ericgaryanderson's review against another edition
4.0
Eeeeee, I started this monumental 900+ page book around the time the World Cup wrapped up. And I just finished reading it a couple of weeks ago. For a 900+ page book, this one's, amazingly, consistently well done. Neither a pageturner nor a barnburner, but a good, solid, "global history" with detailed attention to Asia and Africa as well as Europe and the Americas. 4 stars to David Goldblatt for all he did to research and write this book, and 4 stars to me for reading it start to finish.
barry_x's review against another edition
4.0
This book delivers what it says on the cover. 'The Ball Is Round' attempts to provide a global history of football and to a very large extent it does that. The scope of the book is huge, attempting to track the history of the game before it's rules and form took shape into what we know of the sport today. It attempts to cover the whole of football history up to just before the 2006 World Cup and attempts to be global.
Considering the huge library and history of football writing that adds to our collective knowledge of the sport this tome of a book pretty much manages to deliver. The book, of course is huge coming in at over 900 pages and yet there is a sense that it is too short. For instance the first football league in England gets a couple of pages, complex rivalries and huge socio-political events may get a paragraph or two. Whilst the book is very accessible and easy to pick up and down with short, contained chapters I am often left with, 'but you missed this out' and that is only based on my knowledge so I imagine many other readers would feel the same.
In many respects I think this book is a guide to pointing the reader in other directions for further reading.
(Some examples - Behind the curtain by Jonathan Wilson for Eastern European football, Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson for the history of tactics, Tor by Uli Hesse for German football, Futebol by Alex Bellos, Football's Twelve Apostles by Thomas Taw for the early history of the Football League. There are loads of other books focusing on regions or periods I haven't got round to reading yet. This is just a taster and a nod that Goldblatt's book pretty much skims a very wide surface!)
One of the strengths of the book is that it charts the history of football in line with the political, social and cultural changes across the world over the last 150 years or so. In this respect the book in many ways is the history of the modern world with football as a backdrop. It's a brave choice but one I am glad Goldblatt took. In many parts of the world football has reflected a nation's psyche and their role in the world. The study is fascinating - that football spread throughout the world by colonialism but that it has also been embraced by most of the world as their own. I do have a slight gripe in that Goldblatt's politics do come through a little and there is a sense of history being written by the victors - it is a modern liberal capitalistic view of the history of the world. There is often a sense of 'there are two evils in the world, communism and fascism and this is the role they have played in football'. On a couple of moments I bristled at an inaccuracy or naive, or biased view of the world but in many respects this book cannot be neutral. (I did read one review that described this book as neo-marxist which is absolute hogwash and to be honest giving a wide berth to people who use that term is typically a good idea. There is no indication this book is written from a Marxist or socialist perspective).
Goldblatt writes with passion, with clarity, with beauty and there are moments where one falls in love with the history. And yet, the history of football is one of greed, corruption, match fixing, incompetence and cruelty. The fans have never mattered in some places and despite the noble tradition of sport it is a game of winners and losers and one where fair play takes a back seat to the needs of the powerful.
There are a few gaps - Asian football is underrepresented and there is very little about football in Mexico - one of the world's biggest markets, but there is little left out in the big picture.
I would love to see a revised edition factoring in the last fifteen years or so. Goldblatt predicted the explosion of the Asian market and their influence on the global game. I do wonder how he would view the Americanisation of the game and the power grab by the richest for a closed shop. The 'no relegation' that is normal in the US, is viewed globally as another example of the rich stitching up sport for themselves.
Well worth picking up but will want you needing more.
Considering the huge library and history of football writing that adds to our collective knowledge of the sport this tome of a book pretty much manages to deliver. The book, of course is huge coming in at over 900 pages and yet there is a sense that it is too short. For instance the first football league in England gets a couple of pages, complex rivalries and huge socio-political events may get a paragraph or two. Whilst the book is very accessible and easy to pick up and down with short, contained chapters I am often left with, 'but you missed this out' and that is only based on my knowledge so I imagine many other readers would feel the same.
In many respects I think this book is a guide to pointing the reader in other directions for further reading.
(Some examples - Behind the curtain by Jonathan Wilson for Eastern European football, Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson for the history of tactics, Tor by Uli Hesse for German football, Futebol by Alex Bellos, Football's Twelve Apostles by Thomas Taw for the early history of the Football League. There are loads of other books focusing on regions or periods I haven't got round to reading yet. This is just a taster and a nod that Goldblatt's book pretty much skims a very wide surface!)
One of the strengths of the book is that it charts the history of football in line with the political, social and cultural changes across the world over the last 150 years or so. In this respect the book in many ways is the history of the modern world with football as a backdrop. It's a brave choice but one I am glad Goldblatt took. In many parts of the world football has reflected a nation's psyche and their role in the world. The study is fascinating - that football spread throughout the world by colonialism but that it has also been embraced by most of the world as their own. I do have a slight gripe in that Goldblatt's politics do come through a little and there is a sense of history being written by the victors - it is a modern liberal capitalistic view of the history of the world. There is often a sense of 'there are two evils in the world, communism and fascism and this is the role they have played in football'. On a couple of moments I bristled at an inaccuracy or naive, or biased view of the world but in many respects this book cannot be neutral. (I did read one review that described this book as neo-marxist which is absolute hogwash and to be honest giving a wide berth to people who use that term is typically a good idea. There is no indication this book is written from a Marxist or socialist perspective).
Goldblatt writes with passion, with clarity, with beauty and there are moments where one falls in love with the history. And yet, the history of football is one of greed, corruption, match fixing, incompetence and cruelty. The fans have never mattered in some places and despite the noble tradition of sport it is a game of winners and losers and one where fair play takes a back seat to the needs of the powerful.
There are a few gaps - Asian football is underrepresented and there is very little about football in Mexico - one of the world's biggest markets, but there is little left out in the big picture.
I would love to see a revised edition factoring in the last fifteen years or so. Goldblatt predicted the explosion of the Asian market and their influence on the global game. I do wonder how he would view the Americanisation of the game and the power grab by the richest for a closed shop. The 'no relegation' that is normal in the US, is viewed globally as another example of the rich stitching up sport for themselves.
Well worth picking up but will want you needing more.
ejdecoster's review against another edition
4.0
Finally finished! An excellent book, but not for the faint of heart. Goldblatt discusses soccer around the world, and examines it from every angle. The book is a bit of a challenge - it has the depth of a monograph without the specificity of focus, and the volume of information can be quite intense.
librarianonparade's review against another edition
4.0
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!
oldswampy's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.5
A long book, yet the narrative was consistently strong and often left me interested in learning more about the particular topic rather than in a hurry to be finished. Aside from some general assumptions about the human condition that I don't think are warranted, and which do little to disrupt the story being told, this is a superb book.
catherineofalx's review against another edition
5.0
Only got to read about 2/3 (the initial history + everything related to the Americas), but everything I read, I enjoyed. He doesn't give women's football its due, but I rarely expect much on that front. Other than that, an engaging and informative history of my favorite thing in the world. Grateful for this book!
mhdtim's review against another edition
5.0
Extraordinarily detailed, if inevitably Anglo-tinged look at the history and context of football.
thought's review
3.0
Comprehensive good book about the history of football (soccer). But...it read like a reference book. Not my thing. If you want to know everything their is to know about the history of football--this is great. If you want to be entertained, skip it.