fantastic!!, 30 Dec 2008
I bought this book for my brother, whom is a massive arsenal fan, and he loved it, he said that it was a book that he couldnt put down! It is definately a book that every arsenal fan should posses.

Under the skin of a fascinating football club, 05 Sep 2005
Arsenal Football Club is a special club, as anyone who has played for them, managed them or supported them knows. This fantastic book examines the darker side of Arsenal's history. Spurling, in a lively and entertaining fashion, shows us how Arsenal's reputation as a persona non grata club ("no-one likes us, we don't care") developed. Aside from civic pride we learn the real reason why Tottenham don't like us. We read about Henry Norris who manipulated Arsenal's way into the First Division after the First World War. There are fascinating tales about Willie Young, Peter Storey and George Eastham. The most pertinent chapter is about George Graham. We learn about the paradox of the control freak who lost control as his team was involved in unsavoury incidents, on and off the field, whilst Graham himself was clearly incapable of demonstrating the high standards he demanded from his players, witness the controversial end to his reign as Arsenal manager. The chapters on the Wenger years demonstrate that Arsenal's "us and them" mentality has not faded away, despite the lack of homegrown players in the team. Spurling shows us that in almost 120 years of Arsenal FC, everything and nothing has changed. The media hate us, other fans hate us and Wenger is very adept at using media barbs, much like Mee and Graham, to inspire the team to greater glories. "Victory through harmony" is Arsenal's slogan but I think after reading this book it should be "Victory through adversity". If you're an Arsenal fan, you must own this book.

An antidote to those fed up with insincere badge kissing, 08 Feb 2004
Rebels for the Cause will surprise every Arsenal fan by revealing how much more there was to discover about the club.

Jon Spurling has written a book that both entertains and informs. Starting with Arsenal's founding fathers, each chapter carefully pulls together the facts and faces throughout the club's history, cleverly exploring it's more colourful characters while subtely detailing the context of the club and football's changing place in society.

Thought provoking, and sometimes shocking a smile is never far away from the reader's face. It also exposes the roots of resentment for the club in both the media and other football fans.

For Arsenal fans this is simply a must read. For the rest, you hardly need any more justification for finding fault with the red and white half of north London.

A new perspective on the greatest club of all!, 21 Nov 2003
Another excellent book from the only Arsenal author, it seems, who can be bothered to find a fresh angle on the club’s past. “Rebels For The Cause” illustrates the point which most others publications seem scared to admit – that without Arsenal’s numerous controversial players and officials – the Gunners wouldn’t even exist, let alone be the world famous club they have become. I found the earlier chapters really fascinating, as they explain how Arsenal gained the “lucky” and “Bank Of England” labels, at a time of an economic depression in Europe. The new information on Sir Henry Norris goes a long way to explaining why Arsenal are disliked by almost everyone outside their own fan base.
As a supporter who started going in the 1970s, I found the chapters on Charlie George, Peter Storey and Willie Young really revealing and quirky. Some of the drinking stories will make you laugh out loud – or you might wince with pain as Spurling describes another ferocious Storey or Young challenge. The section on the 1977 pre season tour of Australia really gets the reader into the mindset of the rebel footballers from that era. The author is at his best as he minutely dissects the decline and fall of George Graham in the early 1990s.What makes startling is just how many of Graham’s former charges queue up to put the boot into their former manager.
“Rebels For The Cause” is a good deal more lively, honest and funny than any official history of the club. Buy it now !

Rebels for the Cause:The Alternative History of Arsenal....., 20 Sep 2003
I read this book in just three days. In my opinion, this is the most thought provoking and intriguing history of the club to date. I had thought that it was just going to be a history lesson from Arsenal's boozy bad boys. But Spurling's conversations with Willie Young, Charlie Nicholas, Charlie George, Alan Hudson and Perry Groves adds a humorous and "laddish" edge to certain chapters.

But what makes Rebels For The Cause such a GREAT read, is the fact the Arsenal's "rebals" have come in such a variety of shapes and forms during the clubs long history.

It was facinating to read of the spectacular fall from fame of George Graham. The comments of Claude Anelka on his brothers controversial departure from the club. Plus insights into the clubs history from the players view point. I particularly enjoyed reading the fresh insight on the life and times of Sir Henry Norris, who in 1918, "bribed" the Football League to promote Arsenal, and relegate Spurs. The furore surrounding George Eastham's court case in the early sixties and the clubs 1945 match against Moscow Dynamos.

Spurling has delved deep into Arnenal's numerous disciplinary problems, his and the players' conclusions make for worrying reading. He shows that recent Arsenal manages have almost encouraged players to feel persecuted, as a way of fostering team spirt and their famed fortress mentality. This, together with the origins of the Gunners' rivalry with Tottenham and a look at the club's treatment by the tabloids makes for fascinating, if uncomfotable reading.

Rebals For The Cause is a MUST read book for ALL Arsenal fans.

fantastic!!, 30 Dec 2008
I bought this book for my brother, whom is a massive arsenal fan, and he loved it, he said that it was a book that he couldnt put down! It is definately a book that every arsenal fan should posses.

Under the skin of a fascinating football club, 05 Sep 2005
Arsenal Football Club is a special club, as anyone who has played for them, managed them or supported them knows. This fantastic book examines the darker side of Arsenal's history. Spurling, in a lively and entertaining fashion, shows us how Arsenal's reputation as a persona non grata club ("no-one likes us, we don't care") developed. Aside from civic pride we learn the real reason why Tottenham don't like us. We read about Henry Norris who manipulated Arsenal's way into the First Division after the First World War. There are fascinating tales about Willie Young, Peter Storey and George Eastham. The most pertinent chapter is about George Graham. We learn about the paradox of the control freak who lost control as his team was involved in unsavoury incidents, on and off the field, whilst Graham himself was clearly incapable of demonstrating the high standards he demanded from his players, witness the controversial end to his reign as Arsenal manager. The chapters on the Wenger years demonstrate that Arsenal's "us and them" mentality has not faded away, despite the lack of homegrown players in the team. Spurling shows us that in almost 120 years of Arsenal FC, everything and nothing has changed. The media hate us, other fans hate us and Wenger is very adept at using media barbs, much like Mee and Graham, to inspire the team to greater glories. "Victory through harmony" is Arsenal's slogan but I think after reading this book it should be "Victory through adversity". If you're an Arsenal fan, you must own this book.

An antidote to those fed up with insincere badge kissing, 08 Feb 2004
Rebels for the Cause will surprise every Arsenal fan by revealing how much more there was to discover about the club.

Jon Spurling has written a book that both entertains and informs. Starting with Arsenal's founding fathers, each chapter carefully pulls together the facts and faces throughout the club's history, cleverly exploring it's more colourful characters while subtely detailing the context of the club and football's changing place in society.

Thought provoking, and sometimes shocking a smile is never far away from the reader's face. It also exposes the roots of resentment for the club in both the media and other football fans.

For Arsenal fans this is simply a must read. For the rest, you hardly need any more justification for finding fault with the red and white half of north London.

A new perspective on the greatest club of all!, 21 Nov 2003
Another excellent book from the only Arsenal author, it seems, who can be bothered to find a fresh angle on the club’s past. “Rebels For The Cause” illustrates the point which most others publications seem scared to admit – that without Arsenal’s numerous controversial players and officials – the Gunners wouldn’t even exist, let alone be the world famous club they have become. I found the earlier chapters really fascinating, as they explain how Arsenal gained the “lucky” and “Bank Of England” labels, at a time of an economic depression in Europe. The new information on Sir Henry Norris goes a long way to explaining why Arsenal are disliked by almost everyone outside their own fan base.
As a supporter who started going in the 1970s, I found the chapters on Charlie George, Peter Storey and Willie Young really revealing and quirky. Some of the drinking stories will make you laugh out loud – or you might wince with pain as Spurling describes another ferocious Storey or Young challenge. The section on the 1977 pre season tour of Australia really gets the reader into the mindset of the rebel footballers from that era. The author is at his best as he minutely dissects the decline and fall of George Graham in the early 1990s.What makes startling is just how many of Graham’s former charges queue up to put the boot into their former manager.
“Rebels For The Cause” is a good deal more lively, honest and funny than any official history of the club. Buy it now !

Rebels for the Cause:The Alternative History of Arsenal....., 20 Sep 2003
I read this book in just three days. In my opinion, this is the most thought provoking and intriguing history of the club to date. I had thought that it was just going to be a history lesson from Arsenal's boozy bad boys. But Spurling's conversations with Willie Young, Charlie Nicholas, Charlie George, Alan Hudson and Perry Groves adds a humorous and "laddish" edge to certain chapters.

But what makes Rebels For The Cause such a GREAT read, is the fact the Arsenal's "rebals" have come in such a variety of shapes and forms during the clubs long history.

It was facinating to read of the spectacular fall from fame of George Graham. The comments of Claude Anelka on his brothers controversial departure from the club. Plus insights into the clubs history from the players view point. I particularly enjoyed reading the fresh insight on the life and times of Sir Henry Norris, who in 1918, "bribed" the Football League to promote Arsenal, and relegate Spurs. The furore surrounding George Eastham's court case in the early sixties and the clubs 1945 match against Moscow Dynamos.

Spurling has delved deep into Arnenal's numerous disciplinary problems, his and the players' conclusions make for worrying reading. He shows that recent Arsenal manages have almost encouraged players to feel persecuted, as a way of fostering team spirt and their famed fortress mentality. This, together with the origins of the Gunners' rivalry with Tottenham and a look at the club's treatment by the tabloids makes for fascinating, if uncomfotable reading.

Rebals For The Cause is a MUST read book for ALL Arsenal fans.

The Whigs Change the World, 26 Aug 2008
You would not want to be known as a member of a club in the sixteenth century; clubs then were seen as violent and conspiratorial gangs of men. By the eighteenth century, that had changed, and men could gather in clubs with a feeling of doing something constructive and high-minded. One of the main reasons for the change in meaning was the Kit-Cat Club, a massing of writers, musicians, artists, politicians, and titled gentlemen who met in London and flourished around 1690 to 1710. The influence of these men in politics, in art, and in forming the British character was vast. The influence of the club is detailed in _The Kit-Cat Club: Friends Who Imagined a Nation_ (Harper Press) by historian Ophelia Field. A big book, rich in detail pulled from diaries, notes, poems, plays, and letters to the press, this is an accessible history because although it deals in times and situations foreign to us, it concentrates on the personalities of the men, their interactions, their causes, and their successes. Readers may know Kit-Cat as only a candy bar (and in this unstuffy history, Field includes the confection in a late chapter "Later Clubs and Kit-Cats"), but they will be surprised at how much the Kit-Cat members influenced even our own time.

The name of the club comes from Christopher "Kit" Cat's pies sold in Gray' Inn Lane in London, the simple fare for the meetings. We know what Johnson and his pals said at these meetings because of scribblers like Boswell. The Kit-Cats, however, left almost no record of what was said during their meetings, and so Field has used voluminous sources to fill in the picture. The club was brought together by Jacob Tonson, a publisher who, unlike many of his fellows, had a mind to posterity and to literature. Tonson agreed to give dinners to a group of young writers if they would agree to let him have the option of first refusal of their works. Not only was Tonson there, but aristocrats came for the purpose of rubbing shoulders with the artists and perhaps becoming their patrons. Around the table would have been Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, always linked together because of their joint production of the classic essays in their magazine _The Spectator_. The magazine is recognized as second only to the Bible in forming British character, and Field says that during its publication, and numerous reprints, it was "usurping the pulpit in defining Britain's moral order". Englishmen were defined by _The Spectator_ in contrast to the foppish and pretentious French, as eccentric, humble, blunt, confidant, and decent, and that image stuck. The Kit-Cats they also favored Whig positions of a constitutional monarchy, a strengthening of Parliament, a Protestant succession of the monarchy, and support for new commercial endeavors like the New East India Company. Their political reforms, although substantial, were only a small part of how they sought to mold the nation into a Kit-Cat ideal. The playwright John Vanbrugh converted to being an architect, and Field looks at the implications for political ideology of Vanbrugh's architectural innovations and how they show a passing of power from the monarchy one rung down to the non-royal rich. The Kit-Cats were horrified by the puritanical detractors of the theater, and not only pamphletized against them but also showed up in masses at the performances to cheer on Kit-Cat favorites. They even favored the semi-wild style of gardening as opposed to the previous style filled with topiary and geometric forms, and as in most of their efforts, their style succeeded. They had less success with music, and their repeated efforts to improve British interest in opera were futile, although they paved the way for Handel.

In many artistic, social, and political realms, the Kit-Cats had the sort of power openly that conspiracy theorists ascribe to Freemasons or the Illuminati. They were not a secret organization, though, and they liked their fun. They were an eating and talking club, first and foremost, and with meat pies had to go plenty of wine and punch. Among the few words we know to have been spoken in the meetings were the poetic toasts to the most glamorous ladies of London, and sometimes to paramours. It isn't Field's fault that she cannot recreate the dialogues from club meetings, but she has given short biographies of the club's main members as well as a masterful recounting of its enthusiasms and efforts. It was not just Doctor Johnson who, despite all the Whiggery, admired the club's output, especially taking Addison as a model. Benjamin Franklin, too, trained his own prose upon _The Spectator_, and founded a club in America called "The Junto", named after a group of Kit-Kat Whigs. Field's command of masses of historical information is astonishing, and her writing is entertaining; she says, for instance, of the club meetings "the atmosphere was ludic but not lewd." Her group biography is a tribute to the trusted friends who valued the liberty of free intellectual exchange, and formed the nation thereby.


Excellent., 04 Aug 2008
Every bit as interesting as I had hoped-- I just hadn't realized it would also be so fun. Field has that rare knack (especially among historians) of granting insight not only into the power dynamics of the period (and why they matter) but also into what her subjects were like as men--a much harder feat to pull off, much less while being so entertaining. Her sense of detail brings in those small notes--wigs askew! mutton pies!--that makes a scene or relationship come alive for us. I actually laughed out loud, not something that happens too often while reading a scholarly account of the 18th century. A fantastic read.

fantastic!!, 30 Dec 2008
I bought this book for my brother, whom is a massive arsenal fan, and he loved it, he said that it was a book that he couldnt put down! It is definately a book that every arsenal fan should posses.

Under the skin of a fascinating football club, 05 Sep 2005
Arsenal Football Club is a special club, as anyone who has played for them, managed them or supported them knows. This fantastic book examines the darker side of Arsenal's history. Spurling, in a lively and entertaining fashion, shows us how Arsenal's reputation as a persona non grata club ("no-one likes us, we don't care") developed. Aside from civic pride we learn the real reason why Tottenham don't like us. We read about Henry Norris who manipulated Arsenal's way into the First Division after the First World War. There are fascinating tales about Willie Young, Peter Storey and George Eastham. The most pertinent chapter is about George Graham. We learn about the paradox of the control freak who lost control as his team was involved in unsavoury incidents, on and off the field, whilst Graham himself was clearly incapable of demonstrating the high standards he demanded from his players, witness the controversial end to his reign as Arsenal manager. The chapters on the Wenger years demonstrate that Arsenal's "us and them" mentality has not faded away, despite the lack of homegrown players in the team. Spurling shows us that in almost 120 years of Arsenal FC, everything and nothing has changed. The media hate us, other fans hate us and Wenger is very adept at using media barbs, much like Mee and Graham, to inspire the team to greater glories. "Victory through harmony" is Arsenal's slogan but I think after reading this book it should be "Victory through adversity". If you're an Arsenal fan, you must own this book.

An antidote to those fed up with insincere badge kissing, 08 Feb 2004
Rebels for the Cause will surprise every Arsenal fan by revealing how much more there was to discover about the club.

Jon Spurling has written a book that both entertains and informs. Starting with Arsenal's founding fathers, each chapter carefully pulls together the facts and faces throughout the club's history, cleverly exploring it's more colourful characters while subtely detailing the context of the club and football's changing place in society.

Thought provoking, and sometimes shocking a smile is never far away from the reader's face. It also exposes the roots of resentment for the club in both the media and other football fans.

For Arsenal fans this is simply a must read. For the rest, you hardly need any more justification for finding fault with the red and white half of north London.

A new perspective on the greatest club of all!, 21 Nov 2003
Another excellent book from the only Arsenal author, it seems, who can be bothered to find a fresh angle on the club’s past. “Rebels For The Cause” illustrates the point which most others publications seem scared to admit – that without Arsenal’s numerous controversial players and officials – the Gunners wouldn’t even exist, let alone be the world famous club they have become. I found the earlier chapters really fascinating, as they explain how Arsenal gained the “lucky” and “Bank Of England” labels, at a time of an economic depression in Europe. The new information on Sir Henry Norris goes a long way to explaining why Arsenal are disliked by almost everyone outside their own fan base.
As a supporter who started going in the 1970s, I found the chapters on Charlie George, Peter Storey and Willie Young really revealing and quirky. Some of the drinking stories will make you laugh out loud – or you might wince with pain as Spurling describes another ferocious Storey or Young challenge. The section on the 1977 pre season tour of Australia really gets the reader into the mindset of the rebel footballers from that era. The author is at his best as he minutely dissects the decline and fall of George Graham in the early 1990s.What makes startling is just how many of Graham’s former charges queue up to put the boot into their former manager.
“Rebels For The Cause” is a good deal more lively, honest and funny than any official history of the club. Buy it now !

Rebels for the Cause:The Alternative History of Arsenal....., 20 Sep 2003
I read this book in just three days. In my opinion, this is the most thought provoking and intriguing history of the club to date. I had thought that it was just going to be a history lesson from Arsenal's boozy bad boys. But Spurling's conversations with Willie Young, Charlie Nicholas, Charlie George, Alan Hudson and Perry Groves adds a humorous and "laddish" edge to certain chapters.

But what makes Rebels For The Cause such a GREAT read, is the fact the Arsenal's "rebals" have come in such a variety of shapes and forms during the clubs long history.

It was facinating to read of the spectacular fall from fame of George Graham. The comments of Claude Anelka on his brothers controversial departure from the club. Plus insights into the clubs history from the players view point. I particularly enjoyed reading the fresh insight on the life and times of Sir Henry Norris, who in 1918, "bribed" the Football League to promote Arsenal, and relegate Spurs. The furore surrounding George Eastham's court case in the early sixties and the clubs 1945 match against Moscow Dynamos.

Spurling has delved deep into Arnenal's numerous disciplinary problems, his and the players' conclusions make for worrying reading. He shows that recent Arsenal manages have almost encouraged players to feel persecuted, as a way of fostering team spirt and their famed fortress mentality. This, together with the origins of the Gunners' rivalry with Tottenham and a look at the club's treatment by the tabloids makes for fascinating, if uncomfotable reading.

Rebals For The Cause is a MUST read book for ALL Arsenal fans.

The Whigs Change the World, 26 Aug 2008
You would not want to be known as a member of a club in the sixteenth century; clubs then were seen as violent and conspiratorial gangs of men. By the eighteenth century, that had changed, and men could gather in clubs with a feeling of doing something constructive and high-minded. One of the main reasons for the change in meaning was the Kit-Cat Club, a massing of writers, musicians, artists, politicians, and titled gentlemen who met in London and flourished around 1690 to 1710. The influence of these men in politics, in art, and in forming the British character was vast. The influence of the club is detailed in _The Kit-Cat Club: Friends Who Imagined a Nation_ (Harper Press) by historian Ophelia Field. A big book, rich in detail pulled from diaries, notes, poems, plays, and letters to the press, this is an accessible history because although it deals in times and situations foreign to us, it concentrates on the personalities of the men, their interactions, their causes, and their successes. Readers may know Kit-Cat as only a candy bar (and in this unstuffy history, Field includes the confection in a late chapter "Later Clubs and Kit-Cats"), but they will be surprised at how much the Kit-Cat members influenced even our own time.

The name of the club comes from Christopher "Kit" Cat's pies sold in Gray' Inn Lane in London, the simple fare for the meetings. We know what Johnson and his pals said at these meetings because of scribblers like Boswell. The Kit-Cats, however, left almost no record of what was said during their meetings, and so Field has used voluminous sources to fill in the picture. The club was brought together by Jacob Tonson, a publisher who, unlike many of his fellows, had a mind to posterity and to literature. Tonson agreed to give dinners to a group of young writers if they would agree to let him have the option of first refusal of their works. Not only was Tonson there, but aristocrats came for the purpose of rubbing shoulders with the artists and perhaps becoming their patrons. Around the table would have been Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, always linked together because of their joint production of the classic essays in their magazine _The Spectator_. The magazine is recognized as second only to the Bible in forming British character, and Field says that during its publication, and numerous reprints, it was "usurping the pulpit in defining Britain's moral order". Englishmen were defined by _The Spectator_ in contrast to the foppish and pretentious French, as eccentric, humble, blunt, confidant, and decent, and that image stuck. The Kit-Cats they also favored Whig positions of a constitutional monarchy, a strengthening of Parliament, a Protestant succession of the monarchy, and support for new commercial endeavors like the New East India Company. Their political reforms, although substantial, were only a small part of how they sought to mold the nation into a Kit-Cat ideal. The playwright John Vanbrugh converted to being an architect, and Field looks at the implications for political ideology of Vanbrugh's architectural innovations and how they show a passing of power from the monarchy one rung down to the non-royal rich. The Kit-Cats were horrified by the puritanical detractors of the theater, and not only pamphletized against them but also showed up in masses at the performances to cheer on Kit-Cat favorites. They even favored the semi-wild style of gardening as opposed to the previous style filled with topiary and geometric forms, and as in most of their efforts, their style succeeded. They had less success with music, and their repeated efforts to improve British interest in opera were futile, although they paved the way for Handel.

In many artistic, social, and political realms, the Kit-Cats had the sort of power openly that conspiracy theorists ascribe to Freemasons or the Illuminati. They were not a secret organization, though, and they liked their fun. They were an eating and talking club, first and foremost, and with meat pies had to go plenty of wine and punch. Among the few words we know to have been spoken in the meetings were the poetic toasts to the most glamorous ladies of London, and sometimes to paramours. It isn't Field's fault that she cannot recreate the dialogues from club meetings, but she has given short biographies of the club's main members as well as a masterful recounting of its enthusiasms and efforts. It was not just Doctor Johnson who, despite all the Whiggery, admired the club's output, especially taking Addison as a model. Benjamin Franklin, too, trained his own prose upon _The Spectator_, and founded a club in America called "The Junto", named after a group of Kit-Kat Whigs. Field's command of masses of historical information is astonishing, and her writing is entertaining; she says, for instance, of the club meetings "the atmosphere was ludic but not lewd." Her group biography is a tribute to the trusted friends who valued the liberty of free intellectual exchange, and formed the nation thereby.


Excellent., 04 Aug 2008
Every bit as interesting as I had hoped-- I just hadn't realized it would also be so fun. Field has that rare knack (especially among historians) of granting insight not only into the power dynamics of the period (and why they matter) but also into what her subjects were like as men--a much harder feat to pull off, much less while being so entertaining. Her sense of detail brings in those small notes--wigs askew! mutton pies!--that makes a scene or relationship come alive for us. I actually laughed out loud, not something that happens too often while reading a scholarly account of the 18th century. A fantastic read.

Rational analyses ..., 20 Oct 2005
Max Weber (1864-1920) had noticed that Protestants appeared excessively under the numbers of people who economically were successful. The Catholicism seemed to make it easier (due to an integrated sin pardon mechanics) to enjoy life in between times. The Mediterranean countries have saved this as a differentiable lifestyle till nowadays, but particular the Nordic, by the majority Protestant countries put the human beings into a hermetic box of duty fulfillment and responsibility. The suicide installment is also higher in these areas: Unfortunately, Luther's theological revolution was not namely a liberation, no reduction of control but its millionfold multiplication: In the end everyone became the merciless inspector of himself. The reformation has increased the pressure extremely. Now mixed religious aims and working actions were bound each other with the visibility of financial success. Other religions, the Buddhism, the Islam etc., seem strikingly less in conformity with the capitalism in this regard. On the contrary: Being obstinate or disinterested seem to be transported rather. The Calvinistic capitalism on the other hand produces (besides all superficial correctness) a subtle social coldness, a fight of everybody against everybody, which promotes the assumption, that there is not enough space in the paradisiacal sky for everyone at all. Therefore the fear of being not preferred later on by the dear God starts a hitting and fighting between the human beings vehemently. Being religious in this manner has not contributed to humanness, but, instead, made some steps backward globally, regarding the great individual sovereignty, which the renaissance man already had achieved. Face of the fact, that (at the moment) a second theocracy seems to spread himself apparently in the USA -- at least in the opinion of the ones who sit at the decisive Washington coordinating points -- in the face of such developments among the conservative Christians of the USA, which surpass many a nastiness of the frowned Machiavellism or the elite oriented Darwinism, yes even the racism -- in view of such developments it seems recommended to examine the rational analyses of Max Weber again ...

Revewing the revew..., 29 Nov 1998
I think it's a revew on the revew you've got there, as it shows a little misunderstanding of Max Weber plan. He wills not to turn Marx upside-down, therefore falling into some kind of idealism, but instead, he trys to complicate Marx thesis, in the way he understands it, sayng that causality is much wider than materialistic, and ideas can have "elective afinities" with interests. Both authors do not exclude each other, but can be used to criticise one anohter.

fantastic!!, 30 Dec 2008
I bought this book for my brother, whom is a massive arsenal fan, and he loved it, he said that it was a book that he couldnt put down! It is definately a book that every arsenal fan should posses.

Under the skin of a fascinating football club, 05 Sep 2005
Arsenal Football Club is a special club, as anyone who has played for them, managed them or supported them knows. This fantastic book examines the darker side of Arsenal's history. Spurling, in a lively and entertaining fashion, shows us how Arsenal's reputation as a persona non grata club ("no-one likes us, we don't care") developed. Aside from civic pride we learn the real reason why Tottenham don't like us. We read about Henry Norris who manipulated Arsenal's way into the First Division after the First World War. There are fascinating tales about Willie Young, Peter Storey and George Eastham. The most pertinent chapter is about George Graham. We learn about the paradox of the control freak who lost control as his team was involved in unsavoury incidents, on and off the field, whilst Graham himself was clearly incapable of demonstrating the high standards he demanded from his players, witness the controversial end to his reign as Arsenal manager. The chapters on the Wenger years demonstrate that Arsenal's "us and them" mentality has not faded away, despite the lack of homegrown players in the team. Spurling shows us that in almost 120 years of Arsenal FC, everything and nothing has changed. The media hate us, other fans hate us and Wenger is very adept at using media barbs, much like Mee and Graham, to inspire the team to greater glories. "Victory through harmony" is Arsenal's slogan but I think after reading this book it should be "Victory through adversity". If you're an Arsenal fan, you must own this book.

An antidote to those fed up with insincere badge kissing, 08 Feb 2004
Rebels for the Cause will surprise every Arsenal fan by revealing how much more there was to discover about the club.

Jon Spurling has written a book that both entertains and informs. Starting with Arsenal's founding fathers, each chapter carefully pulls together the facts and faces throughout the club's history, cleverly exploring it's more colourful characters while subtely detailing the context of the club and football's changing place in society.

Thought provoking, and sometimes shocking a smile is never far away from the reader's face. It also exposes the roots of resentment for the club in both the media and other football fans.

For Arsenal fans this is simply a must read. For the rest, you hardly need any more justification for finding fault with the red and white half of north London.

A new perspective on the greatest club of all!, 21 Nov 2003
Another excellent book from the only Arsenal author, it seems, who can be bothered to find a fresh angle on the club’s past. “Rebels For The Cause” illustrates the point which most others publications seem scared to admit – that without Arsenal’s numerous controversial players and officials – the Gunners wouldn’t even exist, let alone be the world famous club they have become. I found the earlier chapters really fascinating, as they explain how Arsenal gained the “lucky” and “Bank Of England” labels, at a time of an economic depression in Europe. The new information on Sir Henry Norris goes a long way to explaining why Arsenal are disliked by almost everyone outside their own fan base.
As a supporter who started going in the 1970s, I found the chapters on Charlie George, Peter Storey and Willie Young really revealing and quirky. Some of the drinking stories will make you laugh out loud – or you might wince with pain as Spurling describes another ferocious Storey or Young challenge. The section on the 1977 pre season tour of Australia really gets the reader into the mindset of the rebel footballers from that era. The author is at his best as he minutely dissects the decline and fall of George Graham in the early 1990s.What makes startling is just how many of Graham’s former charges queue up to put the boot into their former manager.
“Rebels For The Cause” is a good deal more lively, honest and funny than any official history of the club. Buy it now !

Rebels for the Cause:The Alternative History of Arsenal....., 20 Sep 2003
I read this book in just three days. In my opinion, this is the most thought provoking and intriguing history of the club to date. I had thought that it was just going to be a history lesson from Arsenal's boozy bad boys. But Spurling's conversations with Willie Young, Charlie Nicholas, Charlie George, Alan Hudson and Perry Groves adds a humorous and "laddish" edge to certain chapters.

But what makes Rebels For The Cause such a GREAT read, is the fact the Arsenal's "rebals" have come in such a variety of shapes and forms during the clubs long history.

It was facinating to read of the spectacular fall from fame of George Graham. The comments of Claude Anelka on his brothers controversial departure from the club. Plus insights into the clubs history from the players view point. I particularly enjoyed reading the fresh insight on the life and times of Sir Henry Norris, who in 1918, "bribed" the Football League to promote Arsenal, and relegate Spurs. The furore surrounding George Eastham's court case in the early sixties and the clubs 1945 match against Moscow Dynamos.

Spurling has delved deep into Arnenal's numerous disciplinary problems, his and the players' conclusions make for worrying reading. He shows that recent Arsenal manages have almost encouraged players to feel persecuted, as a way of fostering team spirt and their famed fortress mentality. This, together with the origins of the Gunners' rivalry with Tottenham and a look at the club's treatment by the tabloids makes for fascinating, if uncomfotable reading.

Rebals For The Cause is a MUST read book for ALL Arsenal fans.

The Whigs Change the World, 26 Aug 2008
You would not want to be known as a member of a club in the sixteenth century; clubs then were seen as violent and conspiratorial gangs of men. By the eighteenth century, that had changed, and men could gather in clubs with a feeling of doing something constructive and high-minded. One of the main reasons for the change in meaning was the Kit-Cat Club, a massing of writers, musicians, artists, politicians, and titled gentlemen who met in London and flourished around 1690 to 1710. The influence of these men in politics, in art, and in forming the British character was vast. The influence of the club is detailed in _The Kit-Cat Club: Friends Who Imagined a Nation_ (Harper Press) by historian Ophelia Field. A big book, rich in detail pulled from diaries, notes, poems, plays, and letters to the press, this is an accessible history because although it deals in times and situations foreign to us, it concentrates on the personalities of the men, their interactions, their causes, and their successes. Readers may know Kit-Cat as only a candy bar (and in this unstuffy history, Field includes the confection in a late chapter "Later Clubs and Kit-Cats"), but they will be surprised at how much the Kit-Cat members influenced even our own time.

The name of the club comes from Christopher "Kit" Cat's pies sold in Gray' Inn Lane in London, the simple fare for the meetings. We know what Johnson and his pals said at these meetings because of scribblers like Boswell. The Kit-Cats, however, left almost no record of what was said during their meetings, and so Field has used voluminous sources to fill in the picture. The club was brought together by Jacob Tonson, a publisher who, unlike many of his fellows, had a mind to posterity and to literature. Tonson agreed to give dinners to a group of young writers if they would agree to let him have the option of first refusal of their works. Not only was Tonson there, but aristocrats came for the purpose of rubbing shoulders with the artists and perhaps becoming their patrons. Around the table would have been Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, always linked together because of their joint production of the classic essays in their magazine _The Spectator_. The magazine is recognized as second only to the Bible in forming British character, and Field says that during its publication, and numerous reprints, it was "usurping the pulpit in defining Britain's moral order". Englishmen were defined by _The Spectator_ in contrast to the foppish and pretentious French, as eccentric, humble, blunt, confidant, and decent, and that image stuck. The Kit-Cats they also favored Whig positions of a constitutional monarchy, a strengthening of Parliament, a Protestant succession of the monarchy, and support for new commercial endeavors like the New East India Company. Their political reforms, although substantial, were only a small part of how they sought to mold the nation into a Kit-Cat ideal. The playwright John Vanbrugh converted to being an architect, and Field looks at the implications for political ideology of Vanbrugh's architectural innovations and how they show a passing of power from the monarchy one rung down to the non-royal rich. The Kit-Cats were horrified by the puritanical detractors of the theater, and not only pamphletized against them but also showed up in masses at the performances to cheer on Kit-Cat favorites. They even favored the semi-wild style of gardening as opposed to the previous style filled with topiary and geometric forms, and as in most of their efforts, their style succeeded. They had less success with music, and their repeated efforts to improve British interest in opera were futile, although they paved the way for Handel.

In many artistic, social, and political realms, the Kit-Cats had the sort of power openly that conspiracy theorists ascribe to Freemasons or the Illuminati. They were not a secret organization, though, and they liked their fun. They were an eating and talking club, first and foremost, and with meat pies had to go plenty of wine and punch. Among the few words we know to have been spoken in the meetings were the poetic toasts to the most glamorous ladies of London, and sometimes to paramours. It isn't Field's fault that she cannot recreate the dialogues from club meetings, but she has given short biographies of the club's main members as well as a masterful recounting of its enthusiasms and efforts. It was not just Doctor Johnson who, despite all the Whiggery, admired the club's output, especially taking Addison as a model. Benjamin Franklin, too, trained his own prose upon _The Spectator_, and founded a club in America called "The Junto", named after a group of Kit-Kat Whigs. Field's command of masses of historical information is astonishing, and her writing is entertaining; she says, for instance, of the club meetings "the atmosphere was ludic but not lewd." Her group biography is a tribute to the trusted friends who valued the liberty of free intellectual exchange, and formed the nation thereby.


Excellent., 04 Aug 2008
Every bit as interesting as I had hoped-- I just hadn't realized it would also be so fun. Field has that rare knack (especially among historians) of granting insight not only into the power dynamics of the period (and why they matter) but also into what her subjects were like as men--a much harder feat to pull off, much less while being so entertaining. Her sense of detail brings in those small notes--wigs askew! mutton pies!--that makes a scene or relationship come alive for us. I actually laughed out loud, not something that happens too often while reading a scholarly account of the 18th century. A fantastic read.

Rational analyses ..., 20 Oct 2005
Max Weber (1864-1920) had noticed that Protestants appeared excessively under the numbers of people who economically were successful. The Catholicism seemed to make it easier (due to an integrated sin pardon mechanics) to enjoy life in between times. The Mediterranean countries have saved this as a differentiable lifestyle till nowadays, but particular the Nordic, by the majority Protestant countries put the human beings into a hermetic box of duty fulfillment and responsibility. The suicide installment is also higher in these areas: Unfortunately, Luther's theological revolution was not namely a liberation, no reduction of control but its millionfold multiplication: In the end everyone became the merciless inspector of himself. The reformation has increased the pressure extremely. Now mixed religious aims and working actions were bound each other with the visibility of financial success. Other religions, the Buddhism, the Islam etc., seem strikingly less in conformity with the capitalism in this regard. On the contrary: Being obstinate or disinterested seem to be transported rather. The Calvinistic capitalism on the other hand produces (besides all superficial correctness) a subtle social coldness, a fight of everybody against everybody, which promotes the assumption, that there is not enough space in the paradisiacal sky for everyone at all. Therefore the fear of being not preferred later on by the dear God starts a hitting and fighting between the human beings vehemently. Being religious in this manner has not contributed to humanness, but, instead, made some steps backward globally, regarding the great individual sovereignty, which the renaissance man already had achieved. Face of the fact, that (at the moment) a second theocracy seems to spread himself apparently in the USA -- at least in the opinion of the ones who sit at the decisive Washington coordinating points -- in the face of such developments among the conservative Christians of the USA, which surpass many a nastiness of the frowned Machiavellism or the elite oriented Darwinism, yes even the racism -- in view of such developments it seems recommended to examine the rational analyses of Max Weber again ...

Revewing the revew..., 29 Nov 1998
I think it's a revew on the revew you've got there, as it shows a little misunderstanding of Max Weber plan. He wills not to turn Marx upside-down, therefore falling into some kind of idealism, but instead, he trys to complicate Marx thesis, in the way he understands it, sayng that causality is much wider than materialistic, and ideas can have "elective afinities" with interests. Both authors do not exclude each other, but can be used to criticise one anohter.

Great book and a great edition, 23 Sep 2008
Not sure what the cover is meant to construe, perhaps its a eureka! moment or something, anyway, this is a great book and this is a great edition of the book. The contents are clear, there is a good index included for students or anyone who needs to be able to make quick references to specific parts of the text.

This is a prior really of the first sociological/social explanations for significant individual behaviour using the example of suicide.

As the blurb says this was a phenomenon previously only considered as being psychological in nature and Durkheim doesnt ignore this, there is a good opening chapter on "extra-social" explanations and their significance, Durkheim isnt dogmatic and doesnt dismiss these out of hand but the second and final chapters deal mainly with is own theories of social construction, social interaction, pressure and consequences.

The ideas have in many ways been superseded and it cant be described as total prescient to any current/contemporary scenario as it once was (in this respect there are other sociological and psychological books dealing with fragmentation, identity and disparity). However it is a classic in sociological reasoning and explanation which students, professionals or interested readers could benefit from reading.

The text isnt as accessible and readable as some of the books in the routledge classics range but bearing with it is rewarding, its not a novel afterall but it can give some insights into the day to day and the nature of crisis and individual consequences.

fantastic!!, 30 Dec 2008
I bought this book for my brother, whom is a massive arsenal fan, and he loved it, he said that it was a book that he couldnt put down! It is definately a book that every arsenal fan should posses.

Under the skin of a fascinating football club, 05 Sep 2005
Arsenal Football Club is a special club, as anyone who has played for them, managed them or supported them knows. This fantastic book examines the darker side of Arsenal's history. Spurling, in a lively and entertaining fashion, shows us how Arsenal's reputation as a persona non grata club ("no-one likes us, we don't care") developed. Aside from civic pride we learn the real reason why Tottenham don't like us. We read about Henry Norris who manipulated Arsenal's way into the First Division after the First World War. There are fascinating tales about Willie Young, Peter Storey and George Eastham. The most pertinent chapter is about George Graham. We learn about the paradox of the control freak who lost control as his team was involved in unsavoury incidents, on and off the field, whilst Graham himself was clearly incapable of demonstrating the high standards he demanded from his players, witness the controversial end to his reign as Arsenal manager. The chapters on the Wenger years demonstrate that Arsenal's "us and them" mentality has not faded away, despite the lack of homegrown players in the team. Spurling shows us that in almost 120 years of Arsenal FC, everything and nothing has changed. The media hate us, other fans hate us and Wenger is very adept at using media barbs, much like Mee and Graham, to inspire the team to greater glories. "Victory through harmony" is Arsenal's slogan but I think after reading this book it should be "Victory through adversity". If you're an Arsenal fan, you must own this book.

An antidote to those fed up with insincere badge kissing, 08 Feb 2004
Rebels for the Cause will surprise every Arsenal fan by revealing how much more there was to discover about the club.

Jon Spurling has written a book that both entertains and informs. Starting with Arsenal's founding fathers, each chapter carefully pulls together the facts and faces throughout the club's history, cleverly exploring it's more colourful characters while subtely detailing the context of the club and football's changing place in society.

Thought provoking, and sometimes shocking a smile is never far away from the reader's face. It also exposes the roots of resentment for the club in both the media and other football fans.

For Arsenal fans this is simply a must read. For the rest, you hardly need any more justification for finding fault with the red and white half of north London.

A new perspective on the greatest club of all!, 21 Nov 2003
Another excellent book from the only Arsenal author, it seems, who can be bothered to find a fresh angle on the club’s past. “Rebels For The Cause” illustrates the point which most others publications seem scared to admit – that without Arsenal’s numerous controversial players and officials – the Gunners wouldn’t even exist, let alone be the world famous club they have become. I found the earlier chapters really fascinating, as they explain how Arsenal gained the “lucky” and “Bank Of England” labels, at a time of an economic depression in Europe. The new information on Sir Henry Norris goes a long way to explaining why Arsenal are disliked by almost everyone outside their own fan base.
As a supporter who started going in the 1970s, I found the chapters on Charlie George, Peter Storey and Willie Young really revealing and quirky. Some of the drinking stories will make you laugh out loud – or you might wince with pain as Spurling describes another ferocious Storey or Young challenge. The section on the 1977 pre season tour of Australia really gets the reader into the mindset of the rebel footballers from that era. The author is at his best as he minutely dissects the decline and fall of George Graham in the early 1990s.What makes startling is just how many of Graham’s former charges queue up to put the boot into their former manager.
“Rebels For The Cause” is a good deal more lively, honest and funny than any official history of the club. Buy it now !

Rebels for the Cause:The Alternative History of Arsenal....., 20 Sep 2003
I read this book in just three days. In my opinion, this is the most thought provoking and intriguing history of the club to date. I had thought that it was just going to be a history lesson from Arsenal's boozy bad boys. But Spurling's conversations with Willie Young, Charlie Nicholas, Charlie George, Alan Hudson and Perry Groves adds a humorous and "laddish" edge to certain chapters.

But what makes Rebels For The Cause such a GREAT read, is the fact the Arsenal's "rebals" have come in such a variety of shapes and forms during the clubs long history.

It was facinating to read of the spectacular fall from fame of George Graham. The comments of Claude Anelka on his brothers controversial departure from the club. Plus insights into the clubs history from the players view point. I particularly enjoyed reading the fresh insight on the life and times of Sir Henry Norris, who in 1918, "bribed" the Football League to promote Arsenal, and relegate Spurs. The furore surrounding George Eastham's court case in the early sixties and the clubs 1945 match against Moscow Dynamos.

Spurling has delved deep into Arnenal's numerous disciplinary problems, his and the players' conclusions make for worrying reading. He shows that recent Arsenal manages have almost encouraged players to feel persecuted, as a way of fostering team spirt and their famed fortress mentality. This, together with the origins of the Gunners' rivalry with Tottenham and a look at the club's treatment by the tabloids makes for fascinating, if uncomfotable reading.

Rebals For The Cause is a MUST read book for ALL Arsenal fans.

The Whigs Change the World, 26 Aug 2008
You would not want to be known as a member of a club in the sixteenth century; clubs then were seen as violent and conspiratorial gangs of men. By the eighteenth century, that had changed, and men could gather in clubs with a feeling of doing something constructive and high-minded. One of the main reasons for the change in meaning was the Kit-Cat Club, a massing of writers, musicians, artists, politicians, and titled gentlemen who met in London and flourished around 1690 to 1710. The influence of these men in politics, in art, and in forming the British character was vast. The influence of the club is detailed in _The Kit-Cat Club: Friends Who Imagined a Nation_ (Harper Press) by historian Ophelia Field. A big book, rich in detail pulled from diaries, notes, poems, plays, and letters to the press, this is an accessible history because although it deals in times and situations foreign to us, it concentrates on the personalities of the men, their interactions, their causes, and their successes. Readers may know Kit-Cat as only a candy bar (and in this unstuffy history, Field includes the confection in a late chapter "Later Clubs and Kit-Cats"), but they will be surprised at how much the Kit-Cat members influenced even our own time.

The name of the club comes from Christopher "Kit" Cat's pies sold in Gray' Inn Lane in London, the simple fare for the meetings. We know what Johnson and his pals said at these meetings because of scribblers like Boswell. The Kit-Cats, however, left almost no record of what was said during their meetings, and so Field has used voluminous sources to fill in the picture. The club was brought together by Jacob Tonson, a publisher who, unlike many of his fellows, had a mind to posterity and to literature. Tonson agreed to give dinners to a group of young writers if they would agree to let him have the option of first refusal of their works. Not only was Tonson there, but aristocrats came for the purpose of rubbing shoulders with the artists and perhaps becoming their patrons. Around the table would have been Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, always linked together because of their joint production of the classic essays in their magazine _The Spectator_. The magazine is recognized as second only to the Bible in forming British character, and Field says that during its publication, and numerous reprints, it was "usurping the pulpit in defining Britain's moral order". Englishmen were defined by _The Spectator_ in contrast to the foppish and pretentious French, as eccentric, humble, blunt, confidant, and decent, and that image stuck. The Kit-Cats they also favored Whig positions of a constitutional monarchy, a strengthening of Parliament, a Protestant succession of the monarchy, and support for new commercial endeavors like the New East India Company. Their political reforms, although substantial, were only a small part of how they sought to mold the nation into a Kit-Cat ideal. The playwright John Vanbrugh converted to being an architect, and Field looks at the implications for political ideology of Vanbrugh's architectural innovations and how they show a passing of power from the monarchy one rung down to the non-royal rich. The Kit-Cats were horrified by the puritanical detractors of the theater, and not only pamphletized against them but also showed up in masses at the performances to cheer on Kit-Cat favorites. They even favored the semi-wild style of gardening as opposed to the previous style filled with topiary and geometric forms, and as in most of their efforts, their style succeeded. They had less success with music, and their repeated efforts to improve British interest in opera were futile, although they paved the way for Handel.

In many artistic, social, and political realms, the Kit-Cats had the sort of power openly that conspiracy theorists ascribe to Freemasons or the Illuminati. They were not a secret organization, though, and they liked their fun. They were an eating and talking club, first and foremost, and with meat pies had to go plenty of wine and punch. Among the few words we know to have been spoken in the meetings were the poetic toasts to the most glamorous ladies of London, and sometimes to paramours. It isn't Field's fault that she cannot recreate the dialogues from club meetings, but she has given short biographies of the club's main members as well as a masterful recounting of its enthusiasms and efforts. It was not just Doctor Johnson who, despite all the Whiggery, admired the club's output, especially taking Addison as a model. Benjamin Franklin, too, trained his own prose upon _The Spectator_, and founded a club in America called "The Junto", named after a group of Kit-Kat Whigs. Field's command of masses of historical information is astonishing, and her writing is entertaining; she says, for instance, of the club meetings "the atmosphere was ludic but not lewd." Her group biography is a tribute to the trusted friends who valued the liberty of free intellectual exchange, and formed the nation thereby.


Excellent., 04 Aug 2008
Every bit as interesting as I had hoped-- I just hadn't realized it would also be so fun. Field has that rare knack (especially among historians) of granting insight not only into the power dynamics of the period (and why they matter) but also into what her subjects were like as men--a much harder feat to pull off, much less while being so entertaining. Her sense of detail brings in those small notes--wigs askew! mutton pies!--that makes a scene or relationship come alive for us. I actually laughed out loud, not something that happens too often while reading a scholarly account of the 18th century. A fantastic read.

Rational analyses ..., 20 Oct 2005
Max Weber (1864-1920) had noticed that Protestants appeared excessively under the numbers of people who economically were successful. The Catholicism seemed to make it easier (due to an integrated sin pardon mechanics) to enjoy life in between times. The Mediterranean countries have saved this as a differentiable lifestyle till nowadays, but particular the Nordic, by the majority Protestant countries put the human beings into a hermetic box of duty fulfillment and responsibility. The suicide installment is also higher in these areas: Unfortunately, Luther's theological revolution was not namely a liberation, no reduction of control but its millionfold multiplication: In the end everyone became the merciless inspector of himself. The reformation has increased the pressure extremely. Now mixed religious aims and working actions were bound each other with the visibility of financial success. Other religions, the Buddhism, the Islam etc., seem strikingly less in conformity with the capitalism in this regard. On the contrary: Being obstinate or disinterested seem to be transported rather. The Calvinistic capitalism on the other hand produces (besides all superficial correctness) a subtle social coldness, a fight of everybody against everybody, which promotes the assumption, that there is not enough space in the paradisiacal sky for everyone at all. Therefore the fear of being not preferred later on by the dear God starts a hitting and fighting between the human beings vehemently. Being religious in this manner has not contributed to humanness, but, instead, made some steps backward globally, regarding the great individual sovereignty, which the renaissance man already had achieved. Face of the fact, that (at the moment) a second theocracy seems to spread himself apparently in the USA -- at least in the opinion of the ones who sit at the decisive Washington coordinating points -- in the face of such developments among the conservative Christians of the USA, which surpass many a nastiness of the frowned Machiavellism or the elite oriented Darwinism, yes even the racism -- in view of such developments it seems recommended to examine the rational analyses of Max Weber again ...

Revewing the revew..., 29 Nov 1998
I think it's a revew on the revew you've got there, as it shows a little misunderstanding of Max Weber plan. He wills not to turn Marx upside-down, therefore falling into some kind of idealism, but instead, he trys to complicate Marx thesis, in the way he understands it, sayng that causality is much wider than materialistic, and ideas can have "elective afinities" with interests. Both authors do not exclude each other, but can be used to criticise one anohter.

Great book and a great edition, 23 Sep 2008
Not sure what the cover is meant to construe, perhaps its a eureka! moment or something, anyway, this is a great book and this is a great edition of the book. The contents are clear, there is a good index included for students or anyone who needs to be able to make quick references to specific parts of the text.

This is a prior really of the first sociological/social explanations for significant individual behaviour using the example of suicide.

As the blurb says this was a phenomenon previously only considered as being psychological in nature and Durkheim doesnt ignore this, there is a good opening chapter on "extra-social" explanations and their significance, Durkheim isnt dogmatic and doesnt dismiss these out of hand but the second and final chapters deal mainly with is own theories of social construction, social interaction, pressure and consequences.

The ideas have in many ways been superseded and it cant be described as total prescient to any current/contemporary scenario as it once was (in this respect there are other sociological and psychological books dealing with fragmentation, identity and disparity). However it is a classic in sociological reasoning and explanation which students, professionals or interested readers could benefit from reading.

The text isnt as accessible and readable as some of the books in the routledge classics range but bearing with it is rewarding, its not a novel afterall but it can give some insights into the day to day and the nature of crisis and individual consequences.

From another time, but still relevant?, 12 Oct 2008
Bought this for a bit of a laugh initially, that and the Ian Hislop program on TV.

Its parochial, jingoistic, self centred and too focussed on 'self abuse' ..

but...

It has some pretty good stuff! Its ridiculously egalitarian considering when it was written, and respectful of all independent of wealth, race, creed, etc. All in all, kids should read this.

I finished this book with an odd feeling of pride in being British. The values promoted in this book are my values, despite never having been a scout myself.

God save the Queen!

"The British Empire wants your help", 22 Jun 2004
At the very beginning of the twentieth century, retired General Robert Baden-Powell, the hero of the siege of Mafeking, coalesced his ideas for an organization to train young British boys in scouting for the British Empire. Not a very organized thinker, Baden-Powell borrowed heavily from all sorts of unrelated resources - newspaper articles, military dispatches, fiction, and much more - and produced this, his first book on scouting. Originally published as six separate books, this book brings all of them together, complete with original illustrations.

Now, as might be expected from its roots, this book reflects a lot of the biases and ways of thinking from Edwardian England. But, leaving that aside, this is a fun and interesting book that shows clearly the forms that have stayed with the Boy Scouts movement to this very day. The introduction was written by Elleke Boehmer, a professor of Colonial and Postcolonial literature, and is a fairly predictable deconstruction/analysis of B-P and his movement.

Now, as a newcomer to Scouting (my son is a Tenderfoot) did I find anything useful in this book? I sure did. Robert Baden-Powell was very knowledgeable about the subject, and this book sure shows it. (I never thought of tying my shoes like that!) Of course some of the information is out of date, especially the first-aid information, so it isn't really usable by the boys "as is." But, this is a nice resource, one that shows you where Scouting started.

Oh, and I must say that I actually enjoyed the somewhat jumbled organization of this book. It isn't as scholarly and antiseptic as modern Boy Scout books, and the stories and tales laced throughout make the reading much more fun. Plus, I did find the focus on some subjects, such as logic and deductive reasoning, to be quite interesting. I loved this book, and highly recommend it to you!

INtriguing insight into early century salutary journal, 09 Dec 1998
I am hoping this is a verbatim reprint of the original title, a copy of which I once had but lost. Subjects covered include cleanliness in the wild (bowel-movements) and avoidance of beastliness (I won't spoil it for you). It is not so much the subjects themselves which inspire our post-modern hilarity, rather the way in which the author invites you to infer them from his language. A must for all afficionados of kitsch

fantastic!!, 30 Dec 2008
I bought this book for my brother, whom is a massive arsenal fan, and he loved it, he said that it was a book that he couldnt put down! It is definately a book that every arsenal fan should posses.

Under the skin of a fascinating football club, 05 Sep 2005
Arsenal Football Club is a special club, as anyone who has played for them, managed them or supported them knows. This fantastic book examines the darker side of Arsenal's history. Spurling, in a lively and entertaining fashion, shows us how Arsenal's reputation as a persona non grata club ("no-one likes us, we don't care") developed. Aside from civic pride we learn the real reason why Tottenham don't like us. We read about Henry Norris who manipulated Arsenal's way into the First Division after the First World War. There are fascinating tales about Willie Young, Peter Storey and George Eastham. The most pertinent chapter is about George Graham. We learn about the paradox of the control freak who lost control as his team was involved in unsavoury incidents, on and off the field, whilst Graham himself was clearly incapable of demonstrating the high standards he demanded from his players, witness the controversial end to his reign as Arsenal manager. The chapters on the Wenger years demonstrate that Arsenal's "us and them" mentality has not faded away, despite the lack of homegrown players in the team. Spurling shows us that in almost 120 years of Arsenal FC, everything and nothing has changed. The media hate us, other fans hate us and Wenger is very adept at using media barbs, much like Mee and Graham, to inspire the team to greater glories. "Victory through harmony" is Arsenal's slogan but I think after reading this book it should be "Victory through adversity". If you're an Arsenal fan, you must own this book.

An antidote to those fed up with insincere badge kissing, 08 Feb 2004
Rebels for the Cause will surprise every Arsenal fan by revealing how much more there was to discover about the club.

Jon Spurling has written a book that both entertains and informs. Starting with Arsenal's founding fathers, each chapter carefully pulls together the facts and faces throughout the club's history, cleverly exploring it's more colourful characters while subtely detailing the context of the club and football's changing place in society.

Thought provoking, and sometimes shocking a smile is never far away from the reader's face. It also exposes the roots of resentment for the club in both the media and other football fans.

For Arsenal fans this is simply a must read. For the rest, you hardly need any more justification for finding fault with the red and white half of north London.

A new perspective on the greatest club of all!, 21 Nov 2003
Another excellent book from the only Arsenal author, it seems, who can be bothered to find a fresh angle on the club’s past. “Rebels For The Cause” illustrates the point which most others publications seem scared to admit – that without Arsenal’s numerous controversial players and officials – the Gunners wouldn’t even exist, let alone be the world famous club they have become. I found the earlier chapters really fascinating, as they explain how Arsenal gained the “lucky” and “Bank Of England” labels, at a time of an economic depression in Europe. The new information on Sir Henry Norris goes a long way to explaining why Arsenal are disliked by almost everyone outside their own fan base.
As a supporter who started going in the 1970s, I found the chapters on Charlie George, Peter Storey and Willie Young really revealing and quirky. Some of the drinking stories will make you laugh out loud – or you might wince with pain as Spurling describes another ferocious Storey or Young challenge. The section on the 1977 pre season tour of Australia really gets the reader into the mindset of the rebel footballers from that era. The author is at his best as he minutely dissects the decline and fall of George Graham in the early 1990s.What makes startling is just how many of Graham’s former charges queue up to put the boot into their former manager.
“Rebels For The Cause” is a good deal more lively, honest and funny than any official history of the club. Buy it now !

Rebels for the Cause:The Alternative History of Arsenal....., 20 Sep 2003
I read this book in just three days. In my opinion, this is the most thought provoking and intriguing history of the club to date. I had thought that it was just going to be a history lesson from Arsenal's boozy bad boys. But Spurling's conversations with Willie Young, Charlie Nicholas, Charlie George, Alan Hudson and Perry Groves adds a humorous and "laddish" edge to certain chapters.

But what makes Rebels For The Cause such a GREAT read, is the fact the Arsenal's "rebals" have come in such a variety of shapes and forms during the clubs long history.

It was facinating to read of the spectacular fall from fame of George Graham. The comments of Claude Anelka on his brothers controversial departure from the club. Plus insights into the clubs history from the players view point. I particularly enjoyed reading the fresh insight on the life and times of Sir Henry Norris, who in 1918, "bribed" the Football League to promote Arsenal, and relegate Spurs. The furore surrounding George Eastham's court case in the early sixties and the clubs 1945 match against Moscow Dynamos.

Spurling has delved deep into Arnenal's numerous disciplinary problems, his and the players' conclusions make for worrying reading. He shows that recent Arsenal manages have almost encouraged players to feel persecuted, as a way of fostering team spirt and their famed fortress mentality. This, together with the origins of the Gunners' rivalry with Tottenham and a look at the club's treatment by the tabloids makes for fascinating, if uncomfotable reading.

Rebals For The Cause is a MUST read book for ALL Arsenal fans.

The Whigs Change the World, 26 Aug 2008
You would not want to be known as a member of a club in the sixteenth century; clubs then were seen as violent and conspiratorial gangs of men. By the eighteenth century, that had changed, and men could gather in clubs with a feeling of doing something constructive and high-minded. One of the main reasons for the change in meaning was the Kit-Cat Club, a massing of writers, musicians, artists, politicians, and titled gentlemen who met in London and flourished around 1690 to 1710. The influence of these men in politics, in art, and in forming the British character was vast. The influence of the club is detailed in _The Kit-Cat Club: Friends Who Imagined a Nation_ (Harper Press) by historian Ophelia Field. A big book, rich in detail pulled from diaries, notes, poems, plays, and letters to the press, this is an accessible history because although it deals in times and situations foreign to us, it concentrates on the personalities of the men, their interactions, their causes, and their successes. Readers may know Kit-Cat as only a candy bar (and in this unstuffy history, Field includes the confection in a late chapter "Later Clubs and Kit-Cats"), but they will be surprised at how much the Kit-Cat members influenced even our own time.

The name of the club comes from Christopher "Kit" Cat's pies sold in Gray' Inn Lane in London, the simple fare for the meetings. We know what Johnson and his pals said at these meetings because of scribblers like Boswell. The Kit-Cats, however, left almost no record of what was said during their meetings, and so Field has used voluminous sources to fill in the picture. The club was brought together by Jacob Tonson, a publisher who, unlike many of his fellows, had a mind to posterity and to literature. Tonson agreed to give dinners to a group of young writers if they would agree to let him have the option of first refusal of their works. Not only was Tonson there, but aristocrats came for the purpose of rubbing shoulders with the artists and perhaps becoming their patrons. Around the table would have been Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, always linked together because of their joint production of the classic essays in their magazine _The Spectator_. The magazine is recognized as second only to the Bible in forming British character, and Field says that during its publication, and numerous reprints, it was "usurping the pulpit in defining Britain's moral order". Englishmen were defined by _The Spectator_ in contrast to the foppish and pretentious French, as eccentric, humble, blunt, confidant, and decent, and that image stuck. The Kit-Cats they also favored Whig positions of a constitutional monarchy, a strengthening of Parliament, a Protestant succession of the monarchy, and support for new commercial endeavors like the New East India Company. Their political reforms, although substantial, were only a small part of how they sought to mold the nation into a Kit-Cat ideal. The playwright John Vanbrugh converted to being an architect, and Field looks at the implications for political ideology of Vanbrugh's architectural innovations and how they show a passing of power from the monarchy one rung down to the non-royal rich. The Kit-Cats were horrified by the puritanical detractors of the theater, and not only pamphletized against them but also showed up in masses at the performances to cheer on Kit-Cat favorites. They even favored the semi-wild style of gardening as opposed to the previous style filled with topiary and geometric forms, and as in most of their efforts, their style succeeded. They had less success with music, and their repeated efforts to improve British interest in opera were futile, although they paved the way for Handel.

In many artistic, social, and political realms, the Kit-Cats had the sort of power openly that conspiracy theorists ascribe to Freemasons or the Illuminati. They were not a secret organization, though, and they liked their fun. They were an eating and talking club, first and foremost, and with meat pies had to go plenty of wine and punch. Among the few words we know to have been spoken in the meetings were the poetic toasts to the most glamorous ladies of London, and sometimes to paramours. It isn't Field's fault that she cannot recreate the dialogues from club meetings, but she has given short biographies of the club's main members as well as a masterful recounting of its enthusiasms and efforts. It was not just Doctor Johnson who, despite all the Whiggery, admired the club's output, especially taking Addison as a model. Benjamin Franklin, too, trained his own prose upon _The Spectator_, and founded a club in America called "The Junto", named after a group of Kit-Kat Whigs. Field's command of masses of historical information is astonishing, and her writing is entertaining; she says, for instance, of the club meetings "the atmosphere was ludic but not lewd." Her group biography is a tribute to the trusted friends who valued the liberty of free intellectual exchange, and formed the nation thereby.


Excellent., 04 Aug 2008
Every bit as interesting as I had hoped-- I just hadn't realized it would also be so fun. Field has that rare knack (especially among historians) of granting insight not only into the power dynamics of the period (and why they matter) but also into what her subjects were like as men--a much harder feat to pull off, much less while being so entertaining. Her sense of detail brings in those small notes--wigs askew! mutton pies!--that makes a scene or relationship come alive for us. I actually laughed out loud, not something that happens too often while reading a scholarly account of the 18th century. A fantastic read.

Rational analyses ..., 20 Oct 2005
Max Weber (1864-1920) had noticed that Protestants appeared excessively under the numbers of people who economically were successful. The Catholicism seemed to make it easier (due to an integrated sin pardon mechanics) to enjoy life in between times. The Mediterranean countries have saved this as a differentiable lifestyle till nowadays, but particular the Nordic, by the majority Protestant countries put the human beings into a hermetic box of duty fulfillment and responsibility. The suicide installment is also higher in these areas: Unfortunately, Luther's theological revolution was not namely a liberation, no reduction of control but its millionfold multiplication: In the end everyone became the merciless inspector of himself. The reformation has increased the pressure extremely. Now mixed religious aims and working actions were bound each other with the visibility of financial success. Other religions, the Buddhism, the Islam etc., seem strikingly less in conformity with the capitalism in this regard. On the contrary: Being obstinate or disinterested seem to be transported rather. The Calvinistic capitalism on the other hand produces (besides all superficial correctness) a subtle social coldness, a fight of everybody against everybody, which promotes the assumption, that there is not enough space in the paradisiacal sky for everyone at all. Therefore the fear of being not preferred later on by the dear God starts a hitting and fighting between the human beings vehemently. Being religious in this manner has not contributed to humanness, but, instead, made some steps backward globally, regarding the great individual sovereignty, which the renaissance man already had achieved. Face of the fact, that (at the moment) a second theocracy seems to spread himself apparently in the USA -- at least in the opinion of the ones who sit at the decisive Washington coordinating points -- in the face of such developments among the conservative Christians of the USA, which surpass many a nastiness of the frowned Machiavellism or the elite oriented Darwinism, yes even the racism -- in view of such developments it seems recommended to examine the rational analyses of Max Weber again ...

Revewing the revew..., 29 Nov 1998
I think it's a revew on the revew you've got there, as it shows a little misunderstanding of Max Weber plan. He wills not to turn Marx upside-down, therefore falling into some kind of idealism, but instead, he trys to complicate Marx thesis, in the way he understands it, sayng that causality is much wider than materialistic, and ideas can have "elective afinities" with interests. Both authors do not exclude each other, but can be used to criticise one anohter.

Great book and a great edition, 23 Sep 2008
Not sure what the cover is meant to construe, perhaps its a eureka! moment or something, anyway, this is a great book and this is a great edition of the book. The contents are clear, there is a good index included for students or anyone who needs to be able to make quick references to specific parts of the text.

This is a prior really of the first sociological/social explanations for significant individual behaviour using the example of suicide.

As the blurb says this was a phenomenon previously only considered as being psychological in nature and Durkheim doesnt ignore this, there is a good opening chapter on "extra-social" explanations and their significance, Durkheim isnt dogmatic and doesnt dismiss these out of hand but the second and final chapters deal mainly with is own theories of social construction, social interaction, pressure and consequences.

The ideas have in many ways been superseded and it cant be described as total prescient to any current/contemporary scenario as it once was (in this respect there are other sociological and psychological books dealing with fragmentation, identity and disparity). However it is a classic in sociological reasoning and explanation which students, professionals or interested readers could benefit from reading.

The text isnt as accessible and readable as some of the books in the routledge classics range but bearing with it is rewarding, its not a novel afterall but it can give some insights into the day to day and the nature of crisis and individual consequences.

From another time, but still relevant?, 12 Oct 2008
Bought this for a bit of a laugh initially, that and the Ian Hislop program on TV.

Its parochial, jingoistic, self centred and too focussed on 'self abuse' ..

but...

It has some pretty good stuff! Its ridiculously egalitarian considering when it was written, and respectful of all independent of wealth, race, creed, etc. All in all, kids should read this.

I finished this book with an odd feeling of pride in being British. The values promoted in this book are my values, despite never having been a scout myself.

God save the Queen!

"The British Empire wants your help", 22 Jun 2004
At the very beginning of the twentieth century, retired General Robert Baden-Powell, the hero of the siege of Mafeking, coalesced his ideas for an organization to train young British boys in scouting for the British Empire. Not a very organized thinker, Baden-Powell borrowed heavily from all sorts of unrelated resources - newspaper articles, military dispatches, fiction, and much more - and produced this, his first book on scouting. Originally published as six separate books, this book brings all of them together, complete with original illustrations.

Now, as might be expected from its roots, this book reflects a lot of the biases and ways of thinking from Edwardian England. But, leaving that aside, this is a fun and interesting book that shows clearly the forms that have stayed with the Boy Scouts movement to this very day. The introduction was written by Elleke Boehmer, a professor of Colonial and Postcolonial literature, and is a fairly predictable deconstruction/analysis of B-P and his movement.

Now, as a newcomer to Scouting (my son is a Tenderfoot) did I find anything useful in this book? I sure did. Robert Baden-Powell was very knowledgeable about the subject, and this book sure shows it. (I never thought of tying my shoes like that!) Of course some of the information is out of date, especially the first-aid information, so it isn't really usable by the boys "as is." But, this is a nice resource, one that shows you where Scouting started.

Oh, and I must say that I actually enjoyed the somewhat jumbled organization of this book. It isn't as scholarly and antiseptic as modern Boy Scout books, and the stories and tales laced throughout make the reading much more fun. Plus, I did find the focus on some subjects, such as logic and deductive reasoning, to be quite interesting. I loved this book, and highly recommend it to you!

INtriguing insight into early century salutary journal, 09 Dec 1998
I am hoping this is a verbatim reprint of the original title, a copy of which I once had but lost. Subjects covered include cleanliness in the wild (bowel-movements) and avoidance of beastliness (I won't spoil it for you). It is not so much the subjects themselves which inspire our post-modern hilarity, rather the way in which the author invites you to infer them from his language. A must for all afficionados of kitsch

The quintessential sociolological classic., 23 Apr 2001
Durkheim's last major work contains discussions of, in their most highly developed forms, the main problems that consumed Durkheim at various points in his intellectual career; the problem of solidarity in an increasingly individualistic society, the sources and nature of the power of moral authority, his desire to cement sociology as a science, and his quest to expose the foundations and practical implications of social and scientific knowledge.

Firstly, Durkheim convincingly argues that religious phenomena is the symbolic arrangement by which society represents itself to its members and awakens the individual sentiments that account for the members relationship to that society. The last section of the work (Book III) contains Durkheim's symbolic theory regarding the resacralization of social life through the "collective ritual" of religious ceremony. The salience of this argument has led many Sociologists to return to Durkheim to try and explain where this symbolic "collective effervescence" might come from when the social conditions are those of unfamiliarity and differentiation; where society is characterized by the fragmentation of class, occupation, ethnic group, age, region and so on.

Implicit within the whole discussion is Durkheim's controversial theory of knowledge, in which he drives a middle ground between on the one hand, Kantian apiorism, which held that knowledge is inherant in the human intellect itself; and on the other, Humean empiricism, which attributed the acquisition of knowledge to human individual experience. Durkheim contests that religious thought is the origin of scientific thought, and that the former proceeds to the latter in a direct line of continuity. Supplementary to the main thesis is an insightful and perceptive introduction from translater Karen E. Field, in which she manages to significantly contribute to an already well-worn debate amidst the backdrop of her seductive and witty writing style. A compelling read from start to finish, social theorists who do not appreciate the quality of this perrennial classic are simply misguided - this master work deserves to be read and re-read.

fantastic!!, 30 Dec 2008
I bought this book for my brother, whom is a massive arsenal fan, and he loved it, he said that it was a book that he couldnt put down! It is definately a book that every arsenal fan should posses.

Under the skin of a fascinating football club, 05 Sep 2005
Arsenal Football Club is a special club, as anyone who has played for them, managed them or supported them knows. This fantastic book examines the darker side of Arsenal's history. Spurling, in a lively and entertaining fashion, shows us how Arsenal's reputation as a persona non grata club ("no-one likes us, we don't care") developed. Aside from civic pride we learn the real reason why Tottenham don't like us. We read about Henry Norris who manipulated Arsenal's way into the First Division after the First World War. There are fascinating tales about Willie Young, Peter Storey and George Eastham. The most pertinent chapter is about George Graham. We learn about the paradox of the control freak who lost control as his team was involved in unsavoury incidents, on and off the field, whilst Graham himself was clearly incapable of demonstrating the high standards he demanded from his players, witness the controversial end to his reign as Arsenal manager. The chapters on the Wenger years demonstrate that Arsenal's "us and them" mentality has not faded away, despite the lack of homegrown players in the team. Spurling shows us that in almost 120 years of Arsenal FC, everything and nothing has changed. The media hate us, other fans hate us and Wenger is very adept at using media barbs, much like Mee and Graham, to inspire the team to greater glories. "Victory through harmony" is Arsenal's slogan but I think after reading this book it should be "Victory through adversity". If you're an Arsenal fan, you must own this book.

An antidote to those fed up with insincere badge kissing, 08 Feb 2004
Rebels for the Cause w