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Soccer is much more than a game, or even a way of life. It is a
perfect window into the cross-currents of today's world, with all
its joys and its sorrows. In this remarkably insightful,
wide-ranging work of reportage, Franklin Foer takes readers on a
surprising tour through the world of soccer, shining a spotlight on
the clash of civilizations, the international economy, and just
about everything in between. "How Soccer Explains the World" is an
utterly original book that makes sense of our troubled times.
"The Promise of American Life" is part of the bedrock of
American liberalism, a classic that had a spectacular impact on
national politics when it was first published in 1909 and that has
been recognized ever since as a defining text of liberal reform.
The book helped inspire Theodore Roosevelt's New Nationalism and
Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, put Herbert Croly on a path to
become the founding editor of the "New Republic," and prompted
Walter Lippmann to call him twentieth-century America's "first
important political philosopher." The book is at once a history of
America and its political ideals and an analysis of contemporary
ills, from rampant economic inequality to unchecked corporate
power. In response, Croly advocated combining the Hamiltonian and
Jeffersonian traditions and creating a strong federal government to
ensure that all Americans had a fair shot at individual success.
The formula still defines American liberalism, and "The Promise of
American Life" continues to resonate today, offering a vital source
of renewal for liberals and progressives. For this new edition,
Franklin Foer has written a substantial foreword that puts the book
in historical context and explains its continuing importance.
What in the world has the power to liberate women in Iran while
provoking antagonism between Catholics and Protestants in Scotland,
to lure Nigerians to the cold of the Ukraine while heating up class
warfare in the US heartlands, and both profit local gangsters and
create local - and international - celebrities? Foer presents an
unexpected, uniquely revealing tour of the politics and culture of
football from Milan to Tehran. He examines the game's role in
sustaining ancient hatreds and rivalries (Serbia's Red Star and
Croatia's Dinamo); in supporting the migration of players and the
rise of the football oligarchs (such as Silvio Berlusconi,
President of AC Milan - and of Italy); and in defending the virtues
and vices of old-fashioned nationalism. As Foer brilliantly
illuminates, the Balkan War, anti-Semitism, Jewish identity,
racism, social integration, media manipulation, and American
patriotism have all been influenced by, as well as have had a
dramatic effect on, football. On his travels, Foer encounters a
collection of fans that is stranger than fiction: from a British
hooligan with a Jewish mother, a Nazi father and a career as a
soldier of fortune, to a fan club in Serbia that turns into a
brutal anti-Muslim paramilitary unit. The result is an
unforgettable parade of uniquely memorable fans - each set into his
- or her - unique political and cultural context.
A timely and powerful must-read on how the big tech companies are
damaging our culture - and what we can do to fight their influence
Four titanic corporations are now the most powerful gatekeepers the
world has ever known. We shop with Amazon, socialise on Facebook,
turn to Apple for entertainment, and rely on Google for
information. They have conquered our culture and set us on a path
to a world without private contemplation or autonomous thought: a
world without mind. In this book, Franklin Foer makes a passionate,
deeply informed case for the need to restore our inner lives and
reclaim our intellectual culture before it is too late. At stake is
nothing less than who we are, and what we will become. It is a
message that could not be more timely.
If you were a Bar Mitzvah boy in the postwar years, you probably
received a gift called Great Jews in Sports. Your goy friends
enjoyed a good snicker when they saw it on the shelf above your
desk, but you coveted the volume. It not only supplied a pantheon
for you to worship; it served as a refutation of all those cheap
stereotypes about effeminate, bookish Jews that followed you to Pop
Warner try-outs, and that you were convinced resulted in a
condescending ten-steps-forward outfield shift during your turn
at-bat. So it is with a humble spirit of deference that editors
Franklin Foer and Marc Tracy propose its successor: Jewish Jocks:
An Unothodox Hall of Fame, a collection of biographical musings on
the most influential Jews in sports. The sports figures profiled in
Jewish Jocks go beyond athletes to include coaches, broadcasters,
owners, trainers and even statisticians (in the finite universe of
Jewish Jocks, they count!) Contributors include some of today's
most celebrated writers, such as New Yorker editor David Remnick;
novelists Jonathan Safran Foer and Booker-prize winner Howard
Jacobson; sports writer Buzz Bissinger; economist Larry Summers;
columnist David Brooks; journalists Jane Leavy, Steven Pinker and
Dahlia Lithwick writing on figures such as Howad Cosell, Art
Shamsky, Kerri Strug, Harold Solomon, Sandy Koufax, Shirley
Povitch, and many, many more.
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