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Andrei Markovits's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Andrei Markovits recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Andrei Markovits's favorite book recommendations of all time.

1
In 2007, David Beckham, the golden boy of soccer, shocked the international sports world when he signed a five-year contract with an American team, the Los Angeles Galaxy. Under the direction of his manager, Simon Fuller, the mastermind behind American Idol and the Spice Girls, Beckham was ready for a monumental challenge and a risky adventure–ready, as Fuller put it, to earn his stripes Stateside. Could he pull off what no player had ever accomplished (including Pelé in the 1970s) and transform soccer into one of the most popular spectator sports in America? It was a bold experiment:... more
Recommended by Andrei Markovits, and 1 others.

Andrei MarkovitsThere is still this ambivalence towards the sport in the US, despite the fact that Beckham is determined to try and up association football’s status in the States. (Source)

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2
This book was written during a year's stay at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Countless authors have sung its praises. Aside from splendid surroundings, unlimited library and secretarial assistance, and a ready supply of varied scholars to consult at a moment's notice, what the center offers is to leave the scholar to his own devices, for good or ill. Would that all men had such wisdom. The final version was consummated with the aid of a grant from the Social Sciences Grants Subcommittee of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research of McGill University. less
Recommended by Andrei Markovits, and 1 others.

Andrei MarkovitsThe book is a classic because it looks at the larger question as to why modern capitalism that conquered the world arose from this Asian archipelago sticking out into the Atlantic Ocean… (Source)

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3

Global Games

Why is soccer the sport of choice in South America, while baseball has soared to popularity in the Caribbean? How did cricket become India's national sport, while China is a stronghold of table tennis?
 
In Global Games, Maarten Van Bottenburg asserts that it is the "hidden competition" of social and international relations, rather than the particular qualities of a given sport, that explains who plays what sport and why. People's different and changing preferences for sports are based on the social and cultural meanings they attribute to each sport, meanings that alter in...
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Recommended by Andrei Markovits, and 1 others.

Andrei MarkovitsMaarten Van Bottenburg picks up on Guttmann’s analysis and Elias’s notion of ‘sportisation’ which he uses masterfully to explain how myriad sports developed in key countries… (Source)

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4
Originally published in 1978, From Ritual to Record was one of the first books to recognize the importance of sports as a lens on the fundamental structure of societies. In this reissue, Guttmann emphasizes the many ways that modern sports, dramatically different from the sports of previous eras, have profoundly shaped contemporary life. less
Recommended by Andrei Markovits, and 1 others.

Andrei MarkovitsThis is a classic. The book argues very well how modern sports arose mainly in England in the 19th century and to a lesser degree in the United States. (Source)

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5
The 2018 World Cup edition of the international bestseller and "the most intelligent book ever written about soccer" (San Francisco Chronicle) is updated throughout and features new chapters on the FIFA scandal, why Iceland wins, and women's soccer.

Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Guardian, Slate, Financial Times, Independent (UK), and Bloomberg News

Why doesn't the United States dominate soccer internationally? And how can it?
Which is the best soccer nation on Earth?
Who has the most passionate...
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Recommended by Andrei Markovits, and 1 others.

Andrei MarkovitsContrary to the common view in Britain and Europe that this term comprises prima facie evidence of yet another American bastardisation of a European cultural icon, the term is not an American invention at all… (Source)

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