Summer Reading: Simon Kuper's, Ajax, The Dutch, The War

Football in Europe During the Second World War

Simon Kuper was perhaps the first truly intellectual political/foreign affairs writer that focused on football. Most famous for co-authoring Soccernomics, (or Why England Lose ) and Football Against the Enemy, my favorite Kuper book could be Ajax: The Dutch, The War.

Kuper grew up in the Netherlands and is of Dutch (and Jewish) background despite spending most of his professional life in either Britain or France. This gives him a unique perspective on the Dutch and all things related to that country.

I’ve had the occasion to meet Kuper multiple times, and one of my key observations is that in my opinion the Dutch were able to mythologize their “resistance” to the Germans during WWII because they knew the English-language well enough to “spin” that they had been great resisters and collaborators were few. He basically confirmed this view of mine saying the true history is more murky (their were plenty of cynical collaborators and heroic resisters, in that sense the Dutch were not different than other occupied people’s during the war) and quite frankly reading this book mirrors that.

I’m not going to spoil it other than that, but HIGHLY recommend this as read - whether you like football or not, or whether you like history of not.