Fanati­cus: Mis­chief and Mad­ness in the Mod­ern Sports Fan guides the read­er on an unfor­get­table jour­ney into the least exam­ined, least appre­ci­at­ed and — occa­sion­al­ly — least defen­si­ble facet of our sports – obsessed cul­ture: the fans. Jus­tine Gubar chron­i­cles out­ra­geous and shock­ing inci­dents, rely­ing on many chill­ing first – hand accounts. Gubar reach­es back into ancient times, craft­ing a his­to­ry of bad fan­dom before delv­ing into con­tem­po­rary events of mis­be­hav­ior and hatred in the Unit­ed States and the world. She revis­its noto­ri­ous riots, tragedies, and instances of racism and anti – semi­tism through­out the Unit­ed States, Europe, Asia, and Latin Amer­i­ca to under­stand may­hem on a glob­al scale. In addi­tion, Gubar con­sults with top thinkers to under­stand the roots of orga­nized thug­gery and dig­i­tal hate speech, inves­ti­gat­ing the sports leagues and the secu­ri­ty and bev­er­age indus­tries to dis­pel com­mon myths that are often invoked to under­stand the mad­ness. Fea­tur­ing inter­views with foot­ball hooli­gans, pro­fes­sion­al ath­letes, riot­ing col­lege stu­dents, and law enforce­ment, Fanati­cus pro­vides a rare win­dow into what dri­ves human behavior.