I've been putting off reviewing my latest read, Dougie Brimson's analysis of hooliganism in England, Barmy Army, which i finished last week. I was intrigued by the reviews of it on Amazon, which claimed it "is everything Among the Thugs is not: accurate, brilliantly researched and absolutley rivetting (sic)". Among the Thugs was a good read, but in retrospect it does describe some incidents that have me doubting its veracity. So i bought Barmy Army with an Amazon gift certificate (thanks Hilary!).

The book begins well enough: Brimson describes his days as a casual member of a Watford firm (or gang, to those of us in America). He spends 20 pages or so recounting his hooligan times, which aren't particularly brutal, then spends a while detailing the history of football-related violence in England, including testimonials from a number of fans and hooligans. It's written in a kind of lowbrow, direct style suiting a working class mechanic. However, things get screwy when he begins offering his solutions to the problem. He contradicts himself repeatedly, at times placing all the blame on the perpetrators themselves and elsewhere claiming that the solution to the problem is to be hospitable to the hooligans. Brimson continually denounces hooligan culture, but occasionally seems nostalgic in his remembrance of his days running with the mob. He denounces those who are making money off the problem (the media, the police), but initially acknowledges that he himself has made a good living being a "hooligan authority". Some of his ideas are good, such as the "proper" fans needing to exert more pressure on the clubs, but most are lost in the extended tirade that comprises the book.

My favorite bit was where he dismisses the efforts of academics studying the problem. "What else can an anthropologist do but teach another anthropologist?" Study people like Brimson, perhaps. I'd read that book.