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The People's Game: Football, State and Society in East Germany Paperback – 20 Oct. 2016

by Alan Mcdougall (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars 27 ratings
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Sport in East Germany is commonly associated with the systematic doping that helped to make the country an Olympic superpower. Football played little part in this controversial story. Yet, as a hugely popular activity that was deeply entwined in the social fabric, it exerted an influence that few institutions or pursuits could match. The People's Game examines the history of football from the interrelated perspectives of star players, fans, and ordinary citizens who played for fun. Using archival sources and interviews, it reveals football's fluid role in preserving and challenging communist hegemony. By repeatedly emphasising that GDR football was part of an international story, for example, through analysis of the 1974 World Cup finals, Alan McDougall shows how sport transcended the Iron Curtain. Through a study of the mass protests against the Stasi team, BFC, during the 1980s, he reveals football's role in foreshadowing the downfall of communism.
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  1. ISBN-10
    1107649714
  2. ISBN-13
    978-1107649712
  3. Edition
    New
  4. Publication date
    20 Oct. 2016
  5. Language
    English
  6. Dimensions
    15.24 x 2.18 x 22.86 cm
  7. Print length
    378 pages
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Review

'A lively and informative history of football in the GDR from the bottom up. By employing Germany's most popular sport as a lens through which to understand the complex workings of power and people, everyday life and culture under the East German dictatorship, McDougall masterfully demonstrates the value of sport for the modern historian.' Kay Schiller, University of Durham

'Football may have played little part in making East Germany a European sporting superpower but as Alan McDougall explains in this splendid new book there was a voluntarist ethos to the game that made it dynamic at both regional and national levels. Football mattered because it was popular and it was popular because it mattered. This is the best account of football behind the Iron Curtain since Robert Edelman, written with clarity, style and wit.' Tony Mason, De Montfort University

'If Olympic sport was the GDR's perfect child, football was its unruly but ever popular sibling. In this extensively researched, stylishly written and highly accessible survey, McDougall has provided an English-speaking audience with its first full-scale account of the people's game in East Germany. The result is an excellent and essential contribution to our understanding of GDR society and the peculiarities of football in the wider transnational context of Cold War sport.' Christopher Young, University of Cambridge

'… represents an excellent example of research using football to illustrate the colourful ambiguities of everyday life in the GDR.' David Brentin, Central Europe Journal

Book Description

From star players to rioting fans, The People's Game examines how football shaped the history of communist East Germany.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press; New edition (20 Oct. 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 378 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1107649714
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1107649712
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.24 x 2.18 x 22.86 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.7 out of 5 stars 27 ratings

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Alan McDougall

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4.7 out of 5 stars
27 global ratings

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • prototyp3
    5.0 out of 5 stars Footie
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 April 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Well good
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  • A. Gilliard
    5.0 out of 5 stars A must for any non plastic football fan!!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 October 2014
    A Fantastic Book for anyone wanting to know about the football goings on in a country who was a minor superpower.

    Alan McDougall gives a fair balance of opinion and a great time line of events from the end of the war right up until 1990. The amount of work and research he has put into this book (3 years in the making) is breath taking yet not overwhelming at the same time.

    If you liked 'Tor' which only in one chapter covered 'the ost' you will love The Peoples Game.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Andrea Cerri
    4.0 out of 5 stars The definite social history of football in the DDR
    Reviewed in Italy on 29 September 2018
    Verified Purchase
    This book was a fantastic suprise. I'm really not much into football but I was very curious of how this sport could fit in the philosophy of a Communist State. This book guide you through different aspects of the football world in the DDR: from the biggest team and their stars to the amateur games passing through holliganism and female teams. All the different chapter tackles one topic moving from the post war years up until the demise of the DDR in the 1990. The author ammassed a huge body of references coming from the infamous Stasi's archive but also from statements from people who live those years. It makes for a fascinating read of a world where the "quiet resistance" of people against a state with the paranoia of control was channeled in the football game. This is the reason why notwithstanding all the efforts of the SED (Communist Party) football was an unruly world. If you are interested in the history of the DDR this is a must read.
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  • Sergio Vilariño
    4.0 out of 5 stars Formato deficiente
    Reviewed in Spain on 4 April 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Es un buen libro con informacion valiosa, pero el formato, con el autor explicando continuamente de qué va a hablar (y luego no hablando tanto), y la bibliografia al final de cada capítulo lo hacen bastante pesado.
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  • Anon
    3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but difficult subject matter
    Reviewed in Australia on 14 May 2021
    Verified Purchase
    I bought this after hearing the author on a podcast and am a general reader with an interest in both football and the DDR. Overall this book is interesting, but I found it difficult to understand all of the context. It is assumed that one knows the DDR was a dictatorship and had a version of socialism, that a Trabant wasn't as nice as a Mercedes-Benz and that by the 1970s the DDR had a vigorous police state, but matters do not progress much beyond that (currently two thirds of the way through). I enjoyed Jonathan Wilson's "Behind the Curtain" more, but I cannot recall that saying much about the DDR. Authors in this area probably have the same problem the DDR had itself: it is difficult without a Puskas or Yashin or Czechoslovakian team of 1976 to show how DDR football fits in.
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