| Abstract: | Futebol, Brazil's national sport-best-known to American audiences through the brilliant play o f Pelé one of its superstars-is more than simple mass entertainment. Robert Levine traces the evolution of the trends in the history of Brazilian soccer to explain what may be behind the current unprecedented dissatisfaction with the sport. Beginning with the 189Os, he illustrates how futebol is a barometer by which national pride, exuberance, frustration, rage, and hope may be measured. He shows that as the game changed from an activity restricted to the upperclass to a popular form of entertainment with a mass audience, it became a means used by the government in the 1930s and 1940s to foster national integration. More recently, it has been used by an unpopular military regime to bolster its popularity. In the second part of his study, Levine focuses on Pelé who reintroduced an appreciation of individualistic skills to the game and loaned his mass popularity to the military regime. In short, the author makes a convincing case on how the sport of futebol has been used as a political weapon. |
