Customer Reviews

Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism (Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology)

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"Offside"'s authors have come up with a book that works both as a work of sports history, and socio-cultural criticism. Markovits and Hellerman paint a clear picture of American social behavior as it relates to the teams we follow, detailing the development of U.S. sports culture, and its expansion into the dominant role it currently holds in society. Clear without being dumb-downed, intellectual without being too "academic" (i.e. wordy, jargony, overly theory-based, etc.), "Offside" is a serious, enveloping work.

The main meat of the book lies in its center section, which goes into a historical account of the birth and development of the "big three & 1/2" sports in America (baseball, football, basketball and hockey). The authors show how each sport had a "window of opportunity" to expand within the backdrop of America's cultural and financial explosion from apx. the end of the Civil War to the beginning of the Great Depression. Here, the book exposes something probably unknown today: that soccer had the opportunity to take part in this development in the 1920s, but due to politicing and in-fighting, was not able to keep a single, solid, professional league together, choosing to split instead into smaller, weaker, more insignifcant groups that could not sustain themselves long enough to gain a fan base and a presence in the American sports scene. Meanwhile, the "big sports" ended up a societal "necessity" in the 1930s: spectator-sports and movies boomed, giving people the best bang for their diminished bucks.

The later sections of the book explain how soccer may have been granted a new "window" due to (1) the World Cup in the U.S. in the past decade; (2) the establishment of the MSL, with the most capitol of any American soccer league yet; and (3) the dominance of the U.S. Women's team, thus giving a female form to the historically male world sport-space. There are new challenges a fledgling sports league faces that didn't exist at the beginning of the last century, some more obvious than others--I'll leave it to the authors and their grand piece of work to explain the rest.

If you're puzzled about why the country that dominates every other aspect of popular culture -- from fast food through Hollywood movies to rock 'n' roll -- lags behind the rest of the globe when it comes to the world's most popular mass sport, this is the book to read.

Andy Markovits dispenses in short order with all the cliches you've heard the sports pundits offer up by way of "explanation" for why soccer has not (yet) caught on in the U.S.: It's NOT because Americans are impatient with low-scoring games, or because kicking a ball down a field lacks strategy or skill, or because there's something about soccer that's incompatible with the American "character."

The real explanation has to do with the history of mass sports -- how marketers in both Europe and America took games played by gentlemen on college campuses or in local amateur clubs and turned them into popular, professional competition for paying (and, since television, watching) fans. It's not the "soccer moms" and Little League dads who determine whether a sport takes off: it's the franchises who organize consumption for the couch potatoes.

Markovits shows how the market for mass sports was already carved up among baseball, American football, and basketball when soccer tried to take root here. He doesn't downplay the growth areas that do exist for soccer in the U.S. -- in women's competition (where the U.S. leads), in colleges, and among new immigrants. But he's realistic about what it would take (such as a US team making it to the finals in a World Cup match) for soccer to break into America's already crowded "sports space."

One of the great things about this book is the author's enthuasiasm for ALL manner of sports. Andy Markovits is a big-time soccer fan, but he also loves to watch NFL and Big Ten football, NBA and NCAA basketball, the Yankees and the World Series. Because he understands what's exciting and graceful about all these games, he's able to dismiss all the anti-American and anti-European prejudices that dominate discussions about comparing sports.

In this book, you'll not only learn about the history of soccer; you'll also learns some things that Ken Burns didn't get around to telling you about baseball, or about why we can "blame Harvard" for writing the rules that made American football differ from its English cousins (rugby and "Association football" or soccer).

Review of Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism by Andrei S. Markovits and Steven L. Hellerman, Princeton University Press, 2001. This remarkable book asks the question "why is there no soccer in the United States." Immediately you respond, "OF COURSE THERE IS!!! My kids play it all the time!!" Markovits and Hellerman would respond, however, that, yes, soccer is played in the US but it is not felt, dreamt, and lived. Fathers and mothers are not drawing on their own wealth of experience in teaching their kids how to play soccer, as they do with other sports; "pick-up games" only infrequently involve soccer; it is simply not part of the texture of daily life, as is checking the box scores of your favorite baseball team. In this book, the authors explain why the US is so different in its "sports space," as the authors call it, from almost all other countries - where soccer, generally known as football, is dominant. More broadly, Offside also offers one of the most interesting attempts to understand the spread of sports internationally. Not only do the authors' question the argument about the globalization of everything but they assert that we need to understand a given country's history and even more so its sports history to grasp how its sports space is configured. Thus, in attempting to explain "why there is no soccer in the US," they discuss the role that powerful organizations have played in cementing baseball, basketball, and football (and to a lesser extent, hockey) into the US sports space during the key 1870-1930 industrialization period and how difficult it has been for other endeavors to gain a strong foothold. Markovits and Hellerman's integration of media, political, and economic factors into this analysis and their complex comparative design (comparisons of sports, countries, time periods) provide us with an excellent model to follow and engage in our further studies of the internationalization (or not!) of sports. In short, this is an excellent, comprehensive account of how and why the "world's game" has not become a part of the American way of life. Drawing on many sources of evidence, ranging historically and cross-nationally, the authors have masterfully told an innovative and original story about US sports.

Be prepared that this tome has a lot of unnecessary intellectualizing. I did not get why the author used some Austrian references when, let's face facts, Austria have not been a world power in soccer since the '20s and '30s. The footnotes alone are a book in itself.

Despite this academic approach this book is beyond brilliant in its analysis of North American sports. Yes, it's not just about soccer but places soccer in the context of how it has struggled to establish itself at the pro level in North America and explains why.

For those of us who love all four major sports...and soccer, it is an eye-opener to learn about how soccer was a fairly established sport in America but blew its advantage just as baseball and college football took over.

A definite great read but could have used a better editor to slash and burn much of the lengthy overworking of some points.

Books on American soccer (and, good grief, there aren't many to choose from, folks) tend to consist of little more than statistical abstracts or how-to-play coaching guides. Narratives tracing the game's development are few and far between, and for that reason alone we should be grateful for this book. The history of the American game is in the hands of too few people, and the story of its development (or the lack of it) is often unfamiliar to even the most devoted fan.

If I understand Markovits's premise correctly, the reason why there is no soccer in America is because it cannot find room in America's crowded three-and-one-half sport "space." This I find hard to accept. Almost certainly, there are many reasons why soccer has never been embraced by America, "sport space" amongst them. Patriotism and xenophobia, ignorance, incompetence and lack of vision, conflicting interests, and just plain bad timing have surely made significant contributions, too. One only has to read much of what Markovits and Hellerman have written to see this.

I really enjoyed reading this book, particularly its attempt to compare the development of soccer with that of America's other major team sports. It may be an academic work, but it's hardly excruciating to read, and its truly international perspective (rare in American sports books) makes it essential reading for anyone curious as to the game's failure to take hold in the U.S. The painstaking research and careful annotation is also worthy of mention and will be useful to future writers.

I enjoyed this book a great deal. It is about much more than soccer, although soccer does take center stage,of course! Anyone at all interested in soccer(as in watching and being a fan, not just playing) should read it. The book is also about the relationship between modern sports and society, and most importantly, how and why the United States is both different and similar to other modern nations regarding its sports culture, or "sports space" as the authors phrase it. Much of this argument is presented in the first chapter, which some might find intimidating due to the heavy amount of references to traditional academic literature. But those who stick with it will be rewarded with the author's incisive analysis to the subject matter, and the book does become an easier read along the way. The second chapter provides a good historical analysis of American sports space overall(e.g., key developments in the history of baseball, basketball,etc.), including the reasons for soccer's perceived absense from the scene. Soccer fans will enjoy the third chapter, where the authors present the history of soccer in the U.S., which they continue to analyze in Chapter 5. Throughout the book is an important discussion of the development of the modern American sports culture, providing the context for understanding how soccer does and does not fit into that space.

Overall, this is a book well worth reading for anyone interested in American culture in general, or for those into the American sports scene in particular -- soccer fans, of course, will love it. As a fan of women's sports, I appreciated the authors' portrayal and analysis of women's soccer, most notably the 1999 Women's World Cup, though I disagree with their view of the "marginalization" of women's sports in general, women's basketball in particular. And, I wish that the authors would have taken the time to devote a chapter to the 1999 Women's World Cup -- HELD IN THE U.S. -- in the same way that they did for the men's World Cups of '94 and '98. In general, however, I felt this was an excellent book, deserving of 5 stars.

The authors have done a remarkable job exploring the reasons why soccer hasn't caught on in the US as anything more than a child's activity and a fledgling sport for women. Many of their arguments make sense when applied to other ways in which American culture has developed differently from that of other industrialized nations. That's especially important for Americans to understand now that we've been forced to recognize that there is a whole world out there we've been ignoring. The authors are careful to point out that even if we don't ever embrace soccer as a part of our culture, we need to deal with the fact that billions of other people do and that's not "wrong."

For those of you who always wondered why soccer never established itself as one of the dominant sports in America,this is your explanation.

This is an excellent book for soccer fans, sports fans in general, and even social scientists (but you don't have to be a political sociologist to get tremendous insight out of this book).

There are chapters on:

Sports as Culture in Industrial Societies

The concept of "sport space" and how both baseball and football have made it very difficult for soccer to becomone one of the "big 3" sports.

A tantalizing set of missed opportunities in the 1920s when soccer could have established a much stronger presence. Not to mention the destructive role that college soccer, and particularly the NCAA has had from the beginning on the development of soccer.

The modification of American "sport space" in the 2nd half of the 20th century when pro football displaced college football as the dominant form of that sport, as well as the development of the NBA and the spread of the NHL. All of these inhibited development of soccer in that era.

The ambiguous role of the NASL and its positive and negative impact on MLS.

The impact of the 1994 World Cup; and

The coverage of the 1998 World Cup by the American media.

The authors examine the American sporting structural foundations that have inhibited soccer from taking its place as a dominant pastime -- such as baseball or American football. But rather than asserting that these dominant positions of team sports "invented here" will remain for the forseeable future -- at soccer's expense -- the authors are wise to mention such factors as globalization and and latino influence in the US that may make the 21st century a more vibrant "sport space" for soccer than was the 20th.

In short, this is an exceptional piece of sports analysis that all serious soccer fans should devour.

If you're not enamored of academic language, consider this fair warning: It's loaded with it. But this book is one of those rare cases in which wading through the jargon is worth it. The two scholars involved use the tools of the academy to great effect here, explaining the role of sports in creating an American identity. American football and baseball weren't blatant attempts at nation-building (unlike, say, Irish football and hurling), but they served that purpose quite well.

This is indeed a powerful read for non-soccer fans as well. Ivory tower-dwellers drawn by the "American Exceptionalism" part of the title will get an eye-opening look at sports and American life.

Oh -- and soccer fans will consider it a good read as well, especially if you're curious about the game's history in the U.S.

As a soccer standout in my youth (I played goalie and fullback), I relished weekends and flinging my body at the ball, sliding in the mud and generally abusing my body to prevent the ball from getting past me. That was in the 1970s. I served 17 years in the Army, and as recently as three years ago, we played soccer for our physical training, and I was surprised how at the age of 39, my instincts for goalkeeping never left me.

That's playing the game. Watching it is rather boring. And, I do not think this is solely due to inept American sportscasters and technical crews (they are). It is because there is a monotonous quality to the game that does not lend itself to television the way other sports have going for them. Even when I watch Italian or Spanish-language broadcasts, I've noticed the rather businesslike pace of the game. It is like viewing a game of pinball, though played by people.

The grit and drama onfield for some reason do not translate to the tube. Don't ask me why. Baseball is prima facie more boring, but it translate to the small screen wonderfully. Perhaps the cinematography of the camera setups bring great drama to the sport that is not as readily apparent.

Football is simply chess on the field as played by titanic men. I can't get enough of NFL football, because it is literally war for the 60 minutes of playing time.

In Europe, people beat each other up over soccer games. It's like everyone in England is like a Philadelphia Eagles fan in a different body and country. For America to have the same zeal for soccer, we'd have to use well-seasoned NFL cameramen. I truly think this is why soccer hasn't gone over well in the U.S.: It's covered from a distance, and the play seems so *polite* compared to real football.