Whether you call it soccer, football or futebol the beautiful game with the round ball is played and watched around the world. This class will explore how and why that came to happen. Along the way it will trace key developments in the game such as the formation of clubs, international tournaments, the development of stadiums, fan culture, media coverage, formations and styles of play, gambling and corruption, the working conditions and wages of players. We will locate these changes in broader historical processes – political, economic, social and cultural - that have transformed the game and made it a global commodity. The class will teach you both about the game and about thinking historically and how the world changes over time.

Whether you call it soccer, football or fútbol, the beautiful game with the round ball is played and watched around the world. This class will explore how and why that came to happen. Along the way it will trace key developments in the men’s and women’s game such as the formation of clubs, governing bodies, international tournaments, the development of stadiums, fan culture and violence, media coverage, formations and styles of play, gambling and corruption, as well as the working conditions of players. Although I am a massive fan the point of the class is not to nerd out but to locate these changes in broader historical processes—political, economic, social and cultural—that have transformed the game and made it a global commodity. Broadly speaking the class follows how since the middle of the nineteenth century the game was shaped by the history of capitalism and imperialism and their alternatives. That means how the game was played and watched remained inseparable from our understanding of gender, class, ethnicity, race, sexuality and religion. Ideally the class will teach you a lot about the how the game and the world has changed over the past 200 years.

Lectures will be recorded, but discussion sections MUST be attended in-person. Please enroll in a discussion section that does not conflict with any other classes.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills