Alan McDougall

Education

Ph.D. St Antony's College, Oxford, 2001

M.St. St Antony's College, Oxford, 1998

B.A. St Edmund Hall, Oxford, 1997
 

Professional

University of Guelph, 2002-
 

Research

history of sport                                        

modern German history

history of communism

20^th century European history

European cinema

    current research

Dreams and Songs To Sing: A People’s History of Liverpool FC from Shankly to Klopp

Dreams and Songs to Sing is a unique people's history of the triumphs and tragedies of one of the biggest teams in sport. From Shankly to Klopp, Alan McDougall takes us on a global tour of Liverpool FC's history, viewed through the eyes of the people who've been there all along: the supporters. He weaves together interviews with fans from around the world, poignant farewells to Shankly, birthday cards to Michael Owen, letters from grieving Italians after Heysel, and eyewitness accounts of Hillsborough to tell the inseparable story of the club and the city. This is a history which crosses borders of class, gender, race, and nation, ranging well beyond the pitch but never forgetting the crowds and matches at the heart of it all. Rarely does sports writing have this much intelligence and soul, powerfully combining the personal with the universal, and the everyday with the epic.

reviews & endorsements 

‘Dreams and Songs to Sing is a magisterial study of the history and identity of Liverpool Football club, using the voices of fans and others. Readable, shocking, at times exciting and modern, this book sheds new light on this great club, and on the political, social and cultural importance and changes which Liverpool FC has both reflected and produced, as well as its relationship with its fans. An outstanding contribution to the growing field of football history.’ John Foot, author of Calcio: A History of Italian Football.

‘Never before has a book cast the net so wide to try and capture what truly makes this football club so special. One minute you are in Turin, the next in Toronto, but always with Liverpool in your heart. I came away from reading it with an even greater sense of pride and wonder at my club.’ John Gibbons, The Anfield Wrap.

‘Alan McDougall’s Dreams and Songs to Sing is a fabulous collage of Liverpool, the city, the club and its fans. Its use of fan mail, club records and wider cultural histories make it a rich and nuanced text. It is local and global, historic and contemporary, clear eyed yet rooted in personal history and nostalgia, it is an engaging and absorbing read.’ David Goldblatt, author of The Ball is Round.

‘This latest book on Liverpool FC is superbly researched and quotes the comments of die-hard Reds. It takes you from the Shankly years to the Klopp generation - and not just the good parts.’ John Pearman, Red All Over The Land.

‘This is a fascinating and innovative study of an oddly-neglected area of cultural history: the emotional practice of watching, following and experiencing football as a fan. It is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand why football matters so much to the people and communities near and far that continue to sustain it.’ Matthew Taylor, author of The Association Game: A History of British Football.

    areas of research for graduate supervision

history of sport

modern Germany

modern Europe

film and history

Publications

books

Dreams and Songs To Sing: A People’s History of Liverpool FC from Shankly to Klopp (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming, August 2025). 

Contested Fields: A Global History of Modern Football (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020).

The People's Game: Football, State, and Society in East Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014). The paperback edition of The People’s Game (2016) was named one of the Best Books on Sports for 2016 in The Guardian. 

Youth Politics in East Germany: The Free German Youth Movement, 1946-1968 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

edited volumes

Dawson, Rebeccah, Bastian Heinsohn, Oliver Knabe, and Alan McDougall (eds.), Football Nation: The Playing Fields of German Culture, History, and Society (New York & Oxford: Berghahn, 2022).

articles and book chapters

"'Eine ganz besondere Freundschaft?' Der Liverpool FC und die englisch – deutschen Fußballbeziehungen von Keegan bis Klopp," in Wolfram Pyta (ed.), Ballgewinn: Interdisziplinäre Zugänge zur Geschichte des Fußballs (STADION Sonderband 2: Baden-Baden, 2023): 249-69.

"Fußball Internationale? Toward a global history of GDR football," in Dawson, Heinsohn, Knabe, and McDougall (eds.), Football Nation: The Playing Fields of German Culture, History, and Society (Oxford and New York: Berghahn, 2022), pp. 43-61.

* "'This heart-rending and world-shattering news': gender, emotion, and transnationalism in the Bill Shankly retirement letters," Sport in History vol. 42, no. 1 (2022): 126-51. [* Runner-up, Best Sport in History article, 2022.]

"Between self-interest and solidarity: European football and the Covid-19 lockdown," in Jörg Krieger, April Henning, Lindsay Pieper, Paul Dimeo (eds.), Time Out: Global Perspectives on Sport and the Covid-19 Lockdown** (Champaign, IL: Common Ground Research Networks, 2020), pp. 197-210. [** Winner of the Common Ground Research Networks Publishers Prize, 2021.]

"'Eulogy to theft': Berliner FC Dynamo, East German football, and the end of East German communism," in Robert Edelman and Christopher Young (eds.), The Whole World Was Watching: Sport in the Cold War*** (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2020), pp. 113-25. [*** Winner of the North American Society for Sport History (NASSH) Anthology Award, 2021.]

"'Tanked up yobs' and 'self-pity city': deconstructing the myths of Hillsborough disaster," STADION: International Journal of the History of Sport vol. 43, no. 1 (2019): 58-75.

"Eyes on the ball: screening football in East German cinema," Studies in Eastern European Cinema vol. 8, no. 1 (2017): 4-18.

"'Das Spiel ist aus!' Football and history in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy," German History vol. 34, no. 4 (2016): 608-29.

"Controlling the ball? A comparison of the Gleichschaltung of football in the Third Reich and in the SBZ and early GDR, c. 1945–1958," in Die Gleichschaltung des Fußballsports im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland, edited by Markwart Herzog (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2016), pp. 413-31.

"Whose game is it anyway? A people’s history of East German football," Radical History Review 125 (2016): 35-54.

“East Germany and the Europeanisation of football,” Sport in History vol. 35 no. 4 (2015): 550-66.

"Playing the game: football and everyday life in the Honecker era," in Becoming East Germans: Socialist Structures and Sensibilities after Hitler, edited by Mary Fulbrook and Andrew Port (Oxford and New York: Berghahn, 2013), pp. 257-76.

"Around the Wall: East German football encounters with the West," The International Journal of Sport and Society vol. 3, no. 4 (2013): 99-107.

"S3 to Ostkreuz," in CV2: The Canadian Journal of Poetry and Critical Writing vol. 31, no. 3 (2009): 94-95.

"A duty to forget? The 'Hitler Youth Generation' and the transition from Nazism to Communism in post-war East Germany, c. 1945-49," German History vol. 26, no. 1 (2008): 24-46.

"Cautious dissent, reluctant conformity: young East Germans and the 1956 Revolution in Hungary," in Resistance, Rebellion and Revolution in Hungary and Central Europe: Commemorating 1956, edited by László Péter and Martyn Rady (London: UCL SSEES, 2008), pp. 239-46.

"Young Workers, the Free German Youth (FDJ) and the June 1953 Uprising," in Power and the People: A Social History of Central European Politics 1945-1956, edited by Eleonore Breuning, Jill Lewis and Gareth Pritchard (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005), pp. 29-41.
 

Invited talks, conference papers & workshops

"'Eine ganz besondere Freundschaft?' Der Liverpool FC und die englisch – deutschen Fußballbeziehungen von Keegan bis Klopp." Keynote. Neue Forschungen zur Fußballgeschichte: Politische Instrumentalisierung, Internationalisierung und kulturprägende Kraft, Universität Stuttgart, Germany (July 2022).

“'There has to come a time to forget': Liverpool FC, European football, and the Heysel disaster." International Centre for Sports History and Culture Research Webinar, De Montfort University, Leicester (January 2022).

"A hard and relentless task which goes on and on like a river": the art of repetition in David Peace's Red or Dead." Online workshop on Telling the Story of Sport: Narrating Sport in a Global Context, University of Bristol (March 2021).

"Fußball Internationale? Towards a global history of GDR football". 43rd annual conference of the German Studies Association, Portland, OR (October 2019). Part of GSA seminar "Football (soccer) in German-Speaking Europe: History, Politics and the Arts."

"Socialism on the road: East German football tours and international cultural exchange". Round table discussion titled "Futbol Turizm: Performance and International Diplomacy in the Socialist World" with Bob Edelman (UC San Diego), Steven Maddox (Canisius), and Richard Mills (UEA). Annual Convention of the Association of Slavic, Eastern European, & Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), Boston, MA (December 2018).

"Subversion at play: football, politics and history in Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy". 42nd Annual Conference of the German Studies Association, Pittsburgh, PA (September 2018)

“The people’s game? Football and society in communist East Germany." Part of a panel titled “Football for all? A round-table discussion on football and society in East Germany, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia," with Richard Mills (University of East Anglia) and Manfred Zeller (University of Bremen). Annual Congress of the International Society for the History of Physical Education and Sport, Münster, Germany (July 2018).

"Letters to Bill: a social history of Bill Shankly’s 1974 resignation as Manager of Liverpool FC." Annual Convention of the North American Society for Sport History (NASSH), Winnipeg (May 2018).

"‘Tanked up yobs’ and ‘self-pity city’: deconstructing the myths of the Hillsborough disaster." Political Football Myths: 12th Irsee Sports History Conference, Schwabenakademie Irsee, Germany (February 2018).

"Local matters: football fans and civic identities in divided Berlin". 39th annual conference of the German Studies Association, Washington D.C. (October 2015).

“Eulogy to theft: Berliner FC Dynamo (BFC) and the downfall of East German communism”. Spanning and Spinning the Globe: Conference on Cold War Sport, German Historical Institute, Moscow (May 2015).

"Was the ball red? Contesting football as the people's game in East Germany", Invited lectures at the University of Oxford & the University of Durham, November & December 2014. 

"Drowning not waving: the afterlife of East German football." 37th annual conference of the German Studies Association, Denver, CO (October 2013).

"Playing the game: football and everyday life in the Honecker era", 34th annual conference of the German Studies Association, Oakland, CA (October 2010).

"A game of their own? Football fans in communist East Germany, 1949-1989," 38th annual convention of the North American Society for Sport History, Lake Buena Vista, FL (May 2010).

"East Germany and the Europeanisation of Football, c. 1956-1965". FREE (Football Research in an Enlarged Europe) conference on "The Origins and Birth of European Football", Besançon, France (September 2012).

"Around the Wall: East German football encounters with the West." The 3rd International Conference on Sport and Society, Cambridge, UK (July 2012).

 

Media work

Interview with Tim Brinkhof for a New Lines article, 'The former East Germany is fertile ground for the far right' (2024).

Interview with Daniel Rouse for an article on theScore.com, 'After the Wall: Inside the fallen world of East German soccer' (2024).

Interview with Al-Jazeera, 'UEFA Euro 2024 finals stage reopens east-west football divide in Germany' (2024).

Interview with Matthijs van Dam for an article in the Dutch newspaper Trouw on football in the Ruhr, 'Voetballiefde in het Ruhrgebied: "Er is hier niets behalve voetbal"' (2024).

Moroccan Reds Podcast, Episode 4: Liverpool's season, history, and more (2024).

Expert featured in the documentary Stasi F.C. (dirs. Daniel Gordon, Arne Birkenstock, and Zakaria Rahmani, 2023).

'Saudi Arabia’s Pro League is taking advantage of football’s greed and inequality', The Conversation (Aug 2023) [Translated also into Spanish, Chinese, and Italian in the football magazine Cafè Rimet]

'Moldy oranges in Karl-Marx-City: Berliner FC Dynamo, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the forgotten past of East German soccer', The Assistant Professor of History Podcast: Soccer, Culture, History (2023).

Interview with Daniella Lopez for an article on sportswashing in the Toronto Metropolitan University student newspaper The Eyeopener, 'Beyond the game: The reality of sportswashing' (2023).

Interview with CTV News on Kylian Mbappé's possible transfer to Saudia Arabia (2023).

Aha! History – Zehn Minuten Geschichte: Die Welt podcast with Wim Orth, 'Tragödien der 80er – darum müssen Engländer beim Fußball sitzen' (2023).

Interview with Megan Janetsky on sportswashing for an AP article, 'Amid criticism over his war on gangs, El Salvador’s President Bukele turns to sports' (2023).

Interview with CTV National News on the PGA-LIV golf merger (2023).

Interview with Gavin Newsham for an article in The New York Post, 'After shock LIV Golf-PGA merger, what other sports are in the Saudis’ sights?' (2023).

Interview with Caroline Bologna for a HuffPost article, 'What is "sportswashing"?' (2023)

Podcast (with Oliver Knabe) on Football Nation, Sport in History Podcast (2023).

Interview with Channel 4 News (UK) for a report on the World Cup and sportswashing (19 December 2022).

Interview with The Score, 'Why Qatar's sportswashing project is surviving World Cup controversies' (December 2022).

Podcast (with Bess Dawson) on Football Nation, Outside Write: Football Travel, History and Culture (2022).

Interview with UoG News, 'Soccer and Germany Tied Together in U of G History Prof’s New Book' (November 2022).

Interview with Al-Jazeera for an article on Canada's prospects at the 2022 World Cup (November 2022).

Expert contributor to Kids News explains the World Cup, CBC Kids News (November 2022).

Interview with CBC Kids News on the ethics of watching the 2022 World Cup (November 2022).

Interview with Ottawa at Work with Patricia Boal, 580 CRFA on the 2022 World Cup (November 2022).

Interview with El Mercurio (Chile), for article on the 2022 World Cup, 'Qatar, el millonario anfitríon del Mundial que es foco de críticas por su trato a los DD.HH.' (November 2022).

Interview with Guelph Today, 'Expect the unexpected at World Cup Qatar: U of G sport historian' (November 2022).

Interview with the Bill Kelly Show, 900CHML, Hamilton, on the 2022 World Cup (November 2022).

Interview with the Sam Laprade Show, CityNews Ottawa on the 2022 World Cup (November 2022).

Interview with Mornings with Sue and Andy, Global News Calgary on the 2022 World Cup (November 2022).

Interview with CTV News on Canada Soccer and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (October 2022).

Interview with Sports Business Journal, for 'Empire on the rise', an article on Saudia Arabia and sportswashing (October 2022).

Interview with Jake Pemberton for an i24 News article, "Sportswashing: 'a dirty, rewarding game'" (July 2022).

Interview with CBC News: The World at Six, on Russian athletes and the war in Ukraine (March 2022).

Podcast on East Germany at the 1974 World Cup, Soccernostalgia (2022).

Interview with Conor Heffernan on the Bill Shankly retirement letters, Sport in History podcast (2021).

Interview with Keith Rathbone on Contested Fields, New Books in Sport (2021).

Podcast on "The Death of Lutz Eigendorf", GIANT (2021).

Podcast on Contested Fields, Outside Write: Football Travel, History and Culture (2020).

"Uncontested Fields? Global Football and the Coronavirus" - University of Toronto Press Blog (April 2020).

Podcast on The People's Game, Outside Write: Football Travel, History and Culture (2019).

Interview with Angie Seth for CTV News feature, "Was the fall of the Berlin Wall an accident?" (November 2019).

Interview for an article on football in East Germany 30 years after German reunification: "Queda do Muro de Berlim expôs fraqueza do leste alemão no futebol," Folha de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (November 2019).

Podcast on East German football, Radio GDR (2019).

Canadian Sport Film Festival, Toronto, June 2017: post-screening Q&A with host James Sharman of Sportsnet’s Soccer Central, following the North American premiere of the documentary film Hillsborough (Daniel Gordon, 2016). 

Interview for an article in the Danish football magazine Tipsbladet on RB Leipzig, 26 August 2016, pp. 16-19.

Podcast on The People's Game, New Books in Eastern European Studies, 24 March 2016.

Sport in the Cold War podcast, Wilson Center Digital Archive (June 2015): The Stasi's Football Team (Episode 3).

Interview for Toronto Star article entitled “German hockey star recalls missing shot at Edmonton Oilers glory”, 9 November 2014.

"Whose Game Is It Anyway? The Global Culture of Football" - blog post for fifteeneightyfour: Academic Perspectives from Cambridge University Press, 1 July 2014.

Interview for At Guelph article entitled "Soccer Fans Have History of Kicking Against Authority", 20 June 2014.

Interview for the CFRU radio program From the Second Storey on The People’s Game and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, 16 June 2014.

Featured researcher on the College of Arts website, September 2013 ("Keep calm and play soccer").

Interview for an article on East German football in a special issue of Tipsbladet on ‘Tysk Fodbold’ (German football), 18 January 2013, pp. 13-17.

Television appearance to discuss youth culture in divided Germany in Episode 3 of the CBC’s Cold War series Love, Hate & Propaganda ("Cracks in the Wall", first aired on 1 December 2011).

YouTube video for germanstudies.ca, reflecting on the state of East German football twenty years after reunification (October 2010).

 

Funding

 

Social Sciences and Humanties Research Council of Canada, Standard Research Grant, 2009-2012