Abstract
Simon Kuper, Ajax, the Dutch, the War: European Football During the Second World War (London: Orion, 2003). Pp.256. £7.99 (paperback). ISBN 0752842749. David Winner, Those Feet: A Sensual History of English Football (London: Bloomsbury, 2005). Pp.288. £14.99 (hardback). ISBN 0747547386. This is a review essay on two recent books about the history of football in Europe, one dealing with football in Holland and other with football in England. It will argue that building a narrative of national football history out of the remembrances and anecdotes arising from fan culture, as these books do, exposes many of the ideological motives underpinning the more ‘official’ versions of football history handed down to football fans by the powerful and wealthy institutions that run the game. This exposure, it will argue, is the most valuable contribution made by this sort of football writing, although it is also important to note the points at which these books themselves quietly suppress uncomfortable historical facts.
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