The Ball is Round: A Global History of Football
Product Details | Similar Products | Customer Reviews | Author: David Goldblatt List Price: £16.00 Our Price: £10.70 You Save: £5.30 (33%) Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours  |
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 | Product Details: Paperback 992 pages Release Date: 30 August 2007 Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 0141015829 Rating:  Sales Rank: 58585 | | Look for similar books by subject:
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| | Customer Reviews: Captivating - Great Read (14 January 2010)I have been following football only since the last 8 years and have been building my knowledge slowly about the history of the game. This book has probably taught me the most. Very well written, and contains all kinds of interesting anecdotes. Must read for every football fan, or a student of football More than just football (11 September 2009)You dont have to be a football fanatic to enjoy this book, as it can be read as a social and political history of the 20th century with football as the theme running through. It is interesting to follow football from its late 19th century upper class origins to the 'people's game' of today. This is a BIG book and demands an investment of time, but it is well written and easy to read.  A must-read for anyone interested in football's place in world history... (18 June 2009)This book is immense. It was really hard-going, not because it wasn't interesting, but because it was so amazingly comprehensive. It really does cover the complete global history of football, right from way back when man first kicked something round, right up to the present day, covering every continent, every competition, and damn near every team. It's exhaustive. One of its major virtues is that it doesn't take football out geopolitical context, as so many sports histories tend to. Football has played an important part in the history and politics of many countries, and to ignore football's influence on those countries and vice versa is to ignore an important part of the history of the sport. So I'd say this book is a must for anyone interested in history. But be warned, it'll take you a while to plough through it! A Beautiful Book for the Beautiful Game (03 April 2009)A back cover review of this book describes it as `the only football book that you are ever going to need'. When I told my wife this and how keen I was to read it, she asked if I was going to dispose of a supposedly redundant library of football books that I already own. Sadly I am similar to most football enthusiasts in that I never want to part with my large collection of football trivia and photograph histories. However, the reviewer is correct in one sense - this is the most comprehensive history of world football that I have ever seen. It is also unique. One of Goldblatt's major criticisms of mainstream history is that football is ignored by `serious' historians. He points out that anyone writing Twentieth Century history is omitting a great social development by doing so. Historians are happy to discuss literature, theatre, and even film - so why not football? Goldblatt argues that with TV viewing figures in the billions (estimates vary, but up to a third of the planet were watching) can events like the World Cup continue to be ignored by historians? Goldblatt has set out to rectify this omission himself by producing the first comprehensive social history of football. It is an ambitious undertaking, but one that is fully realised in this book. You might assume that with such a large subject, the facts would be diluted and chapters could read as an overview. That is far from the truth. The author covers each development with precision and clarity. It is well referenced and the scope for further reading is vast, as you might expect. In fact, Goldblatt is so thorough that this book stands as something completely different to the usual lazy efforts of football hack journalists. It is an entirely different genre. Themes that are explored include the dubious origins of the world game, claims by various countries of inventing it, the first codifying of rules in the English public schools, the emergence of Scotland, the spread of football across the British Empire, reasons for the lack of a foothold in Australia and Canada, the nascent continental game, and the growth of football around the Danube. One of the most interesting chapters explores the ways that football was developed in South America, and how different social conditions (especially the lack of participation in the World Wars) led to an entirely different football culture. Goldblatt also examines how the devastating effects of the First World War caused profound changes to football in Europe. With the removal of a whole social class who had previously regarded football as their own, the game was claimed by the working class. He shows how the movement of men in Europe led to a great mixing of classes and cultures, and `seeded' football growth where it had previously been absent. One area of football history that is overlooked in other studies that I have read is the role of the Olympic Games in early international football. Football had a sixty year history before the first World Cup in 1930, and it is an area that is easily omitted. Goldblatt explores the game and its relationship with the Olympics, and especially amateurism. For England fanatics, it makes good reading - until l918, they were unofficial World Champions, and untouchable. I found the explanations of the Danubian football revolution more interesting, however, and the fact that by the 1920s the writing was already on the wall for England and Scotland. If you have read his far, you probably already know the rest of the story - or you think you do. Many of the assumptions made about modern football, particularly by British fans, are just untrue. Is Hooliganism `The English Disease'? The early problems in Glasgow are comprehensively chronicled, and the author leaves the reader to do the maths - violence north of the Border preceded the 1970s issues of Millwall and Leeds by fifty years. From the Second World War onwards the book becomes less of an education and more of a delight, and the expected heroes and villains of post-war football emerge. The really enlightening chapters are those that deal in depth with football's considerable footprint in the developing world. Africa's relationship with the beautiful game is especially intriguing. Australia's lack of participation for a major sporting nation is well explained. Asia's vast distances and cultural contrasts go a long way to explaining the slow development of the game in Tehran and Tokyo. Each chapter brings a different insight, and many are thoroughly reinforced by sound political and social references. Goldblatt weaves the sporting and political histories of the continents together with skill and care. One of the successes of this book is that there is so much information, but that it is not overwhelming. The author takes a recognisable era and moves from continent to continent, and within each chapter he focuses carefully on the history of each country. His reflections on events, and reasons for them, make each chapter more than just a name-check of the major players and teams. When I had read as far as the 1950s I looked forward to reading what Goldblatt had to say about Real Madrid. I was not disappointed. With characteristic style he examined the career of the greatest of them all, Alfredo di Stefano. A memorable quote is used: "If Pele was the violins, di Stefano was the whole orchestra." It seems a fitting way to sum up the value and quality of this book to say that it is a demanding but rewarding read. Many chapters brought a smile to my face. Many chapters were challenging - the detail of Heysel in particular was hard going for me as a Liverpool fan - but it is all part of the great history of football. Pele was right - it is The Beautiful Game. Now we have a Beautiful Book to go with it. BIGGER THAN JESUS (03 February 2009)'The Ball is Round: A Global History of Football' by David Goldblatt is an attempt to tell the story of fooball - from it's origins in the newly burgeoning industrialised and urbanised United Kingdom in the 19th century 'spread through both the formal empire and the immense informal empire of Britain's economic and cultural connections' to the truly global spectacle it is today - but also to place the game in it's social, cultural, economic and political contexts also. Goldblatt's book does not just tell you the history of the game - the book is replete with stories of it's great games, players and managers - but also the historical currents that have spurred and shaped the game. It is here that Goldblatt excells, like Simon Kuper and David Winner before him, he seems to understand the way football (on the field and off) both reflects and expresses deeper insights into the cultures into which the game is taken into it's heart. The sections in particular concerning Latin America are indicative of this. I feel I have learned more about Latin America from reading this book than any number of books and documentaries previously. Goldblatt argues in the book that the game is not taken seriously by the world's academic elites despite it's stake to the claim that it is football and not Christianity or McDonald's say for the sake of example that is currently the most globally universal cultural practice, this is a book that must go some way to remedy that disjunction. 'The Ball is Round' whilst over 900 pages is a hugely entertaining as well as informative read that can be read from cover to cover or dipped into, read by the football fanatic or merely by anyone interested in history. | |
