The Ball is Round

A truly ambitious work that charts the history of football and its relationship to broader cultural and political developments. I commend Goldblatt for covering the whole globe, and not just the European and South American game. Note: This is not an almanac. The book isn't about recounting lots of games in detail. It is a broader anthropological work about the game, it's spread and development, and how it impacted and was impacted by the societies that played it.