of genocide." The "unfinished fight over the Protestant Reformation" is kept alive in the stands in Glasgow. And, at least as he reports it, Margaret Thatcher was not far off the mark when she said that the hooliganism that emerged in soccer during the 1980s was "a disgrace to civilized society."

Foer argues that the gruesome antisocial fan behavior that occurs when soccer is at its worst is counterbalanced in other places where the sport plays a role in creating a more humane order. The most interesting and unlikely of these is Iran. During the Islamic Revolution of 1979, women were prohibited from attending soccer games at Tehran's 120,000-seat stadium. But, as Foer tells it, this banning never fully took effect, with some women sneaking into the facility dressed in men's clothes. Pressed by female soccer fans, the ruling Iranian clergy issued a new fatwa in 1987 that allowed women to watch games on television, though the ban on attendance remained in place.

This compromise could not survive the jubilation that followed the Iranian national team's successful capture of a World Cup berth in 1997. The team itself was at least to some extent a participant in the liberal global order: Its coach was a Brazilian who wore a necktie, an accessory that the ruling clergy considered a European imposition. But the victory celebration and its aftermath were even more important. Foer reports that many of the younger celebrants were women, some of whom danced with uncovered heads. Further, at the official celebration at the stadium, when women were denied entrance they mounted a demonstration. They shouted, "Aren't we part of this nation? We want to celebrate too. We aren't ants." Ultimately they broke through the police barriers and joined the mass victory party. Foer compares this "football revolution" to the Boston Tea Party. He notes that the event will "go down as the moment when the people first realized that they could challenge their tyrannical rulers." As the United States looks for ways to encourage liberalism within Islam, an event such as this deserves attention. Its impact suggests that Paul Wolfowitz, if no one else, should read this account.

U.S. exceptionalism is nowhere more evident than in soccer. Millions of kids have played it, and "soccer mom" has become part of our political vocabulary. Yet as a commercial enterprise, soccer largely has failed here. There is no mass market for the sport. Foer does not really offer an explanation of this failure. Rather, he contents himself with a different argument: a class analysis of the attractiveness of the sport to yuppie parents. He argues that middle-class and professional parents reject American football as too violent, baseball as too stressful (because its pitcher/batter encounter is potentially ego-deflating) and basketball as ghetto-tainted. They choose soccer because it can "minimize the pain of competition while still teaching life lessons." Maybe, but Foer does not provide enough evidence on this to be convincing.

The vein of optimism that flows through the book is made explicit in his chapter on the FC Barcelona club -- his favorite team. This club, he writes, possesses a modernist aesthetic, rooted in its worker-cooperative origins and reinforced by its symbolic role in Catalan opposition to Franco. The sophistication of the team -- it possesses its own art museum, season ticket holders vote for the team's administration, and its followers are knowledgeable about both sport and politics -- redeems the game "by showing that fans can love a club and a country with passion and without turning into a thug or terrorist."

Foer believes that nationalism need not be xenophobic and that patriotism and cosmopolitanism are compatible. His reading of soccer does not ignore the ugliness that can be associated with sport and therefore society. But it does hold out hope that sport can be a vehicle for liberalism (as it has been in Iran) and encourage a benign form of group identification (as it has done in Spain). Notwithstanding contemporary claims of civilizations in conflict, Foer's soccer odyssey lends weight to the argument that a humane world order is possible. But globalization alone cannot be relied upon to accomplish that goal. A world order of tolerance and respect also requires the institutions of a vibrant domestic liberalism.

Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.

Customer Reviews

oh dear
I picked this up when in the States; a football loving Brit who watches games around the world wanting to read a 'yank's' take on the beautiful game.

The author writes well. It is a fun read, but since getting back to England I've gained many cheap laughs by reading excerpts out loud.You have to trust an author when he states something as fact, but whenever I came across something I had personal knowledge of he gets it wrong.

His chapter on Ukrainian racism ends with him saying the racist abuse of black players there is not as bad as in England.Racist abuse was bad here 30 years ago, but disappeared many years ago.He talks of Iranian players `emigrating to play in English football- there's not one. He refers to the 1998 World Game, Germany v Iran, and says the`stadium was full of pro democracy Iranians. It was not. I was at that game . The stadium was full of Germans. And as for his`piece on Tottenham- someone was clearly winding him up.

This might seem picky, but instances like these made me suspect what he was saying about things I knew nothing about. If you want to read about football, pick up Simon Kuper's book 'Football against the enemy',David Winner's ' Brilliant Orange' and Pete Davie's brilliant 'All Played Out'. This book explained nothing

This is very familiar ground
Foer is an excellent writer, and for those who aren't familiar with the history of the sport this is an excellent introduction. For those who are already well-read on football, much of this will be too familiar. The religious and political context of the Celtic v. Rangers rivalry, the laughable corruption of Brazilian football, and basically every other story in this book has already been covered by other writers. Though the globalization theme tries to bring a new perspective to these old stories, it just feels gimmicky. If you've already read Simon Kuper's FOOTBALL AGAINST THE ENEMY you'll regret spending your money here. If you haven't read Kuper's book, but you're interested in the sport, buy it immediately. This is light reading designed for those who know nothing about the sport's history. For those looking for more depth and more entertainment, skip this and go straight to Kuper, David Winner's BRILLIANT ORANGE, and Alex Bellos' FUTEBOL: SOCCER, THE BRAZILIAN WAY. All three are excellent, entertaining, and provide more insight into the topics Foer touches on. To summarize: the typical American reader with limited soccer knowledge will enjoy this, those with real interest in the subject would do well to move on to more meaty fare.

Doesn't live up to premise of title...still a good read
I suppose a book titled "10 Essays of the Political, Social, and Economic Underpinnings of Soccer" won't sell as many books, but in this case, would be more accurate. Maybe "How the World Explains Soccer" would be the better way to go. I had high expectations when I bought this, and while it's a good read, it was hard not to be disappointed with the book not really delivering on the title.

That said, some of the chapters were compelling. The first chapter demonstrating how Red Star Brigade was instrumental in Serbian nationalism in the 90's was rather chilling. The chapter on Celtic-Chelsea rivalry and Nigerians playing in the Ukraine were also most interesting to me. As a soccer fan that catches the occasional MLS match on US television, follows the US national team, and watches several World Cup matches every four years, I found the essays broadened my appreciation for the sport. More dedicated fans of the beautiful game will probably find some of the essays less informative, since a few seemed more like good reporting and really didn't have anything really profound to say, despite Foer trying mightily to do so.