Rating: 
Summary: Amazing
Review: I was at the library, and just looking for something to read on football, which I have REALLY gotton into over the summer, and I needed something to hold me over until the season started. Well, this sure did the trick. I began reading it, and just couldnt stop. Of course, I had summer reading, which caused me to put it down for a few days, but I always ended up reading it. VERY good, and interesting as hell. His rants seemed to be unnecessary at times, but his personal experiences in a crowd, or with one person, was amazing. I couldnt stop reading them. I am very glad I read this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely one to read.
Review: I couldn't stop reading this. We went to a friends house and I sat and read this book in the corner (easily one of the most impolite things I have ever done, but there was no way in hell I was stopping reading). I lived in London in the late eighties, working between Highbury & Islington tube station and Arsenal's ground and can remember the shops and pubs closing early on Wednesdays if there was a game. I can also remember the warnings not to work late, etc. I never understood why until I read this book. These people were (are?) the cruelest, nastiest people alive, and Bill Buford deserves endless credit for the quality of this book.One last thought, we often hear that it was the average person that served as the guards in concentration camps, etc., well after reading this book I think it is the thugs who are described here, not the average Joe - so I feel better about the rest of humanity.
Rating:
Summary: Analytical and thorough account of football violence.
Review: Essential for anyone attempting to understand the phenoemon that is english football violence, "Among the Thugs" records what happeened, why, and what's been done. This book should be categorized with "soccer hooliganism" at Amazon.com -- I hope it gets there soon.
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: If you want to get into the mind of the English football fan, then this is the book to read. You'll find out this game means life and death to them.
Rating: 
Summary: Absolute rubbish
Review: I don't know how this guy spent so much time with these "thugs" and had so little understanding of them. He even confesses at the beginning of the book that his motivation for writing the book was lack of understanding. I've been attending premiership matches for a number of years (mostly London games) and the fans, especially Chelsea fans, will tell an American journalist anything if they think it'll get them a laugh or get their name in the paper. A responsible journalist will treat unsubstantiated claims with extreme caution. I feel that Buford fell for the jokes hook line and sinker. Where the book is valuable is Buford's own personal experiences. The account of his being beaten by Italian police in the world cup was perhaps the best written personal view of football violence that I've read.
Rating:
Summary: A facinating read about life with Man U fans (not Liverpool)
Review: The book is a good representation of what happened in the eighties at soccer matches. Although the violence has retreated into the streets and pubs away from the ground it is still there. Bill Burford has a very witty style and I couldn't stop laughing about his description of the English abroad, Man Utd at Juventus and England in Italy. Although he witnesses or was described some horrific things he manages to put across the story as though he was starting to get sucked in by the atmosphere and comradeship found at these events. I'm sure if he had been British the story would not have been the same as it is his american slant on things that I found most entertaining. I saw many incidents at soccer matches before coming to NZ and could indentify in what Bill describes. He also gets a good look at the different aspects by looking at racism and local rivalry with Millwall and West Ham. All together a brilliant book.
Rating:
Summary: Sick as a Parrot!!
Review: Yet again, everything to do with the soccer hooligan gets reviewed by a shirt and tie reporter. This time an American who has no understanding of the game yet he can gleefully write such a graphic account of being "Among The Thugs". The last time i had the misfortune of reading such a bad book was Colin "I used to be an Arsenal fan but now i support Chelsea" Ward, who incidently got filled in by the Boys in Blue in a Highbury pub. Please allow the police to continue their great work in reducing violence on the terraces and allow the game to restore some national pride. I hope that the next book that comes out is by a policeman who had to stare into the eyes of 1000 screaming hooligans hell-bent on destroying everything in their path. Have a nice day. Mark Lewis.
Rating:
Summary: hooligan 101
Review: My then girlfriend bought me the book in 94 after a Fresh Air interview on WHYY Philadelphia Public Radio. I've read it 4 times since and it has opened up a real appreciation of sports fons in England. If you thing that NFL fans are wild then you need to buy the book. It blew my mind that fans relly behaved that way and cared that much for their team. If you ever want to hear about the Inter City Jibbers trip to Turin then you should buy now. It's about the wildest story of any kind that I have ever heard. BUYBUYBUYBUYBUYBUYBUY. Now you can begin to understand why FOOTBALL is the world's #1 sport.
Rating:
Summary: Football will never be the same again
Review: England, the Queen, lager and Liverpool. Well now I know why the football hooligans do what they do - ie, smash up cars, stadiums, human heads and shop windows. Because they have nothing better to do it seems. Terrifying thought ! Buford's extraordinary book reveals the underside of life in middle to lower middlce class England. So disturbing I felt a chill reading this book. I will never watch a football match with quite the same amount of cheer any more!!
Rating:
Summary: Soccer Fans run amok!
Review: Anglophiles beware. Buford is gonna give you good reason to sneer at the awsome, awful, antics--no atrocities--committed in the name of sport by Brit soccer fans. We've got face-painting and the wave. They've got trampling, deadly stampedes, hotel larceny, and attempted murder, and thats just in the first quarter. This guy Buford is good, reads like fiction (in a good way); you can feel the fat blokes in the crowd crushing in on you, hear the screams of their not-always-innocent victims, and smell the beer, and the vomit.
I was laughing during the first chapter. But by the time I hit the eyeball chomping bit, I was pretty well laughed out. You'll be tempted to pass along your copy to friends, resist that, keep it around to shut- up any Eurotrash bigmouths who may wander through
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