How soccer explains the world : an unlikely theory of globalization / Franklin Foer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Foer, Franklin.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Globalization.

Soccer.

Physical Description:

261 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : HarperCollins, [2004]

Summary:

Soccer is much more than a game, or even a way of life. It is a perfect window into the crosscurrents of today's world, with all of its joys and sorrows. Soccer clubs don't represent geographic areas; they stand for social classes and political ideologies, and often command more faith than religion. Unlike baseball or tennis, soccer is freighted with the weight of ancient hatreds and history. It's a sport with real stakes -- one that is capable of ruining regimes and launching liberation movements. In this remarkably insightful, wide-ranging work of reportage, Franklin Foer takes us on a surprising tour through the world of soccer, shattering the myths of our new global age along the way. He finds that instead of destroying local cultures, as the Left predicted, globalization has revived tribalism. And far from the triumph of capitalism that the Right predicted, it has entrenched corruption. In his travels, Foer encounters a collection of fans that is stranger than fiction: an English hooligan with a Jewish mother, a Nazi father, and a career as a soldier of fortune; a soccer fan club in Serbia that turns into a brutal anti-Muslim paramilitary unit; and a raucous crowd of Scots who urge him to take sides in their age-old rivalry between Catholic and Protestant teams. Telling stories in turns wild, violent, funny, and tragic, the author is able to shine a spotlight on the clash of civilizations, the international economy, and just about everything in between. From Brazil to Bosnia and from Italy to Iran, How Soccer Explains the World is an eye-opening chronicle of how a beautiful sport and its fanatical followers can illuminate the fault lines of a society, whether poverty, anti-Semitism, or radical Islam. Filled with blazing intelligence, colorful characters, wry humor, and an equal passion for soccer and humanity, this is an utterly original book that makes sense of our troubled times.

Contents:

1 How Soccer Explains: the Gangster's Paradise 7

2 How Soccer Explains: the Pornography of Sects 35

3 How Soccer Explains: the Jewish Question 65

4 How Soccer Explains: the Sentimental Hooligan 89

5 How Soccer Explains: the Survival of the Top Hats 115

6 How Soccer Explains: the Black Carpathians 141

7 How Soccer Explains: the New Oligarchs 167

8 How Soccer Explains: the Discreet Charm of Bourgeois Nationalism 193

9 How Soccer Explains: Islam's Hope 217

10 How Soccer Explains: the American Culture Wars 235.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [249]-252) and index.

ISBN:

0066212340

OCLC:

55756745