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The Shortest History of Soccer
From Ancient Kicking Games to the World's Most Popular Sport
Series: The Shortest History Series
Brief Description
How did a simple kicking game conquer the world? In this concise yet comprehensive history, sports historian Brian D. Bunk traces soccer’s unlikely, meteoric rise, showing how a pastime humbly rooted in English schoolyard contests grew to become the planet’s most popular sport. Today, soccer is...
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Format: Paperback / softback
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The Shortest History of Soccer
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A whirlwind history of soccer’s improbable rise—from ancient traditions to worldwide cultural focus
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Description
How did a simple kicking game conquer the world? In this concise yet comprehensive history, sports historian Brian D. Bunk traces soccer’s unlikely, meteoric rise, showing how a pastime humbly rooted in English schoolyard contests grew to become the planet’s most popular sport.
Today, soccer is a cultural and economic juggernaut: The World Cup, the sport’s crown jewel, is now our most-watched sporting event, and one of soccer’s biggest stars, Cristiano Ronaldo, is the world’s most-followed person on social media. Soccer even has the power, as Bunk’s surprising history recounts, to sway elections and topple governments.
Drawing on key historical and contemporary events both on and off the field, from famous victories to the dark money and backroom deals that now power the game at its highest levels, Bunk shows us the many ways that a single soccer goal today may not only electrify a sold-out stadium but reverberate around the world.
The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced read.
Series: The Shortest History Series
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The Shortest History of Soccer
How did a simple kicking game conquer the world? In this concise yet comprehensive history, sports historian Brian D. Bunk traces soccer’s unlikely, meteoric rise, showing how a pastime humbly rooted in English schoolyard contests grew to become the planet’s most popular sport. Today, soccer is a cultural and economic juggernaut: The World Cup, the sport’s crown jewel, is now...Paperback$4700Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9798893031218
Publisher: The Experiment LLC
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 02 June 2026
Country: United States
Imprint: The Experiment LLC
Illustration: Black and white images throughout
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 20.0mm
Width: 132.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 272
About the Author
Brian D. Bunk is an author and a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who regularly teaches on world history, modern Europe, and the history of sport. His courses on the global history of soccer and sport reflect his research focused on the history of soccer in the United States, which was the subject of his first book, From Football to Soccer: The Early History of the Beautiful Game in the United States, and his most recently published book, Beyond the Field: How Soccer Built Community in the United States.
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