Podcast appearances and mentions of alan mcdougall

Between the late 1970s and the late 1980s, Dynamo Berlin, a club closely associated with the Communist East German Republic's secret police, won the country's title ten consecutive times. The hatred of the team across the country united its fans, but also provided the perhaps most prominent kind of complaint and grumbling that the GDR's citizens had against the regime that ruled them. In 1989, that regime crumbled and fell. And so did Dynamo. Alan McDougall is a historian at the University of Guelph in Canada. He has written The People's Game: Football, State and Society in East Germany, and takes us on the wild ride through a nation that is no more, with a club that polarizes Germany to this day.  Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE.HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:Music:Video Collage of BFC's glory years, with the song “Wann wird Dynamo wieder Meister?” (“When Will Dynamo be Champions Again?”) by 4xDAndreas Auslauf - … Sein (“How it Should be”)Feeling B - Ich Such die DDR (“I'm, searching for the GDR, and no one knows where she is”)Namenlos - Nazis Wieder in Ostberlin ("Nazis Back in East Berlin")Texts, Websites:​​Alan McDougall, The People's Game:Football, State and Society in East Germany“What Happened to the Record East German Champions” (article from Matt Ford @matt_4d from Episode 1 for Deutsche Welle)“Das randalierende Rätsel” (“The rioting enigma”), German TV Documentary from 1992 about BFC's hools in the 1990s“Dynamo Berlin: the soccer club “owned” by the Stasi” (2016 article from David Crossland via CNN)Bonus, about the music: Arun Starkey, “Exploring the Importance of the East German Punk Scene” (2021)Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. f you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige LindInstrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/

Join Conor Heffernan, Oliver Knabe and Alan McDougall as they discuss the new edited collection Football Nation: The Playing Fields of German Culture, History, and Society. Published in 2022, this collection draws from a range of different fields to discuss the socio-political and cultural importance of football in Germany across the twentieth-century. For more information see https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/DawsonFootball

I am joined by Bess Dawson and Alan McDougall, who are two of a group of contributors on a new book that explores the role of football in German society.

We begin with a look at the ongoing Emergencies Act Inquiry, specifically at the question of how we, as Canadians, can effectively balance the right to protest with the rule of law. We tackle the topic with Geoff Callaghan, Professor of Political Science at the University of Windsor.   Next, the 2022 FIFA World CUP kicks-off in just over 2 weeks and Canada will be represented for the first time in 36 years! Yet, the Qatar World Cup has been mired in controversy and human rights concerns. We discuss the situation with Alan McDougall, Professor of History from the University of Guelph.   You know what they say, one person's trash is another person's treasure! We learn about the work Alberta-based company “Varme Energy” is doing to transform garbage to energy.   Finally, it's our monthly check-in with our friends from Parker PR. This time out, Ellen Parker, CEO and Owner of Parker PR, shares some tips on how to make your business ‘sparkle' this Holiday Season, by ‘giving back' to the community.

This is the 67th episode of my podcast with Mr. Paul Whittle of https://the1888letter.com/, @1888letter.For this episode, we interview English Author and Professor of History, Dr. Alan McDougall as we discuss the matches of the East Germany National Team during the 1974 World Cup. Dr. McDougall, an English Professor of History at University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada) His books include:The People's Game: Football, State and Society in East Germany (2014)Contested Fields: A Global History of Modern Football (2020)Youth Politics in East Germany: The Free German Youth Movement 1946-1968 (2004)  For any questions/comments, you may contact us:You may also contact me on this blog, on twitter @sp1873 and on facebook under Soccernostalgia.https://linktr.ee/sp1873 Mr. Paul Whittle, @1888letter on twitter and https://the1888letter.com/contact/https://linktr.ee/BeforeThePremierLeague You may also follow the podcast on spotify and now on Acast, Google podcasts, Apple podcasts and stitcher all under ‘Soccernostalgia Talk Podcast'Please leave a review, rate and subscribe if you like the podcast.Dr. McDougall's contact info:Email: amcdouga@uoguelph.caLinks to Mr. McDougall's books:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JXIIEE4/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i1https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084HPBHHQ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199276277/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2   Link to Mr. Paul Whittle's book (Before the Premier League: A History of the Football League's Last Decades):https://the1888letter.com/book-before-the-premier-league/http://www.wibblepublishing.com/bpl.html  Listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / Google Podcasts / Stitcher:https://open.spotify.com/episode/0nmX0csbF0Ix9F9QLrPPhn?si=7mh7pVwXR2m91AbYXO1VcA&nd=1https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/soccernostalgia-talk-podcast/id1601074369?i=1000553821599https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS84MzgyNzMucnNz/episode/QnV6enNwcm91dC0xMDIzODM3Mw== https://www.stitcher.com/show/soccernostalgia-talk-podcast/episode/soccernostalgia-talk-podcast-episode-67-interview-with-english-author-and-professor-of-history-dr-alan-mcdougall-on-east-germany-national-team-during-the-1974-world-cup-201350630 Youtube Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDIJZJbFe3Y Blog Link:https://soccernostalgia.blogspot.com/2022/03/soccernostalgia-talk-podcast-episode-67.htmlSupport the Show.

Alan McDougall is Professor of History at the University of Guelph. He has previously published on global football history as well as football in East Germany. He is currently working on a history of Liverpool Football Club. His conversation with Conor in this episode focused on his latest Sport in History article on Bill Shankly's Retirement. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17460263.2021.1931420

Today we are joined by Alan McDougall, Professor of History at the University of Guelph, and the author of Contested Fields: A Global History of Modern Football (University of Toronto Press, 2020). In our conversation we discussed football's role in global migrations from the 19th to the 21st century, global football's changing economic conditions from grassroots pastime to neo-liberal ‘big business,' and the many roles that spectators and stadiums have played in shaping the game. In Contested Fields, McDougall offers an innovative history of football since 1863. Rather than proceed chronologically, examining football emanating from England outward only colonial lines, his work is organized thematically with chapters on: migrations, money, competitions, gender, race, space, spectators, and confrontations. Through his themed chapters, McDougall draws together parallel phenomenon that typically appear only in national histories. For example, his chapter on spaces looks at the development of stadiums and their uses in diverse national and international contexts. In the chapter on confrontations, he traces the similarities and differences between the ways states – including authoritarian, democratic, post-colonial and developing -- used football for political ends. Throughout McDougall's thematic approach allows him to transcend the usual conventions of football writing. For instance, although incisive commentary on gender emerges in many sections of the book, he uses his chapter on the gender politics of football inside and outside of Europe to rewrite the origins of the game. Eschewing the language of ‘women's football' he reframes the games origins as a history of resistance and oppression. Similarly, his chapter on spectatorship pushes past the more common discussion of hooliganism to draw on the transnational links between fan movements around the globe. An pioneering and pithy account, pitched to people interested in global and transnational histories, readers interested in sport and sports studies will undoubtedly find its approaches and conclusions insightful. Keith Rathbone is a senior lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He researches twentieth-century French social and cultural history. His manuscript, entitled Sport and physical culture in Occupied France: Authoritarianism, agency, and everyday life, examines physical education and sports in order to better understand civic life under the dual authoritarian systems of the German Occupation and the Vichy Regime. It will come out with Manchester University Press in 2021. If you have a title to suggest for this podcast, please contact him at keith.rathbone@mq.edu.au. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sports

Today we are joined by Alan McDougall, Professor of History at the University of Guelph, and the author of Contested Fields: A Global History of Modern Football (University of Toronto Press, 2020). In our conversation we discussed football's role in global migrations from the 19th to the 21st century, global football's changing economic conditions from grassroots pastime to neo-liberal ‘big business,' and the many roles that spectators and stadiums have played in shaping the game. In Contested Fields, McDougall offers an innovative history of football since 1863. Rather than proceed chronologically, examining football emanating from England outward only colonial lines, his work is organized thematically with chapters on: migrations, money, competitions, gender, race, space, spectators, and confrontations. Through his themed chapters, McDougall draws together parallel phenomenon that typically appear only in national histories. For example, his chapter on spaces looks at the development of stadiums and their uses in diverse national and international contexts. In the chapter on confrontations, he traces the similarities and differences between the ways states – including authoritarian, democratic, post-colonial and developing -- used football for political ends. Throughout McDougall's thematic approach allows him to transcend the usual conventions of football writing. For instance, although incisive commentary on gender emerges in many sections of the book, he uses his chapter on the gender politics of football inside and outside of Europe to rewrite the origins of the game. Eschewing the language of ‘women's football' he reframes the games origins as a history of resistance and oppression. Similarly, his chapter on spectatorship pushes past the more common discussion of hooliganism to draw on the transnational links between fan movements around the globe. An pioneering and pithy account, pitched to people interested in global and transnational histories, readers interested in sport and sports studies will undoubtedly find its approaches and conclusions insightful. Keith Rathbone is a senior lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He researches twentieth-century French social and cultural history. His manuscript, entitled Sport and physical culture in Occupied France: Authoritarianism, agency, and everyday life, examines physical education and sports in order to better understand civic life under the dual authoritarian systems of the German Occupation and the Vichy Regime. It will come out with Manchester University Press in 2021. If you have a title to suggest for this podcast, please contact him at keith.rathbone@mq.edu.au. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we are joined by Alan McDougall, Professor of History at the University of Guelph, and the author of Contested Fields: A Global History of Modern Football (University of Toronto Press, 2020). In our conversation we discussed football's role in global migrations from the 19th to the 21st century, global football's changing economic conditions from grassroots pastime to neo-liberal ‘big business,' and the many roles that spectators and stadiums have played in shaping the game. In Contested Fields, McDougall offers an innovative history of football since 1863. Rather than proceed chronologically, examining football emanating from England outward only colonial lines, his work is organized thematically with chapters on: migrations, money, competitions, gender, race, space, spectators, and confrontations. Through his themed chapters, McDougall draws together parallel phenomenon that typically appear only in national histories. For example, his chapter on spaces looks at the development of stadiums and their uses in diverse national and international contexts. In the chapter on confrontations, he traces the similarities and differences between the ways states – including authoritarian, democratic, post-colonial and developing -- used football for political ends. Throughout McDougall's thematic approach allows him to transcend the usual conventions of football writing. For instance, although incisive commentary on gender emerges in many sections of the book, he uses his chapter on the gender politics of football inside and outside of Europe to rewrite the origins of the game. Eschewing the language of ‘women's football' he reframes the games origins as a history of resistance and oppression. Similarly, his chapter on spectatorship pushes past the more common discussion of hooliganism to draw on the transnational links between fan movements around the globe. An pioneering and pithy account, pitched to people interested in global and transnational histories, readers interested in sport and sports studies will undoubtedly find its approaches and conclusions insightful. Keith Rathbone is a senior lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He researches twentieth-century French social and cultural history. His manuscript, entitled Sport and physical culture in Occupied France: Authoritarianism, agency, and everyday life, examines physical education and sports in order to better understand civic life under the dual authoritarian systems of the German Occupation and the Vichy Regime. It will come out with Manchester University Press in 2021. If you have a title to suggest for this podcast, please contact him at keith.rathbone@mq.edu.au. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/popular-culture

Today we are joined by Alan McDougall, Professor of History at the University of Guelph, and the author of Contested Fields: A Global History of Modern Football (University of Toronto Press, 2020). In our conversation we discussed football's role in global migrations from the 19th to the 21st century, global football's changing economic conditions from grassroots pastime to neo-liberal ‘big business,' and the many roles that spectators and stadiums have played in shaping the game. In Contested Fields, McDougall offers an innovative history of football since 1863. Rather than proceed chronologically, examining football emanating from England outward only colonial lines, his work is organized thematically with chapters on: migrations, money, competitions, gender, race, space, spectators, and confrontations. Through his themed chapters, McDougall draws together parallel phenomenon that typically appear only in national histories. For example, his chapter on spaces looks at the development of stadiums and their uses in diverse national and international contexts. In the chapter on confrontations, he traces the similarities and differences between the ways states – including authoritarian, democratic, post-colonial and developing -- used football for political ends. Throughout McDougall's thematic approach allows him to transcend the usual conventions of football writing. For instance, although incisive commentary on gender emerges in many sections of the book, he uses his chapter on the gender politics of football inside and outside of Europe to rewrite the origins of the game. Eschewing the language of ‘women's football' he reframes the games origins as a history of resistance and oppression. Similarly, his chapter on spectatorship pushes past the more common discussion of hooliganism to draw on the transnational links between fan movements around the globe. An pioneering and pithy account, pitched to people interested in global and transnational histories, readers interested in sport and sports studies will undoubtedly find its approaches and conclusions insightful. Keith Rathbone is a senior lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He researches twentieth-century French social and cultural history. His manuscript, entitled Sport and physical culture in Occupied France: Authoritarianism, agency, and everyday life, examines physical education and sports in order to better understand civic life under the dual authoritarian systems of the German Occupation and the Vichy Regime. It will come out with Manchester University Press in 2021. If you have a title to suggest for this podcast, please contact him at keith.rathbone@mq.edu.au. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/world-affairs

Today we are joined by Alan McDougall, Professor of History at the University of Guelph, and the author of Contested Fields: A Global History of Modern Football (University of Toronto Press, 2020). In our conversation we discussed football's role in global migrations from the 19th to the 21st century, global football's changing economic conditions from grassroots pastime to neo-liberal ‘big business,' and the many roles that spectators and stadiums have played in shaping the game. In Contested Fields, McDougall offers an innovative history of football since 1863. Rather than proceed chronologically, examining football emanating from England outward only colonial lines, his work is organized thematically with chapters on: migrations, money, competitions, gender, race, space, spectators, and confrontations. Through his themed chapters, McDougall draws together parallel phenomenon that typically appear only in national histories. For example, his chapter on spaces looks at the development of stadiums and their uses in diverse national and international contexts. In the chapter on confrontations, he traces the similarities and differences between the ways states – including authoritarian, democratic, post-colonial and developing -- used football for political ends. Throughout McDougall's thematic approach allows him to transcend the usual conventions of football writing. For instance, although incisive commentary on gender emerges in many sections of the book, he uses his chapter on the gender politics of football inside and outside of Europe to rewrite the origins of the game. Eschewing the language of ‘women's football' he reframes the games origins as a history of resistance and oppression. Similarly, his chapter on spectatorship pushes past the more common discussion of hooliganism to draw on the transnational links between fan movements around the globe. An pioneering and pithy account, pitched to people interested in global and transnational histories, readers interested in sport and sports studies will undoubtedly find its approaches and conclusions insightful. Keith Rathbone is a senior lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He researches twentieth-century French social and cultural history. His manuscript, entitled Sport and physical culture in Occupied France: Authoritarianism, agency, and everyday life, examines physical education and sports in order to better understand civic life under the dual authoritarian systems of the German Occupation and the Vichy Regime. It will come out with Manchester University Press in 2021. If you have a title to suggest for this podcast, please contact him at keith.rathbone@mq.edu.au. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Today we are joined by Alan McDougall, Professor of History at the University of Guelph, and the author of Contested Fields: A Global History of Modern Football (University of Toronto Press, 2020). In our conversation we discussed football's role in global migrations from the 19th to the 21st century, global football's changing economic conditions from grassroots pastime to neo-liberal ‘big business,' and the many roles that spectators and stadiums have played in shaping the game. In Contested Fields, McDougall offers an innovative history of football since 1863. Rather than proceed chronologically, examining football emanating from England outward only colonial lines, his work is organized thematically with chapters on: migrations, money, competitions, gender, race, space, spectators, and confrontations. Through his themed chapters, McDougall draws together parallel phenomenon that typically appear only in national histories. For example, his chapter on spaces looks at the development of stadiums and their uses in diverse national and international contexts. In the chapter on confrontations, he traces the similarities and differences between the ways states – including authoritarian, democratic, post-colonial and developing -- used football for political ends. Throughout McDougall's thematic approach allows him to transcend the usual conventions of football writing. For instance, although incisive commentary on gender emerges in many sections of the book, he uses his chapter on the gender politics of football inside and outside of Europe to rewrite the origins of the game. Eschewing the language of ‘women's football' he reframes the games origins as a history of resistance and oppression. Similarly, his chapter on spectatorship pushes past the more common discussion of hooliganism to draw on the transnational links between fan movements around the globe. An pioneering and pithy account, pitched to people interested in global and transnational histories, readers interested in sport and sports studies will undoubtedly find its approaches and conclusions insightful. Keith Rathbone is a senior lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He researches twentieth-century French social and cultural history. His manuscript, entitled Sport and physical culture in Occupied France: Authoritarianism, agency, and everyday life, examines physical education and sports in order to better understand civic life under the dual authoritarian systems of the German Occupation and the Vichy Regime. It will come out with Manchester University Press in 2021. If you have a title to suggest for this podcast, please contact him at keith.rathbone@mq.edu.au. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

We welcome Alan McDougall back onto the podcast to discuss his new book, which looks at the socio-political history of football. He examines the role of migration, race, gender, and much more.

Our guest is Alan McDougall, author of The People's Game, a fascinating read on football in the former East Germany - GDR - which existed from 1949 until the reunification of Germany in 1990.

On this episode of the Radio GDR podcast, hosts  Shane Whaley and  GDR Objectified's John Paul Kleiner talk East German football with author Alan McDougall. There are not many English language books chronicling football in East Germany so we were delighted to chat with Alan. He is the author of  The People's Game: Football State and Society in East Germany and he joins Radio GDR for a wide-ranging chat about all things East German football. His book was voted the Guardians Best Book for Sports in 2016.

In this episode I speak to Andy, a former body building champion who's been into fitness for over 30 years. Andy also runs a very successful food business for over 20 years, employing 50 people at the heart of London. We discuss his early life, training, competitions, and growing a business on such scale whilst trying to balance family life. Over time Andy reveals how he develops adrenal fatigue which he struggles to recover from. And that's where I come in. Together we explore the benefits of high-carb low-fat diet which seems to be most natural for humans and we even touch water fasting. We mentioned a few vegan doctors that you should follow: de Klapper, dr Alan McDougall and dr Alan Goldhammer and his famous fasting retreat in California - The True North Centre. I hope you'll enjoy listening to this one.

In The People’s Game: Football, State and Society (Cambridge University Press, 2014), Alan McDougall looks at football from the top-down and bottom-up: as a tool of the state, as forming regional identities in East Germany and in a reunified Germany, and as a popular pastime. Although characterized by mediocrity compared to other sports in East Germany, McDougall demonstrates the ways in which football gave people a means of expressing identities that were separated from and even opposed to that endorsed by the state. At the same time, he argues, this was a “constrained autonomy,” one that was shaped by the tensions between Eigen-Sinn and conformity. The East German state has been viewed as a monolith, but recent scholarship – including this book – reveals its fractures. McDougall’s analysis exposes the limits and dysfunctionalities of the state and the communist party’s leadership. The People’s Game not only adds to our understanding of communist Eastern Europe, it also contributes to the growing field of sports history. Amanda Jeanne Swain is executive director of the Humanities Commons at the University of California, Irvine. She received her PhD in Russian and East European history at the University of Washington. Her research interests include the intersections of national, Soviet and European identities in the Baltic countries. Recent publications include articles in Ab Imperio and Cahiers du Monde Russe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In The People’s Game: Football, State and Society (Cambridge University Press, 2014), Alan McDougall looks at football from the top-down and bottom-up: as a tool of the state, as forming regional identities in East Germany and in a reunified Germany, and as a popular pastime. Although characterized by mediocrity compared to other sports in East Germany, McDougall demonstrates the ways in which football gave people a means of expressing identities that were separated from and even opposed to that endorsed by the state. At the same time, he argues, this was a “constrained autonomy,” one that was shaped by the tensions between Eigen-Sinn and conformity. The East German state has been viewed as a monolith, but recent scholarship – including this book – reveals its fractures. McDougall’s analysis exposes the limits and dysfunctionalities of the state and the communist party’s leadership. The People’s Game not only adds to our understanding of communist Eastern Europe, it also contributes to the growing field of sports history. Amanda Jeanne Swain is executive director of the Humanities Commons at the University of California, Irvine. She received her PhD in Russian and East European history at the University of Washington. Her research interests include the intersections of national, Soviet and European identities in the Baltic countries. Recent publications include articles in Ab Imperio and Cahiers du Monde Russe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In The People's Game: Football, State and Society (Cambridge University Press, 2014), Alan McDougall looks at football from the top-down and bottom-up: as a tool of the state, as forming regional identities in East Germany and in a reunified Germany, and as a popular pastime. Although characterized by mediocrity compared to other sports in East Germany, McDougall demonstrates the ways in which football gave people a means of expressing identities that were separated from and even opposed to that endorsed by the state. At the same time, he argues, this was a “constrained autonomy,” one that was shaped by the tensions between Eigen-Sinn and conformity. The East German state has been viewed as a monolith, but recent scholarship – including this book – reveals its fractures. McDougall's analysis exposes the limits and dysfunctionalities of the state and the communist party's leadership. The People's Game not only adds to our understanding of communist Eastern Europe, it also contributes to the growing field of sports history. Amanda Jeanne Swain is executive director of the Humanities Commons at the University of California, Irvine. She received her PhD in Russian and East European history at the University of Washington. Her research interests include the intersections of national, Soviet and European identities in the Baltic countries. Recent publications include articles in Ab Imperio and Cahiers du Monde Russe.

In The People’s Game: Football, State and Society (Cambridge University Press, 2014), Alan McDougall looks at football from the top-down and bottom-up: as a tool of the state, as forming regional identities in East Germany and in a reunified Germany, and as a popular pastime. Although characterized by mediocrity compared to other sports in East Germany, McDougall demonstrates the ways in which football gave people a means of expressing identities that were separated from and even opposed to that endorsed by the state. At the same time, he argues, this was a “constrained autonomy,” one that was shaped by the tensions between Eigen-Sinn and conformity. The East German state has been viewed as a monolith, but recent scholarship – including this book – reveals its fractures. McDougall’s analysis exposes the limits and dysfunctionalities of the state and the communist party’s leadership. The People’s Game not only adds to our understanding of communist Eastern Europe, it also contributes to the growing field of sports history. Amanda Jeanne Swain is executive director of the Humanities Commons at the University of California, Irvine. She received her PhD in Russian and East European history at the University of Washington. Her research interests include the intersections of national, Soviet and European identities in the Baltic countries. Recent publications include articles in Ab Imperio and Cahiers du Monde Russe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In The People’s Game: Football, State and Society (Cambridge University Press, 2014), Alan McDougall looks at football from the top-down and bottom-up: as a tool of the state, as forming regional identities in East Germany and in a reunified Germany, and as a popular pastime. Although characterized by mediocrity compared to other sports in East Germany, McDougall demonstrates the ways in which football gave people a means of expressing identities that were separated from and even opposed to that endorsed by the state. At the same time, he argues, this was a “constrained autonomy,” one that was shaped by the tensions between Eigen-Sinn and conformity. The East German state has been viewed as a monolith, but recent scholarship – including this book – reveals its fractures. McDougall’s analysis exposes the limits and dysfunctionalities of the state and the communist party’s leadership. The People’s Game not only adds to our understanding of communist Eastern Europe, it also contributes to the growing field of sports history. Amanda Jeanne Swain is executive director of the Humanities Commons at the University of California, Irvine. She received her PhD in Russian and East European history at the University of Washington. Her research interests include the intersections of national, Soviet and European identities in the Baltic countries. Recent publications include articles in Ab Imperio and Cahiers du Monde Russe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In The People’s Game: Football, State and Society (Cambridge University Press, 2014), Alan McDougall looks at football from the top-down and bottom-up: as a tool of the state, as forming regional identities in East Germany and in a reunified Germany, and as a popular pastime. Although characterized by mediocrity compared... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices