Sources: Soccer Around the World: A Cultural Guide to the World's Favorite Sport
Soccer Around the World: A Cultural Guide to the World's Favorite Sport. By Charles Parrish and John Nauright. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2014. 400 pages. Acid free $89 (ISBN: 978-1-61069-302-8). Ebook available (978-1-61069-303-5), call for pricing.
Although the word "soccer" is primarily used in the United States, it actually derives from the English term "asSOCiation football." Known throughout most of the rest of the world as football, the game on the pitch is often cited as the most popular sport on the planet. Going country by country, this book helps explain why and what impact that brings.
The book's 18 chapters are each devoted to a single nation. The authors openly acknowledge in the introduction that their choices may be controversial, but they have included all the traditional European football powers, plus Cameroon, Egypt, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, and the United States, among others. The rational for some of those countries is fairly tenuous solely on athletic grounds. For example, it appears that Egypt was included because of the role that soccer plays in that volatile country's political stability.
Each chapter includes sections on "History & Culture," "Women's Soccer," "Iconic Clubs," "Soccer Legends," and "At the World Cup," as well as a sidebar of tangential interest and references for further reading. The themes covered vary by country. For instance, the Argentina chapter dwells on the problems of violence among fans, while the chapters on both Argentina and Brazil discuss how opening up the sport to the poor in those countries improved the quality of play and broadened the interest in the game.
The sections on women's soccer are pretty slim and discouraging for some countries, but women have made serious inroads with several countries, such as Japan, Germany, Brazil and the United States—all countries whose women's teams have done well at the World Cup. The Brazilian chapter includes a sidebar on superstar Marta, while the US chapter includes women in its section on Soccer Legends.
The volume also contains appendices that list iconic teams and legendary players for countries not included here, a soccer timeline, an overall bibliography and an index. This thorough work is clearly written and contains a wealth of information on the game, the teams, the players and the cultural impact of soccer on each nation. It would be welcome in any reference collection—John Maxymuk. Head of Public Services. Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey