The Country of Football: Soccer and the Making of Modern Brazil (Volume 2) (Sport in World History) - Hardcover

Kittleson, Roger

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0520279085 ISBN 13: 9780520279087

Publisher: University of California Press, 2014

Synopsis

Soccer is the world’s most popular sport, and the Brazilian national team is beloved around the planet for its beautiful playing style, the jogo bonito. With the most successful national soccer team in the history of the World Cup, Brazil is the only country to have played in every competition and the winner of more championships than any other nation. Soccer is perceived, like carnival and samba, to be quintessentially Brazilian and Afro-Brazilian.

Yet the practice and history of soccer are also synonymous with conflict and contradiction as Brazil continues its trajectory toward modernity and economic power. The ongoing debate over how Team Brazil should play and positively represent a nation of demanding supporters bears on many crucial facets of a country riven by racial and class tensions.

The Country of Football is filled with engaging stories of star players and other key figures, as well as extraordinary research on local, national, and international soccer communities. Soccer fans, scholars, and readers who are interested in the history of sport will emerge with a greater understanding of the complex relationship between Brazilian soccer and the nation’s history.

About this title

About the Author:

Roger Kittleson is Professor of History at Williams College and the author of The Practice of Politics in Postcolonial Brazil: Porto Alegre, 1845–1895.

From Booklist:

You can’t fault the scholarship or insight of Kittleson, a historian and “Brazilianist” who explores soccer’s role in that country’s culture from an interesting angle. Kicking off with Brazil’s heartbreaking title-game loss when the country hosted the 1950 World Cup, he explores the way evolving playing styles—in particular, the ongoing struggle between futebol-arte (“art soccer”) and futebol-força (“strength soccer”)—both reflect and influence the nation’s self-conception and development. He offers insight into race, politics, and foreign relations, closing with particularly helpful background on the political unrest leading up to Brazil’s current turn as host. All that said, this is not for the casually curious: with 225 pages of dense, scholarly writing and 100 pages of end matter (notes, an extensive bibliography, an index), this book is for the already knowledgeable who want to know more. --Keir Graff

About this edition

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0520279085
• ISBN 13: 9780520279087
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 344