POST/HIST 187 The History and Politics of World Soccer
Spring 2006
MWF 11:00-11:50
Broad Performance Space
(Friday Section 2: Broad Center 209, 12-1pm)
Andre Wakefield
Scott 226
awakefield@pitzer.edu
607-3068
Office Hours: MW12:30-2pm
Nigel Boyle
Scott 217l
nboyle@pitzer.edu
607-3770
Office Hours T 12-1, Th 12-2pm
This course examines topics in the history and politics of world soccer. We will see how culture,
politics and history play themselves out upon the stage of stadium and field, from fascist Italy to
indomitable Cameroon. We will see how the World Cup has become a catalyst for political and
cultural debate, and how it has made, and undermined, political regimes. And we will try to
understand the game as others, in different times and places, have seen it: a game freighted with
meaning and beauty.
We will meet three times each week. Two of those sessions will be large plenary gatherings,
dedicated to exploring the history and politics of the game. We will use certain Fridays to break into
two groups, in order to analyze material in greater detail. Other Fridays will have feature guests or
student panels. WebCt will serve as a forum for online discussion throughout the term.
Lectures and discussion sections will be focused on discrete topics but there are several recurring
themes in the course.

How did soccer become the world’s hegemonic sports culture, but not America’s?

Why is the World Cup so strongly related to nationalism and national identity?

How have colonial legacies and economic systems shaped the game?

How has the organization of FIFA and national Associations shaped the modern game?

How has the game been manipulated for political purposes? How has it served some
leaders and destroyed others?

Does soccer express culture?
The course is organized in a roughly chronological fashion.

In the first part of the course (weeks 1-3) we will examine the emergence of modern
soccer as “the global game.”

In the second part of the course (weeks 4-6) we will examine the role of world soccer in
times of conflict, exploring issues such as Nationalism, Fascism, Imperialism, Stalinism and the Cold
War.

In the third part of the course (weeks 7-9) we will consider the iconic players and teams
in World Cup History: Pelé /Brazil, Cruyff/Holland and Maradona/Argentina, and their larger
political significance.

In the final part of the course (weeks 10-15) we will explore contemporary soccer
regionally, examining in turn the former Soviet Bloc, Africa, the USA, multicultural Europe, and
Asia. We will end with a look forward to World Cup 2006.
Materials
All required readings will be available either (1) as PDF files on WebCT or (2) for purchase at
Huntley.
A. Markovitz and S. Hellerman, Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism. Princeton, 2001.
ISBN: 0-691-07447-X. (Available at Huntley)
Eduardo Galeano, Soccer in Sun and Shadow. Translated by Mark Fried. Verso, 1999. ISBN:
1859842305. (Sections available on WebCT, with copies at Huntley shortly.)
In addition, viewing some film/video will be required (other film/video will be recommended).
Film/video will be made available through Pitzer’s AV office.
Required: History of Soccer: The Beautiful Game (TBG) – excerpts, The Game of Their Live, World
Cup 1966 Final
Recommended non-required parts of History of Soccer: The Beautiful Game (TBG), Victory, the
Great Escape, The Boys From Brazil, The Cup, Bend It Like Beckham, La Haine.
WebCT
Everyone, without exception, will be required to log on to the course website (WebCT) within the
first week of the course. In order to log on, you will need to go to http://webct.claremont.edu. Once
there, enter your 8 digit WebCT ID number (your student ID # minus the first “0” and the last “1”,
e.g., 50010344) and your WebCT password, which was sent to your e-mail account at the beginning
of the year from Jeremy Whaley. If you have lost your password, if the course does not appear in your
WebCT account, or if you otherwise have trouble logging in, please go to the computer lab or call
Ext. 73065 right away and get it sorted out. Professors Wakefield and Boyle will not deal with your
technical problems on this. Those who have not signed on to the course website by January 25 will
be dropped from the course. No excuses, no exceptions.
Field Trip
The class will travel to the Home Depot Center on the evening of Wednesday, February 8 to see the
Los Angeles Galaxy play South Korea’s World Cup team. Please make a note of it.
The following events are also recommended:
Sunday, January 29 at 2pm: U.S. vs. Norway, Home Depot Center, Carson.
Wednesday, February 15: Mexico vs. South Korea (Los Angeles)
Monday, February 20: The World Cup Trophy on view in LA.
Grading
1. Midterm exam (March 24) 25%.
2. Final Exam. (May 11) 25%.
3. Participation (attendance, class, and WebCT) 25%. Students must post questions and
thoughts about the subject matter (lectures and readings) at least once each week. Students will
be expected to participate actively in Friday discussion sections.
4. World Cup 2006 Country Project 25%. Each student in the class will choose or be assigned
one of the countries participating in World Cup 2006. You will produce two 8 page papers
about your country. The first, due March 10, will be an overview of the history and politics of
your country, especially as it relates to football. The second, due April 21, will focus on a
particular theme of your choosing.
Semester Calendar
Week 1: Soccer, History and Politics
Wednesday, January 18. Course Introduction
Friday, January 20. Discussion Sections Introduction
Week 2: Origins and Origin Myths
Monday January 23. Folk Football, Violence and Social Control
Elias, “Folk Football” (WebCT)
TBG (Origins: Pure Genius, The Early Years, Reform)
Wednesday, January 25: Industrial Society and Modern Sports Culture
Markovits and Hellerman pp. 1-99
TBG (Origins: The People’s Game)
Friday, January 27: Discussion Sections.
Sunday, January 29. U.S. vs. Norway (optional)
Week 3: Schools, Professionalization and Diffusion: Soccer until 1914.
Monday, January 30. US Soccer and the World Cup: Guest Speaker Steve Sampson (Coach of LA
Galaxy and US World Cup Team - aka the Great Satan – in 1998)
TBG (Soccer Cultures: USA, Iran)
Wednesday February 1 American Football, Baseball and Soccer: Organization, Diffusion and
Hegemony.
Szymanski and Zimbalist “How soccer spread around the world when baseball didn’t” (WebCT).
Allen Sack “When Yale Spirit Vanquished Harvard Indifference” Harvard Magazine, November
1975 (WebCT).
Reisman and Denney, “Football in America: A study in Cultural Diffusion” (WebCT).
Friday, February 3. The Long Nineteenth Century.
Galeano, 1-38.
Week 4: Interwar Soccer, Fascism and Neo-Fascism
Monday, February 6. The Danubian School, Democracy and Fascism.
Galeano, pp. 38-85
TBG (Evolution of the European Game: Pioneers, Danubian School, Vittorio Pozzo’s Italia)
Wednesday February 8 LA Galaxy versus S. Korea (field trip)
Wednesday, February 8. Ultras, Sectarians, Anti-Semites and Hooligans
Franklin Foer “How Soccer Explains…Gangsters Paradise, …Pornography of Sects, …the Jewish
Question, …the Sentimental Hooligan” (WebCT).
TBG (The Dark Side: Death on the Terraces Heysel, Death on the Terraces Hillsborough, Trouble
on the Terraces, and “Heysel Remembered”).
Friday, February 10. Guest Speaker: Tony Crowley. Football: a (Liverpool) fan’s eye view.
Week 5: Soccer, Nazism and Resistance
Monday, February 13. Fußball and the Third Reich.
Dougan, Dynamo, pp. 23-78 (WebCT)
TBG (The Dark Side Ch 1 The Death Match)
Wednesday February 15 South Korea versus Mexico (optional)
Wednesday, February 15. Soccer and Resistance: FitzcultHura, Lobanovsky, Sunyol, Michels
Dougan, Dynamo, pp. 134-154 and 168-180 (WebCT)
TBG (Soccer Cultures: The Death Match)
Burns Barça: a Peoples’s Passion Ch. 5 “Death in the Afternoon” and Ch. 10 “The Flying
Dutchman” (WebCT).
P. Ball Morbo Ch 5. “White Noise: Madrid and the Legacy of Franco” pp. 113-40.
Recommended Film Victory
Friday February 17 Guest speaker: Bill Swartz. Soccer Cultures: a Coaches’ eye view.
Week 6: De Oranje and Neuroses
Monday, February 20. Dutch Soccer to July 7 1974
Winner, Brilliant Orange, pp. 44-66, 85-115. (WebCT)
TBG (European Superpowers: A Northern Response, Total Soccer)
Wednesday, February 22. Dutch Soccer since July 7 1974: neurosis and multiculturalism
Winner pp. 160-167, 188-207 and 221-226 (WebCT).
Friday, February 24. Discussion sections: The first paper.
Week 7: Soccer and War in South America
Monday, February 27. Soccer Wars and South American Politics
Galeano, 85-131.
TBG (South American Superpowers: River Plate, Uruguay’s Golden Age, Argentina’s isolation)
TBG (The Dark Side: The Soccer War)
Wednesday, March 1. Menotti, Galtieri, Ardiles, Thatcher and the Hand of God
M. Thatcher The Downing Street Year “The Falklands: Victory” (WebCT).
S. Kuper “The Conflict Lives On: how the battles moved away from the islands and on to the pitch”
(Guardian Special 2002).
TBG (South American Superpowers: The Decade of the Dictators, Passion)
Friday, March 3. Discussion sections: the first paper (continued)
Week 8: Futebol-arte, Pelé and Brazil.
Monday, March 6. The Holy Trinity: Pelé, Cruyff and Maradona
TBG (Superstars: Pele, Garrincha, Best, Cruyff, Maradona))
Wednesday, March 8. Brazil Takes Over.
Galeano, pp. 131-160.
TBG (Brazil)
Friday March 10. First paper due. Review for Midterm.
March 11-19 Spring Break
Week 9: 1966: N. Korea v. Italy, England v. Germany
Monday, March 20. The Cult of Personality: 1966
The Game of Their Lives)
4:15 Showing of The Game of their Lives and talk by film-maker Daniel Gordon. Hahn 101
(Pomona)
Wednesday, March 22. “And They Think It’s All Over…”
Ulrich Hesse-Lichtenberger Tor!: The Story of German Football Ch. 11 “”Victory Turns Sour”
(WebCT).
Film: 1966 World Cup Final
Optional Films: Victory, The Great Escape
Friday March 24 Midterm Exam.
Week 10: Proletarians and Communists
Monday, March 27. The Great British Proletarians: Busby, Stein, Shankly, Clough and Ferguson.
H. McIlvanney McIlvanney on Football (Excerpts)
Wednesday, March 29. Socialist Football Styles the Soviet Bloc
Wilson, Behind the Curtain (WebCT)
Friday, March 31 (No class –Cesar Chavez)
Week 11: African Soccer 1956-2010
Monday, April 3. Kwame Nkrumah, Colonialism, and the United States of Africa.
Paul Darby, Africa, Football and FIFA, pp. 23-42 (WebCT)
TBG (Africa)
Wednesday, April 5. African Cup of Nations, Egypt Jan/Feb 2006
TBG (For Club and Country: a Conflict of Interests)
Reading TBA (WebCT)
Friday, April 7. Guest Speaker Jen Scanlon. American Exceptionalism and Women’s Soccer.
Week 12: U.S. Soccer, U.S. Exceptionalism Revisited
Monday, April 10. History of U.S. Soccer: NASL, MLS
Glanville, pp. 124-151 (WebCT)
Allen, pp. 17-29 (WebCT)
Markovits and Hellerman, pp. 99-161.
Wednesday April 12. 1994 and 1999 US World Cups
Markovits and Hellerman pp. 162-273
Foer “How Soccer Explains the American Culture Wars” (WebCT).
Friday, April 14. Guest Speaker Stu McConnell and Steve Glass. Baseball, Soccer and American
Exceptionalism.
Week 13: Immigrants, Nations, Loyalties, Identities
Monday, April 17.
Jurgens, “Plotting Immigration,” 1-30 (WebCT).
Wednesday, April 19. Zizou and 1998: National Identity in the New Europe
Martin Baldwin-Edwards and Martin Schain, "The Politics of Immigration"(WebCT).
Rogers Brubaker Citizenship and Nationalism in France and Germany Ch 1
TBG (For Club and Country: a French Renaissance)
Recommended Films: Bend it Like Beckham, La Haine
Friday, April 21. Dan Calichman. Professional Soccer: MLS and J-League.
Week 14: Asian Soccer: 2002 and Beyond
Monday, April 24. Japanese Soccer
Reading: TBA (WebCT)
TBG (Futures: Japan)
Wednesday, April 26. Chinese Soccer Nationalism, Korea and Japan
N. Boyle “Why do the Chinese not chant Tai Haningo!?” Beijing Youth Daily, July 2, 2002.
TBG (Futures: China, Korea)
Friday, April 28. Senior Final exam (27+ seniors)
Week 15: Globalization and World Cup 2006
Monday, May 1. FIFA, UEFA, and the Money Game
Galeano, pp. 160-210
Wednesday, May 3. Forza Globalization, Soccer’s most important players: Berlusconi, Murdoch,
Globo, Cisneros, Abramowitz, Adidas, Glazer
TBG (The Media: Commercialism and 6 A Global Brand)
Szymanski and Zimbalist “What Americans need to know about world soccer and what the world
needs to know about American Baseball”
Friday, May 5. To Germany!
Thursday, May 11: 9-12 Non-senior Final Exam