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Joe Louis: Black Champion in White America
Chris Mead

Joe Louis, Chris Mead

£9.99

Paperback, 352pp, 14 illus
Dover Press, 2010

A dynamic combination of sports and social history, this narrative traces the champion’s rise from abject poverty in the segregated South to his gradual acceptance and eventual adulation by the American public of the 1930s and 1940s. Dramatic accounts of his triumphs in the ring include his finest hour: the 1938 defeat of Max Schmeling, Hitler’s champion, which made Louis the living symbol of American freedom and human rights.

Biography

“A stunning piece of work that transcends the genre of sports biography.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Boxing aficionados will be fascinated . . . a valuable addition to American social history.” — Washington Post Book World

“This outstanding book not only chronicles the career of a great boxer, but charts the rise of sports as a legitimate form of American recreation and the public’s changing perception of the Afro-American athlete. . . . Thorough and compelling.” — San Francisco Chronicle

ISBN 9780486471822

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