Laurent Dubois
Soccer Empire
The World Cup and the Future of France
An Ahmanson Foundation Book in the Humanities
$27.50, £19.95 hardcover
9780520259287
NYP--Due 6/10
336 pages, 6 x 9 inches, 29 b/w photographs
June 2010, Available worldwide
Also in: African History; Sociology of Sport
June 2010, Available worldwide
Also in: African History; Sociology of Sport
When France both hosted and won the World Cup in 1998, the face of its star player, Zinedine Zidane, the son of Algerian immigrants, was projected onto the Arc de Triomphe. During the 2006 World Cup finals, Zidane stunned the country by ending his spectacular career with an assault on an Italian player. In Soccer Empire, Laurent Dubois illuminates the connections between empire and sport by tracing the story of World Cup soccer, from the Cup's French origins in the 1930s to Africa and the Caribbean and back again. As he vividly recounts the lives of two of soccer's most electrifying players, Zidane and his outspoken teammate, Lilian Thuram, Dubois deepens our understanding of the legacies of empire that persist in Europe and brilliantly captures the power of soccer to change the nation and the world.
"Beautifully lyrical and authoritative. We meet a host of players, colonized and colonizer, following them from their original playing fields—a vast lawn, a concrete lot—to their triumphs in national and international play." Alice Kaplan, author of The Interpreter
"This book is a brilliant, beautifully written, and unique history of French colonialism and post-coloniality through the lens of football/soccer. Dubois weaves an eminently readable and engaging narrative that tracks tensions around race and national identity through the biographies of key football players and officials who became iconic of the aspirations of peripheral subjects of the French empire. More than a simple history of French football, the book amounts to a description of France's imperial project and an incisive reflection on the race question in contemporary France. It will please both fans of the 'beautiful game' and those inclined to dismiss sports as but the opium of the masses."—Paul Silverstein, author of Algeria in France: Transpolitics, Race and Nation
"This book is a brilliant, beautifully written, and unique history of French colonialism and post-coloniality through the lens of football/soccer. Dubois weaves an eminently readable and engaging narrative that tracks tensions around race and national identity through the biographies of key football players and officials who became iconic of the aspirations of peripheral subjects of the French empire. More than a simple history of French football, the book amounts to a description of France's imperial project and an incisive reflection on the race question in contemporary France. It will please both fans of the 'beautiful game' and those inclined to dismiss sports as but the opium of the masses."—Paul Silverstein, author of Algeria in France: Transpolitics, Race and Nation
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface: Scoring Spirits
Introduction: The Language of Happiness
1. A Beautiful Harvest
2. Caribbean France
3. Crossings
4. Roots
5. Two Goals
6. Two Flags
7. La France Métissée
8. An Unfinished War
9. Reconciliation
10. Burn
11. Coup de Boule
Epilogue: Returns
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
List of Illustrations
Preface: Scoring Spirits
Introduction: The Language of Happiness
1. A Beautiful Harvest
2. Caribbean France
3. Crossings
4. Roots
5. Two Goals
6. Two Flags
7. La France Métissée
8. An Unfinished War
9. Reconciliation
10. Burn
11. Coup de Boule
Epilogue: Returns
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
European History Bestsellers
