What do you think?
Rate this book
The Power and the Glory: The History of the World Cup
The first comprehensive history of the World Cup, the most watched sporting event on the planet, a global obsession that has become the greatest cultural event there has ever been offering a quadrennial insight into the broader currents of world history.
For readers of David Goldblatt and Franklin Foer, and for Coach Beard (of Ted Lasso) who devotedly read Jonathan Wilson’s classic book on soccer tactics Inverting the Pyramid, here is the definitive cultural and social history of the world’s greatest spectator event bar the World Cup. Nor since Eduardo Galeano’s epigrammatic Soccer in Sun and Shadow has a book displayed the full century of soccer history and all of its global significance to such captivating effect.
For readers of David Goldblatt and Franklin Foer, and for Coach Beard (of Ted Lasso) who devotedly read Jonathan Wilson’s classic book on soccer tactics Inverting the Pyramid, here is the definitive cultural and social history of the world’s greatest spectator event bar the World Cup. Nor since Eduardo Galeano’s epigrammatic Soccer in Sun and Shadow has a book displayed the full century of soccer history and all of its global significance to such captivating effect.
576 pages, Hardcover
Published October 28, 2025
22 people are currently reading
44 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Wilson
86 books51 followersJonathan Wilson is a British-born writer and professor who lives in Newton, Massachusetts.
Jonathan Wilson is the author of seven books: the novels The Hiding Room and A Palestine Affair, a finalist for the 2004 National Jewish Book Award, two collections of short stories Schoom and An Ambulance is on the Way: Stories of Men in Trouble, two critical works on the fiction of Saul Bellow and most recently a biography, Marc Chagall, runner-up for the 2007 National Jewish Book Award. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and Best American Short Stories, among other publications, and he has received a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is Fletcher Professor of Rhetoric and Debate, Professor of English and Director of the Center for the Humanities at Tufts University.
Wilson also writes a column on soccer for the Internet Newspaper, The Faster Times.
Jonathan Wilson is the author of seven books: the novels The Hiding Room and A Palestine Affair, a finalist for the 2004 National Jewish Book Award, two collections of short stories Schoom and An Ambulance is on the Way: Stories of Men in Trouble, two critical works on the fiction of Saul Bellow and most recently a biography, Marc Chagall, runner-up for the 2007 National Jewish Book Award. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and Best American Short Stories, among other publications, and he has received a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is Fletcher Professor of Rhetoric and Debate, Professor of English and Director of the Center for the Humanities at Tufts University.
Wilson also writes a column on soccer for the Internet Newspaper, The Faster Times.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 16, 2025
Fantastic book on the World cup and world history as well. Highly recommended!
Displaying 1 of 1 review