Books - Among the Thugs

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	Books - Among the Thugs

Among the Thugs: The Experience, and the Seduction, of Crowd Violence is a work of journalism written by Bill Buford in 1990 documenting football hooliganism in the United Kingdom. Buford, born an American and residing in Britain, became interested in crowd hooliganism when on his way home from Cardiff in 1982 he boarded a train that was commandeered by supporters coming from a match. He spent the next eight years of his life going to football matches, befriending supporters, and witnessing riots, the result of which was this book.

His experiences

Buford is in several riots, notably in Turin and at the 1990 World Cup in Sardinia. He is at many games in the U.K., spending time mostly with Manchester United. He goes to several National Front gatherings (as the NF draws many of its supporters from football teams), one of which turns violent. He is beaten twice by the police, once when caught with the rioting English supporters in Sardinia, where he was beaten for several minutes. He relates both first-hand and second-hand reports of hooligan violence, ranging from beatings to stabbings to a supporter biting out the eye of a policeman .

His thesis

Buford does not conclude with a reason or explanation of why he thinks that this violence occurs, instead being content with just a series of narratives. However, he does say:

I was surprised by what I found; moreover, because I came away with a knowledge that I had not possessed before, I was also grateful, and surprised by that as well. I had not expected the violence to be so pleasureable....This is, if you like, the answer to the hundred-dollar question: why do young males riot every Saturday? They do it for the same reason that another generation drank too much, or smoked dope, or took hallucinogenic drugs, or behaved badly or rebelliously. Violence is their antisocial kick, their mind-altering experience, an adrenaline-induced euphoria that might be all the more powerful because it is generated by the body itself, with, I was convinced, many of the same addictive qualities that characterize synthetically produced drugs .

He also finds that crowds cannot be incited to violence against their will (contrary to the belief that a crowd can be stirred by a leader), and that those in a crowd collectively make the decision to cross violent thresholds or not.

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