Alan McDougall, "Dreams and Songs to Sing: A People's History of Liverpool FC from Shankly to Klopp" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

About this episode

Alan McDougall discusses his book on the history of Liverpool FC, exploring its rise, crises, and the role of fandom.

Today we are joined by Alan McDougall, Professor of History at the University of Guelph, and the author of Dreams and Songs To Sing: A People’s History of Liverpool F.C. From Shankly to Klopp (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025). In our conversation, we discussed the rise of Liverpool as a global football club, the crises that beset the club during the Heysel and Hillsborough disasters, and the necessity of inherent optimism of fandom in contemporary sports. In Dreams and Songs to Sing, McDougall writes the history of Liverpool FC from Shankly to Klopp in a register that will appeal to both popular and scholarly readers. McDougall is a lifelong Liverpool supporter, and he is careful to point out where his connections to the club and its fandom might shade his examination, but he also shows how those same affective connections allow him to a unique entry point into issues only visible to fans and that supports can be even more critical than a detached observer. This is especially true in his investigation of Heysel and Hillsborough. The book proceeds roughly chronologically. The book’s early chapters examine the club’s connection to Liverpool’s working-class district 4…

People in this episode

Guest: Alan McDougall

Topics covered

• Liverpool FC
• football history
• fandom
• working-class culture
• oral history
• sports crises

Keywords

• Liverpool FC
• Alan McDougall
• Shankly
• Klopp
• Heysel
• Hillsborough
• fandom
• football history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Guelph

Books & works: Dreams and Songs to Sing: A People's History of Liverpool FC from Shankly to Klopp

Places: Liverpool, Anfield

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