Among the Thugs | 
 enlarge | Author: Bill Buford
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  67 reviews
Sales Rank: 42106
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7
ISBN: 0679745351
Dewey Decimal Number: 363.32
EAN: 9780679745358
ASIN: 0679745351
Publication Date: June 1, 1993
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Condition: heavy cover and page edge wear, solid binding, solid reader, underlining
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Product Description
They have names like Barmy Bernie, Daft Donald, and Steamin' Sammy. They like lager (in huge quantities), the Queen, football clubs (especially Manchester United), and themselves. Their dislike encompasses the rest of the known universe, and England's soccer thugs express it in ways that range from mere vandalism to riots that terrorize entire cities. Now Bill Buford, editor of the prestigious journal Granta, enters this alternate society and records both its savageries and its sinister allure with the social imagination of a George Orwell and the raw personal engagement of a Hunter Thompson.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 62 more reviews...
Don't Believe Pretentious Twits July 2, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a fantastic book, and what's more, it has served as a model and inspiration for the many (many, many) football hooligan books that followed.
I won't really comment on the absolute cliched tripe served up by one reviewer who gave this book one star, but I would point out that he might want to take some time out from an all-knowing banality spouting, error decrying, schedule, and consult a calendar.
Among The Thugs - 1993. Most of the others? 1999 and later, including the 2005(!) Gardner tome. This book, almost alone, spawned a veritable minor industry of Football Hooligan memoirs and reportage. Don't believe me? Head over to amazon.co.uk and check it out all the related items with this book over there.
By the way, I think it was sort of the point of the experiment that an editor of a (very popular in the right circles) literary magazine like Granta went and did what he did, and reported what he saw. And in the Granta tradition, he expounds a bit on What It All Means. That gets a little dull at times, but by no means lessens the overall interest of the book.
Among the Thugs is not meant to be a piece of documentary journalism, oral history, or a PhD thesis. It's a subjective and personal account, and the author makes no bones about that. The author did, objectively, get beaten to a pulp by Italian cops, so there's some credibility right there.
 Readable Yet Overwrought - Thought Provking June 2, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Bill Buford offers an engaging narrative about violent British soccer fans, yet one does begin to suspect some exaggeration and ornamentation. Saying that these fans behave the way they do because they lack a solid home base is reductionist and not helpful at all. Many millions around the world live in conditions that leave a great deal to be desired--indeed far worse than the living conditions of a violent soccer fan--yet they don't engage in what the British call "antisocial behavior."
There is no excuse for hooliganism and bad behavior. To find "causes" for lawbreaking, be it soccer violence in Europe or drug dealing in America, is a step toward tolerating and even forgiving it.
Generations of black Americans have been raised under the impression that racism is an insurmountable problem and that they have to go outside the law to survive. This perception is so strong that Barack Obama's presidential bid was dismissed early on by some of the most seasoned political analysts as well as civil rights leaders in this country. They thought that America was simply too racist to even consider a black president. Obana was jumping the gun, they said, damaging his own chances in a distant future. When those whose words make public opinion are so out of touch with the American reality, what can one expect of a black teenager who is attending an under-funded school? Getting away from the subject? Not really. The world knows American black youth culture largely through hip-hop music and all the fashion, DVDs, games and other paraphernalia it generates. Many teenagers all around the world, in their angst and search for identity, claim victimhood and try to emulate a thug life with various degrees of conviction. The British "antisocilas" are themselves informed by such imported gangsterism. Few understand that for every gangsta or gagsta wannabe there are thousands of black Americans who go to college, fill professional echelons or start legitimate businesses.
Instead of trying to "understand" thugs, of whatever color or stripe, let's concentrate on those who really understand and avoid thug life under any guise for the boring, graceless, destructive existence it is without ever being sullied by it.
 Weak and patronizing. Can't respect the author. May 31, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
There's a lot to hope for in this book, but it fails badly. The author never comes across as even remotely credible. His writing reflects his snobbish background and beliefs. He went to college at Berkeley, then elite Cambridge, and he clearly feels that he is above the subjects of the book in every way. The jacket says he edits a literary magazine, and now he thinks he can ingratiate himself with football thugs? Please. He may be American, but he's apparently been infected with that classic British class thing. His book is full of comments on how stupid and ugly the people he is interviewing are. He talks at length about how he tries to get the "animals" at various pitches to let him interview them. Too bad he was posing the whole time, trying to be "cool" but really manipulating his subjects for his own use. In fact one gets the impression that this was Mr. Well Educated/Snobby Lit Magazine Guy doing his bit of slumming. I'm sure he's drunk many a glass of wine, chuckling with his tweed-wearing Eton buddies, self congratulating on how he survived many nights in those nasty pubs, coaches and terraces with the "idiotic" football supporters. Minor but telling points: he can't even get Bill Gardner's name right (West Ham's top man with the ICF) and lastly, that cover photo is not even of a football thug, it's called "The Smoker" by some random photographer. Can't get Bill Gardner's name right and he's doing a book on football violence? Good Lord, there's an entire book about Bill: "Good Afternoon Gentlemen, The Name's Bill Gardner." There's his name, pal. And we're supposed to believe your book is the real deal? Sorry man--go back to where you belong--editing James Joyce or something--and don't pretend to be what are not. This book is from a poser and not worth a purchase.
Great book, Buford has done a fantastic job illustrating the world of the football hooligan. April 1, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a great book, albiet the first one I have read on football hooligans. This is not limited to one single firm though, as some of the many ICF books are. Buford runs with the Man. United firm, has a run in with the National Front, and has the grand finale with English hooligans during the world cup. This is really an eye opener into a section of history and life I never knew about in England, and Buford does an excellent job sharing it. There were a few points where he starts to ramble about unrelated crowd violence elsewhere, but these nuances are insignificant by the close of the book. At just over 300 pages I finished this book in 5 days, it's an engrossing book, funny, disturbing, and horrific at times. An excellent read. I would thouroughly reccomend this to any football fan, fan of Green Street Hooligans, or just about anyone else.
Amoung the Thugs January 14, 2008
Fantastic book and a page turner. Opened my eyes to hooliganism in the sport of football. This was probably common knowledge to most people outside the U.S. Great story from an unbiased source.
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