Scan barcode
A review by jnepal
How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization by Franklin Foer
4.0
A very interesting read. I liked it.
The author takes us on a journey around the globe looking at soccer and how it interacts or relates to certain regions, peoples, nations, and events. Mr. Foer shows us genocidal soccer fans/owners in Serbia, tackles the "Jewish question" in relation to soccer (specifically in Europe), introduces us to sentimental soccer hooliganism in Britain, explains how soccer has been used by Iranians as a freedom of expression, decries the anti-soccer rhetoric in America as anti-globalization, and provides us glimpses of soccer in other areas of the world as well.
His writing is straight forward and easy to read. He vividly shows how soccer is used and transformed by its participants and by outsiders. He describes some of the visible affects of globalization on soccer and tries to explain how the changes in soccer manifest the changes in the local communities due to globalization.
The one criticism I have for the book is its lack of analysis. The author does provide some analysis, but does not provide the depth of analysis I was hoping for. Perhaps my expectations were unreasonable, but it would have been neat to see the relation between different peoples, nations, societies in the soccer world and how that related to the bigger picture of globalization.
I enjoyed this book. He did not provide as much analysis as I had hoped, but he provided some interesting information and intriguing stories.
The author takes us on a journey around the globe looking at soccer and how it interacts or relates to certain regions, peoples, nations, and events. Mr. Foer shows us genocidal soccer fans/owners in Serbia, tackles the "Jewish question" in relation to soccer (specifically in Europe), introduces us to sentimental soccer hooliganism in Britain, explains how soccer has been used by Iranians as a freedom of expression, decries the anti-soccer rhetoric in America as anti-globalization, and provides us glimpses of soccer in other areas of the world as well.
His writing is straight forward and easy to read. He vividly shows how soccer is used and transformed by its participants and by outsiders. He describes some of the visible affects of globalization on soccer and tries to explain how the changes in soccer manifest the changes in the local communities due to globalization.
The one criticism I have for the book is its lack of analysis. The author does provide some analysis, but does not provide the depth of analysis I was hoping for. Perhaps my expectations were unreasonable, but it would have been neat to see the relation between different peoples, nations, societies in the soccer world and how that related to the bigger picture of globalization.
I enjoyed this book. He did not provide as much analysis as I had hoped, but he provided some interesting information and intriguing stories.