The 2026 World Cup has brought a soccer fervor to Massachusetts, and UMass historian Brian D. Bunk is meeting the moment with a new book on the history of soccer. The Shortest History of Soccer: From Ancient Kicking Games to the World's Most Popular Sport is an accessible, fast-paced tour through centuries of tradition that evolved into the game fans across the world know and love today.
Named one of Barnes & Noble’s Best Paperbacks of June 2026, The Shortest History of Soccer illuminates the impact of the sport on world history, from the field to the screen to the halls of government. Author and soccer historian Tom McCabe, co-host of the podcast An American Game, called the book “Lively, thematic, and sharply written. Brian Bunk’s latest is a match winner!” The Shortest History of Soccer was also ranked #1 on a list of Recommended Summer Reads by the Big Think Books, a popular literary and academic newsletter.
For an even deeper dive into the history of soccer in America, readers may also enjoy Bunk’s other recent monographs, Beyond the Field: How Soccer Built Community in the United States (University of Illinois Press, 2025) and From Football to Soccer: The Early History of the Beautiful Game in the United States (University of Illinois Press, 2021). Bunk is also the author of Ghosts of Passion: Martyrdom, Gender, and the Origins of the Spanish Civil War (Duke University Press, 2007) and co-editor of the book Nation and Conflict in Modern Spain: Essays in Honor of Stanley G. Payne (Parallel Press, 2008).