Best history book I ever read: How Soccer Explains the World

Franklin Foer's "unlikely theory of globalization" doesn't explain everything (like how to achieve world  peace), but I give him an A for effort.

  NOTE: This review was updated February 2017, 

as I realized this is STILL my favorite history 

(and soccer) book. I hope you check it out at 

a library or bookstore near you! 

I recalled much of it while enjoying the Women's World Cup, and like to think reading it helped to widen my world view. I think anyone who follows MLS here in the states - even peripherally - would appreciate this 2004 release, reissued in paperback in 2010.

Foer offers an interesting perspective on modern world history, using the beautiful game as his lens.

The author, editor-at-large for The New Republic,

"...takes us on a surprising tour through the world of soccer, shining a spotlight on the clash of civilizations, the international economy, and just about everything else." 

(I don't use back cover blurbs unless they're accurate. This one is.)

Foer knows and loves the game but doesn't let that get in the way of the story, which he wrote like a reporter, through interviews with thugs and stars and elected officials and wives and friends of thugs and stars and elected officials, an enviable amount of globe-trotting and other good old-fashioned research techniques.

The writing is smart and accessible (a delightful combination) and as timely today as when it was published, seven whole years ago. Foer also has a much better vocabulary than I do, which I always appreciate. I had to pull out my dictionary a few times (how often do you use the words inveigh, obeisance, or pogrom?) and found he wasn't just using a quarter word when a nickel word would do.

In short, I wish Foer had written my history textbooks; I think I'd have learned more. I highly recommend How Soccer Explains the World for those who have ever read anything else about futbol, as well as for anyone who appreciates fresh insight on global relationships and the world of sports.

As for Mr. Foer, I'm pretty sure he's hoping Barca has a shot at the next World Cup, and in the meantime, I hope he's working on another book. He's pretty good at his game.