This week David and Helen talk with the historian David Kynaston about his diary of the 2016-17 season in football and in politics, when a lot happened both to the world and to his beloved Aldershot FC. It's a conversation about loyalty, identity and belonging, and about what sorts of change we can tolerate and what we can't. Plus Helen reflects on her life as a West Ham fan.

Talking Points:

For David Kynaston, football is about identity.

• We all have our personal myths.
• Continuity of space, even colours, is also important.

Football in Britain has derived a lot of meaning from the relationship between club and place.

• The continuity between location and fan base broke at some point in the 1990s, maybe earlier. 
• And then there are questions of ownership, management.

For David Kynaston, football is rooted in place; politics is not.

• Small and medium sized towns feel ‘left behind’; these places have also been left behind in the football sense. 
• But anger about the inequalities or the premier league doesn’t have a lot of political purchase. 

What is the relationship between the planning period of the 50s and 60s and Brexit voters?

• People who lived through that maybe had reasons to distrust people telling them what was best.
• There was also a coarsening of popular culture, led by Murdoch and the Sun.

Mentioned in this Episode:

• David Kynaston’s new book, Shots in the Dark
• Anthony Powell, A Dance to the Music of Time
• Colin Shindler’s books on Manchester United and Manchester City
• Our post-Trump episode 
• David Goodhart on somewheres and anywheres
• Liverpool’s vote and Sun readership
• The Financial Times editorial on Trump and Portland

Further Learning:

• Helen on West Ham
• Helen on coronavirus and the Premier League

And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: lrb.co.uk/talking