Among the Thugs
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4.4 • 69 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
They have names like Barmy Bernie, Daft Donald, and Steamin' Sammy. They like lager (in huge quantities), the Queen, football clubs (especially Manchester United), and themselves. Their dislike encompasses the rest of the known universe, and England's soccer thugs express it in ways that range from mere vandalism to riots that terrorize entire cities. Now Bill Buford, editor of the prestigious journal Granta, enters this alternate society and records both its savageries and its sinister allure with the social imagination of a George Orwell and the raw personal engagement of a Hunter Thompson.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The American-born editor of the British literary magazine Granta presents a horrifying, searing account of the young British men who turn soccer matches at home and abroad into battlegrounds and slaughterhouses. Buford, resident in England for the last 15 years, set out to get acquainted with these football supporters--as their fellow Britons call them in more measured moments--to learn what motivates their behavior. He discovered a group of violent, furiously nationalistic, xenophobic and racist young men, many employed in high-paying blue-collar jobs, who actively enjoy destroying property and hurting people, finding ``absolute completeness'' in the havoc they wreak. He also discerned strong elements of latent homosexuality in this destructive male bonding. Following his subjects from local matches to contests in Italy, Germany and Sardinia, Buford shows that they are the same wherever they go: pillaging soldiers fighting a self-created war. ( June )
Customer Reviews
Legendary, and rightly so!
Absolutely riveting account of a gonzo intellectual's descent into the world of English football hooliganism in the mid-to-late 1980s (a particularly nasty era of said hooliganism!). Buford encounters many infamous characters and events, and depicts them with both humor and gut-punch realism. He doesn't flinch from examining the dark allure of violence, either- honestly examining his own complex reaction to the experience of being part of a lawless mob. HIGHLY recommended to anyone who's the least bit interested in the subject.