This systematic historical and sociological study of the phenomenon of football hooliganism examines the history of crowd disorderliness at association football matches in Britain and assesses both popular and academic explanations of the problem. The authors' study starts in the 1880s, when professional football first emerged in its modern form, charting the pre and inter-war periods and revealing that England's World Cup triumph formed a watershed. The changing social composition of football crowds and the changing class structure of British society is discussed and the genesis of modern football hooliganism is explained by tracing it to the cultural conditions and circumstances which reproduce in young working-class males an interest in a publicly expressed aggressive masculine style.

Multivolume collection by leading authors in the field

1. Understanding Football Hooliganism: A Critical Review of Some Theories 2. The Football Fever (1) 3. The Football Fever (2) 4. Football Hooliganism and the Working Class Before the First World War 5. 'An Improving People?' 6. 'Incorporation' and English Football Crowds Betweent he Wars 7. 'Soccer Marches to War' 8. From the Teds and the Skins to the ICF 9. The Social Roots of Aggressive Masculinity Conclusion: Towards A Developmental Theory of Football Hooliganism. Postscript: Heysel and After.