Among the Thugs

Why it’s on the list: Buford spent years travelling with English football hooligans and wrote the result as first-person reportage — including his own gradual implication in it. The book is really about crowd violence as an experience people seek out, which is why it keeps getting cited outside sport.

Where I saw it: In the reply thread to @typesfast’s question, “What’s the best history book you’ve read?” (June 5, 2025) — a crowd-sourced list Kyle recovered by hand and saved to his Apple Note “Books To Read”; the full set of replies lives on What’s the best history book… (tweet). It was listed there as “Among the Thugs by Bill Buford”.

Connections

• Identity — the crowd as a thing people join to stop being individuals.
• Nationalism — the England-abroad politics running underneath the violence.
• People Over Politics — reporting from inside rather than analysis from above.
• What’s the best history book… (tweet) — the thread this recommendation came from.