Among the Thugs

A detailed Summary of Among the Thugs

"One of the causes of the downfall of Rome was that people, being fed by the State... ceased to have any responsibility for themselves or their children, and consequently became a nation of wasters. They frequented circuses, where paid performers appeared before them in the arena, much as we see the crowds now flocking to look on at paid players playing football... Thousands of boys and young men, pale, narrow-chested, hunched-up, miserable specimens, smoking endless cigarettes, numbers of them betting, all of them learning to be hysterical as they groan or cheer in panic unison with their neighbors-the worst sound of all being the hysterical scream of laughter that greets anu little trip or fall of a player. One wonders whether this can be the same nation which had gained for itself the reputation of being a stolid, pipe-sucking manhood, unmoved by panic of excitement, and reliable in the tightest of places. Get the lads away from this-teach them to be manly."

"Among the Thugs" by Bill Buford offers a rare, daring and often grotesque look into the nature of crowd violence. Buford is an American journalist that studied at Cambridge. Throughout the book we are guided th

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ying somewhat on the outside and reporting events as he sees them. Buford finds himself in a "catch twenty-two" of sorts, when he decides that it is necessary to be at the front lines of crowd violence in order to accurately portray his subject. This decision not only frequently puts him in danger, but also sets him out of the dominant ideology of his peers. However, by being in the middle of the action he also gains the trust and approval of the supporters.

stood crowds and knew how to manipulate them to their advantage.

Even Buford falls prey to the natural instinct and the rush that it produces. After one football match Buford finds himself at the front of a large group of supporters who have eluded the police and are roaming the streets in search of the right place to make their move, in his narrative of the event he admits, "I am enjoying this. I am excited by it. Something is going to happen: the crowd has an appetite, and the appetite will have to be fed; there is a craving for release. A crowd, already so committed, is not going to disperse easily. It has momentum: unstoppable momentum."

Buford shows, through many interviews with the Manchester supporters, the ideology of these people, and then compares it to the dominant ideology. It is amazing to see how completely opposite the two are. Many of the supporters believe that it is their God given right to fight, vandalize everything, and pretty much do whatever they want. They all feel very strongly about their point of view. A view that believes that the police are the reason that the violence gets so bad, they believe that if the police should just let them fight, after all they are only fighting each other; they both want it. They explain that the reason people use knives is because the police have gotten so good at anticipating and then dismantling the mobs, so they do as much damage with amount of time that they do have. This is the mentality that fuels these people's violent appetite. This appetite for violence has been in existence since the beginning of civilization, it seems to be human nature. !

There are times in the book when it seems that Buford does not know where he is going with his story or his research, he strays from the subject in parts and goes into unnecessary detail. However this effectively depicts the chaos that Buford is experiencing. While doing a good job of articulatin

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Approximate Word count = 1671
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels