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Reviews (5)

a real pinnacle in Sports writing
Ostensibly this book is about a tennis match, Arthur Ashe versus Clark Graebner in the 1968 US Open Semifinals. The match was historic in itself:

"It has been thirteen years since an American won the men's-singles final at Forest Hills, and this match will determine whether Ashe or Graebner is to have a chance to be the first American since Tony Trabert to win it all. Ashe and Graebner are still amateurs, and it was imagined that in this tournament, playing against professionals, they wouldn't have much of a chance. But they are here, close to the finish, playing each other. For Graebner to look across a net and see Ashe--and the reverse--is not in itself unusual. They were both born in 1943, they have known each other since they were thirteen, and they have played tournaments and exhibitions and have practiced together in so many countries and seasons that details blur."

But McPhee is actually after bigger game than this one match. He also provides insightful portraits of the two very different contestants. Ashe, the only championship level Black tennis player of his time, is single, liberal, mercurial, a finesse player and a risk taker. Graebner is married with kids, conservative, religious, a power player and risk averse. McPhee demonstrates how their personalities influence, indeed shape, their play and how their lifelong rivalry lifts their games to higher levels when they play one another, ultimately lifting Ashe's game towards perfection by the end of this contest.

Ashe would go on to win the tournament, becoming the only amateur to win it in the Open era and together Ashe and Graebner lead the US to it's first Davis Cup in years. After that though, while Ashe went on to a respectable career, Graebner slipped into obscurity. But in this book, McPhee has preserved a moment in time when the two were evenly matched on the court, despite being polar opposites off of the court and in charting the lives that brought them to that moment, he provides a penetrating glance at two fascinating men.

This is a real pinnacle in Sports writing.

GRADE: A

A Level All Its Own
To say John McPhee has written the best tennis book ever is to say too little. This is far more than a tennis book and, if you're looking for instruction, far less. The platform, if you'll excuse the tennis pun, is a U.S. Open final between Clark Graebner and Arthur Ashe, but it is a study of two men and what brought them to this point, athletically but especially sociologically. The reflective Southerner forced to be a pioneer because he is black. The more rigid son of the Midwest and privilege, with greater power and less versatility. The vagaries that make them human: Graebner, the more up-tight, gambling with a prepared point successfully at a crucial spot in the match. And at the end, there is Ashe, triumphantly whistling a winner off his suspect backhand to close out the match. You want to cheer. And you understand more about people than when you opened the book.

About the people
This was my first John McPhee book, selected because of its subject matter (I'm an ex-serious tennis player). John McPhee was recommended to me as a writer/essayist who can take any subject and write about it intelligently and interestingly. After finishing this book, I would agree with that characterization, but clarify that the subject in this particular book is not professional tennis or even the game of tennis but rather two people and how they have managed their lives. That they play tennis is the point around which the book comes together, but it is not the point on which the book stands. If you're looking for insight into the game of junior/professional tennis, try David Foster Wallace's great essay about Michael Joyce in _A Supposedly Fun Thing..._. If you're looking for insight into two particularly interesting people--Arthur Ashe is one of them, but his compatriot and opponent, whose name, of course, I have forgotten, is worth equal time--in a particularly interesting time period and situation, check this book out.

Lovely, graceful book
This book is so gracefully written that it isn't till the end that one realizes that McPhee's writing style(s) has been imitating the players' tennis styles, and that his language has moved effortlessly intune with the 'Levels of the Game'. Inlight of Arthur ashe's death, the book acheives a new poignancy.

Very Average!
I think its a very interesting book for those interested in the history of tennis. Not much relevance now. Interesting stuff about Arthur Ashe. Probably one of the least popular books written by McPhee though. ... Read more

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Reviews (2)

Heartwarming and Intellectually Engaging
Jaspers and Arendt cover everything and everyone: Sartre, Heidegger, Marx, Goethe, Camus; post-WWII Germany, "the infinitely complex red-tape existence of stateless persons," the Cold War, the "senile" Eisenhower administration, Eichmann, totalitarianism, the atom bomb, local democracy--it's all there. So too is a life-long, extremely close friendship between people who weathered a war from different sides of the globe, who faced cold war terror in radically different ways, who loved their spouses intensely but felt somehow separated by differences in world-view tracable to ethnicity(Gertrude was ethnically Jewish and Heinrich was ethnically Christian). Her admiration of him, her intellectual debt to him, her love for him; his seeming amazement at her vivacity, his admiration of her intellect, his cold, German form of love--and the walls cracking, and his sentiment sometimes pouring through.

It's a warm book up until the very last entry, Arendt's address at Jaspers' funeral. That's enough to send a shiver up your spine--but only if you read it in the context of everything else.

More Than a Correspondence - A Dialogue
In 1926 Hannah Arendt was a student of Karl Jaspers at Heidelberg University. What began as the questions of a student to her teacher in 1926 blossomed into a friendly correspondence that ended with Arendt's forced emigration from Nazi Germany to the United States, with a stopover in France in the 30s, and then resumed in the Postwar years completely transformed into a rich, detailed dialogue between colleagues and friends, taking on a father-daughter feeling in many of the letters.

It was during the years after 1945 that the two examined everything about their world and themselves. Of particular importance were the dual issues of German guilt for the war and, for Jaspers, what it meant to be a Jew, for not only was Arendt and her husband Jewish, but also Jaspers's wife. This issue becomes intertwined in their conversations about the future of West Germany, the Suez War of 1956, and Arendt's trip to Jerusalem to cover the trial of Adolf Eichmann. When they shift the political into the personal, Martin Heidegger, a colleague of Jaspers and a teacher of Arendt, is there for taking. The passages concerning Heidegger are quite gossipy at times and lend the reader a voyeuristic look into the private worlds of Arendt and Jaspers. It's almost as if when things get dull and weighty, a little dirt about Heidegger adds just the spice to make the letter memorable.

The other strong point of this book is the portrait Arendt paints of politics in 1950s America, succinctly analyzing the Eisenhower (and later Kennedy) Administrations, describing the collapse of the cities in the 60s, and the "pointless" war in Vietnam. It's almost as if a mirror were held up to history, as insights about those turbelent times pour forth from every letter dispatched.

An invaluable book, not only for those interested in the scholarly events of the times, but for anyone interested in the history of the times. ... Read more

Book Description

There has never been any doubt that the Adams family was America's first family in our politics and memory.This research-based and insightful book is a multigenerational biography of that family from the founder father John through the mordant writer Brooks ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A complex subject, masterfully disected
I read this book in about one week. I found it very well written with logical conclusions and theories based on an extensive primary and secondary source material study, complex yet readable and extremely well researched. This is a book that anyone interested in American history and the complexities of the first 4 generations of the Adams family will appreciate. A masterful undertaking by the author...never boring and highly informative.

History Comes Alive
(...) An insightful and interesting study of four generations of complex and often contradictory personalities. I especially appreciated the author's manner of hinting at future developments and bating the reader to read on and on...in my case, well into the night. His analysis of the Adams' strengths and weaknesses is what sets this book apart so I am perplexed that anyone would describe it as dull and a mere listing of events. But don't take my word for it -- if you have only a few moments to browse through it, check the index for the passage dealing with the death of the tragic first generation daughter, Nabby. The writing is poignant and wrenching. Anything but routine.

Dull but Informative
This book suffers from a dull prose style and a mere listing of the agonies of the Adams family, without much insight. But if you want the facts about America's most distinguished dysfunctional family, here they are.

A Must-Read For Early Am. Hist Buffs!
Four generations of the John Adams family of Quincy are brilliantly covered in this detailed, yet concise, 400 page study. The lives and work of 2 presidents, 3 major diplomats, cabinet officials, and great scholars are outlined within the context of their remarkable history as an American family. This book touches upon the topics of Colonial America through the Revolution and Civil War on into the 20th Century. One can't help but be interested with such personalities as Adamses John, Abigail, John Quincy, Charles Frances, Henry, and Brooks. Their triumph as a family, depite problems financial and personal (alchoholism, depression, etc.), makes for inspirational reading. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Tolle Lege
In this book we are given a psychobiographical treatment of Augustine's life and work, with a particular emphasis on his early period. The book draws in a good deal of detail and theory about the society surrounding Augustine in the fourth century, and looks at some of the issues with the way moderns approach the investigation of Augustine the man and Augustine the later inventions.

In the first chapter, Dixon takes up the issue of how Augustine is to be viewed.

Even if one disagrees with him, rejects his ideas, or positively excoriates him, one has to admit that he described human life powerfully and inspired many readers with the hope for the participation of humans in the love of God.'

Dixon points out that, going beyond the field of religion and history, Augustine's influence extends to other fields in ways subtle and gross. Citing influences through William James and Erik Erikson, she points out that, 'the influence of Augustine might be lurking in the thought of any scholar of psychology.'

She uses the image of a water buffalo listening to a symphony, an old Javanese image, to ask what, in fact, do we hear when we listen? Not all hearings are equal.

'I will use the metaphor of the symphony, and its contrast to the tuneless water buffalo, as a reminder of the challenge to bring together hermeneutics, historical studies, literary considerations, and social sciences in the effort to understand how Augustine's Christianity helped him discover and compose, from elements of culture and experience, a meaningful view of his crowded and disparate life.'

Dixon looks at society, culture and the person of Augustine as the broad categories of examination. Drawing on the tools of sociology, psychological anthropology and cultural psychology, Augustine is laid bare from the inside out. But this is not meant to be a methodological straightjacket, either.

The categories society, culture and person were always intended as tools of analysis, not definitions of fixed truths.

The primary lens through which this book treats Augustine is through the pivotal work 'Confessions.' A work unique for its time and the first of its kind, the 'Confessions' of Augustine represent in varying degrees the first modern autobiography, the first psychological examination of an individual, and a cutting-edge literary work that helped define both an end to the classical period and the beginnings of medieval thought strands.

The second chapter examines the ideas of person and world, which are in late antiquity quite different from modern ideas. The one and the many are vastly different; the idea of individual liberties and freedoms, the idea of personal ambition and social mobility are foreign concepts for the most part. Only the loftiest of persons could entertain ambitions, and rare indeed was the lower/working class individual who achieved or even aspired to much more. Dixon explores the various modern psychological explanations of how individuals achieve identity, comparing this with the data found in the 'Confessions.' She also draws in some theory of symbolic meaning a la Ricouer to explore hidden and intended meanings throughout his text and society.

The remaining primary chapters deal with Augustine's life period by period, exploring the ideas of culture, society and person in Augustine's childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. These were the formative years for Augustine, and while Augustine's life and product certainly continued to mature throughout his years, he had a remarkable consistency of reflection and consideration of his early influences, many of which he continually held before himself, perhaps out of guilt, perhaps out of a sense of regret, perhaps even as a reminder of what he needed to guard against in his future. The information contained in these chapters is indeed interesting, rather unique in approach among Augustinian scholarship. While bits and pieces are certainly used elsewhere, and are adequately documented and referenced, the collection as a whole is worthwhile.

Perhaps my highest praise goes to the final chapter, 'Reflections on Hearing Music in Life.' Dixon does a good job at tying the strands together and presenting, once again drawing on the metaphor of the water buffalo and the symphony, what scholars and other interested readers should be listening for in the works of Augustine, and those who write about him.

'One of the most challenging questions about Augustine, given my interpretation of his life and thought, asks whether he remained bound by his childhood experiences and his infantile unconscious dynamics, or whether he moved on to a mature adult redirection of them, perhaps even a transcendence of them.'

Dixon finally asks why we need to set up the dichotomy of child versus adulthood that early psychological theory puts forward. Do any of us escape our early influences? Is this even desirable? Quoting Peter Brown's authoritative biographical work on Augustine, that the Confessions are 'the self-portrait of a convalescent', Dixon agrees that there is some element of self-healing going on here, and that in this process, Augustine shows us a very real element of the human condition.

'Having been taught by Augustine, we could do a great deal more for each other'. We could act on love for our neighbours, offer care for their bodies and instruction for their minds, and discover joy in their apprehensions of music in their lives. W could apply our conscious efforts to hearing the music of our own lives, even if we never perceive its unconscious sources. We might even discover in these efforts an approach to God in the company and service of our neighbours'human, animal, inanimate, and those already hallowed beyond this earthly life.'

The book contains a worthwhile bibliography of primary and secondary sources (13 pages of such), extensive endnotes (42 pages for a 220-page text), and a good index. It is produced by the Chalice Press, the publishing arm of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), who are the denomination that founded my seminary. The author, Sandra Lee Dixon, is associate professor of religious studies at the University of Denver.

Take and read. ... Read more

Book Description

Here is the life story of two exceptional people, two Germans who fled their country for different reasons. It is the story of their life in exile in Paris and in New York, their dependence on each other and deepening love, their continued exchange of ideas, Arendt's teaching and writing, her involvement with Jewish life in Europe and in Israel, and Blucher's years at The New School and at Bard College. It is also an important document of the '30s in Germany and France, of World War II, and the post-war life in ravaged European cities. Meanwhile, there is love of food and drink, and of friendship-both intellectual and affectionate-with Karl Jaspers, Mary McCarthy, Alfred Kazin, and the complex relationship with Martin Heidegger and his wife. Within Four Walls is an extraordinary personal and historical record.
... Read more

Reviews (1)

Intimacy at Its Highest Level
Hannah Arendt has had much of her correspondence published over the last decade or so. We have volumes of her correspodence with Karl Jaspers, Mary McCarthy, Kurt Blumenfeld, and Martin Heidegger, among others. But these letters between Arendt and husband Heinrich Blucher stand out as the finest volume yet published. Whereas in the other volumes we see Arendt as student, friend, confidant, teacher, philosopher, intellectual, in these letters with Blucher we see Arendt as intimate confidant, vulnerable lover, and supportive wife. Heinrich Blucher was the one person to whom she could reveal herself, with whom she dropped her guard. The confidence was mutual as well; in Blucher's letters to Hannah we see his hopes, frustrations, trepidations, and above all, his devoted attachment to her hopes, needs and ambitions. Two people for whom the other was much more than a spouse or lover: someone in whom to take refuge in dark times.

The letters begin in 1936, shortly after Arendt and Blucher met in Paris, to which both escaped from Berlin in 1933: she after a short prison term for illegal Zionist activity, and he as a member of the German Communist Party, fleeing via Prague. At the time they met she was 29 and he 37. Both were married, but not to each other. They would not marry until 1940, shortly after their divorces became final.

Their first letters set the tone. Interspersed with intellectual and political affairs are their feelings for each other and their doubts and a lasting commitment can be achieved. IT grows from there, in all aspects, intellectual and emotional. When Arendt reproaches Blucher for not sticking to their letter-writing schedule, she tells him that she cannot continue to careen like a car wheel that has come off, "without a single connection to home or anything I can rely on."

They also discuss mutual friends such as Karl Jaspers, Mary McCarthy, Alfred Kazin, and Martin Heidegger (whose relationship over the years with Arendt can only be described as ambivilent), holding nothing back and giving the reader a rare glimpse into their intellectual and social world, a glimpse one can only imagine in a formal biography of the two. As no one writes letters anymore, this is a most valuable look into an intellectual time and world as distant from our cyber-present as last century's history.

Worth your time and money? Yes - in every sense of the word. ... Read more

Book Description

One of the greatest of the early Christian thinkers, Augustine (354-430) left a body of writing and philosophy that still influences Christians today. Reared by a godly mother, Augustine turned his back on her teachings during this years of schooling. Contemporary philosophies, however, could not help him during a time of spiritual crisis, and Augustine returned to his roots, embracing Christianity. Augustine's writings, including the autobiographical Confessions, and his monumental theology The City of God, are still read and studied more than fifteen hundred years after his death. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Enlightning, moving and full of wisdom
Besides all the information that is provided on events on the life of the Holly Virgin Mary that are not usually made known to catholics by the Church, this book is filled with so much knowledge and sagesse that is is imperative to sincerely ask God for the enlightment of the Holly Spirit to really understand the enormous message that pours from this great book. I beg the future readers of this book, to be humble and ask for such enlightment so as not to miss this opportunity to really find the desire to be closer to God and follow the example that the Holly Virgin Mary gives us through the written message of Sor María de Jesus de Agreda on how to live a life for God. ... Read more

Book Description

Is there a more characteristic figure of the sixties than Muhammad Ali-playful and political, popular and non-conformist, defiant and triumphant? In a unique new book, Mike Marqusee puts the great boxer back in his true historical context to explore a crucial moment at the cross-roads of popular culture and mass resistance. He traces Ali's interaction with the evolving black liberation and anti-war movements, including his brief but fascinating liaison with Malcolm X, as well as his encounters with Martin Luther King. Marquesee's elegant and forceful narrative explores the origins and impact of Ali's dramatic public stands on race and the draft, and reinterprets the 'Rumble in the Jungle', shedding new light on its triumph and tragedy. Above all, he imbues Ali's story with a long-neglected international dimension, revealing why he was embraced with such warmth by diverse peoples across the globe. This timely antidote to the apolitical celebration of Ali as 'a great American' revisits the man and the period with a fresh eye, casting new light on both his courage and his confusions. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Blackxploitation redux
This is nothing less than the story of an African American man's struggle to define himself within the context of the 60's US black power movement exploited by a white Englishman. Mike Marqusee brings nothing new to the story of Muhamed Ali other than stilted prose and an uncritical eye. It fails as a book about boxing and is equally weak with respect to Ali's struggle with the white establishment of his day. Marqusee's attempt to embrace Ali's story serves only to water down the true struggle of an entire generation against the evils of institutional racism.

Better than the Movie
I'm not a boxing fan, but after seeing the recent "Ali" movie, I was inspired to take Mike Marqusee's "Redemption Song" off my bookshelf and read it. I got the book because I heard Marqusee last year in a radio interview about Ali and the Black Power movement of the sixties and I was very interested in the culture and politics that both shaped Ali and was influenced by him.

I found "Redemption Song" a powerful and well written book that gives so much more depth than the new movie. The depth of Marqusee's research and analysis made me realize that the Ali movie would have needed to be a trilogy in order to do justice the champ's life. Ali's defiance of racist draft policies could have been an entire movie in and of itself. While "Ali" movie focuses on Ali's defiance, Marqusee's book provides the context for Ali's anti-war stance. His description and analysis makes the movie's focus a mere footnote to this part of Ali's history. When Ali argued, "Man, I ain't got not quarrel with them Vietcong," he was taking a religious and political stance on a personal, cultural/racial, and class level. He was not only echoing the developing anti-war movement, but giving voice to it, even though he never sought to be a leader within the movement. He was in sync with civil rights activists like John Lewis who complained, "I don't see how President Johnson can send troops to Vietnam...to the Congo...to Africa and can't send troops to Selma, Alabama," [where the civil rights of Black people were systemically and violently denied civil rights on a daily basis.] He was in line with Martin L. King who boldly declared and preached that the war "morally and politically unjust." His refusal to participate in the bombing of thousands of innocent children and women in Vietnam and Cambodia was a part of many anti-war demonstrations in which Stokely Carmicheal described Selective Services as "white people sending black people to make war on yellow people in order to defend land they stole from red people."

Marqusee reminds us most in his book that boxing in this country was linked to issues of race and power representation. Thus, Black boxers and other sports figures like Jackie Robinson were measured, promoted, and criticized by how patriotic they were to the White power structure in this country. They were expected to be like Joe Louis who stood "as a role model--for white America, for the black middle class and for much of the left--by enlisting for military service in World War II," or an anti-communist like Robinson. But Ali becomes a bug in the system. Guided by Black nationalist ideology of the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X specifically, Ali rewrote the script for how Black sports figures were to behave. He proclaimed, "I'm free to be what I want." But as Marqusee points and shows, "he did not invent himself out nothing. In his search for personal freedom he was propelled and guided by a wide array of interacting social forces." This search and influence is the heart of Marqussee's book.

I would imagine there's much that Marqusee leaves out his book. And at times he seems too apologetic about Ali's break with Malcolm X, his relationship with the conservative tide of the Nation of Islam, and the inherent contradictions between his religious convictions and his views about marriage. Marqusee could have also provided specific references for his research. His bibliography is simply not enough.

Despite these criticism, "Redemption Song" is a much needed work to offset efforts to depoliticize Ali's past. Read it before or after you see the movie.

Viewing racial politics through Ali's journey
This book isn't so much about Ali as about Black radical politics of the 60's and 70's and the way Ali's public life reflected them. An excellent, thoughtful book that reads more like a monograph than a work of popular non-fiction (cf. David Remnick's "King of the World", a more accessible book with a different focus and scope). If you are interested in the Nation of Islam, the Black Panthers, the Black Power movement and the ways boxing historically has reflected the racial realities of its time, you will find this book engrossing and informative. If you are looking for a conventional "boxing book" (whatever that is), you will be disappointed.

ALI:HIS OWN MAN
Mike Marqusee does a Wonderful Job Here.Muhammad ALI is a One of a Kind MAN.EVerything about Him was Freedom.HE Took The WORLD By It's Ears&Ran With it.He was as Scary as Jack Johnson.Got Peoples attention the Same way The Brown Bomber did JOE LOUIS.but He Took The Past&Was Creating a Better Future.Here was A NEGRO MAN Who Was Not Gonna be treated as A 2nd Class Citzen.He Demanded&Got the same RESPECT IN&OUT OF THE RING.HE IS A TRUE HERO.

ALI THE MAN VS ALI THE MYTH
It is an enthralling historical look at Muhammad Ali. It's not the usual biographical fare but a hearty feast of Ali in relationship to This book reveals much about racism in boxing and in general society. Ali's refusal to fight was not what scared the establishment but his being his own man and his choice of spiritual beliefs. Even if you're not a boxing fan this is a book you must read. If you read nothing else make sure it's Redemption Song. It is a true commentary on race relations in the US. Before Ali, no boxer since Jack Johnson had so terrified society. Johnson had been considered a brute and it was his perceived animalistic nature that scared people. Ali, on the other hand was more refined and this created and even greater fear. His smoothness, so-called glibness and the ability to promote himself so well was terrifying. Here was a man who rather than being the humble servant of the boxing world declared, "I am the greatest." This declaration of independence scared the hell out of white america. Here was a man who was not going to conform to the mold layed out for Black athletes. Redemption Song shows not only boxing's hypocrisy but all of America's. Ali defined himself rather than allow others to do so. He was his own person and because he didn't fit into society's idea of a Black American athlete -being grateful for crumbs- he scared many. Not since Joe Louis had one "negro" fighter had been on the minds of white america. Whereas, Louis permitted society to give him the burden to carry his race upon his shoulders, Ali had it thrust upon him. Louis wouldn't even eat watermelon, something he really loved, in public because of stereotyping. Joe Louis emergence in the thirties had his handlers so concerned that he "...was given lessons in table manners and elocution...told to go for the knockout rather than risk the whims of racist judges;...never to smile when he beat a white man and, above all, never to be caught alone with a white woman." Ali like Johnson before him decided to define himself. His brashness made the establishment feel he was uncontrollable. For him it was just a "way of breaking out of the racist stranglehold." Now the venerated symbol of dignity and personal determination, Ali was not viewed that way in the past. When he announced he'd joined the Nation of Islam America turned on him black and white. He became, in that instant, the most hated man in the United States. It seems because he espoused the idea of racial separation (which white america wanted) he became more dangerous. Although this is a book about Ali and boxing, it is much more. It is a story of representation (sports as a metaphor for war). It is a history of racism in the United States. Why must one man (if non-white) be responsible for the fate of his people. Examples of this type of representation abound in this book (Joe Lous, Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali). Redemption Song paints a picture of how thirty years can make such a difference in one man's life and the life of the country. Over the years athletes in general and black athletes in particular have been used as representations. Either they must represent their race or the nation. Never are they allowed to be human beings with all the feelings, emotions, faults and good they have. It is a look at how not only does white america like to stereotype people but how black america at times buys into this notion. Ali defied society and paid dearly for it. Years of income were lost because he wouldn't renounce Islam. Whether one agrees or disagrees with someone's beliefs is not the issue but should one be deprived of a means to make a living because of what they believe. The opening paragraph explains it all. "A strange fate befell Muhammad Ali.... The man who had defied the establishment was taken into its bosom." Suddenly a man who not too many years before had been reviled now found himself as an icon. Redemption Song is a truly stirring and thought provoking look at man's constant attempt to rewrite history. Reading it makes one stop and think of the distrastrous results of racial prejudice. Marqusee looks at many historical acts and shows the pattern of hatred the United States has heaped on people of color. He makes you realize the My Lai massacre is very much like Wounded Knee. Although this book emphasizes the racist nature of Americn society, it also looks at how individuals in specific groups are used against each other. Were black sports figures and leaders against Ali because they really disagreed with his choice to join the Nation of Islam or because they thought it would get them in good with white america? I don't know and of course one may never know but it is something to think about. A notable quote regarding Ali comes from basketball great Bill Russell. "Philosophically, Ali was a free man. "...he was free at a time when historically it was very difficult to be free..." Redemption Song will make you think. That's the highest tribute one can give any author. To Mike Marqusee I say thank you. To all who want a great historical read I say pick up Redemption Song and give your mind a workout. ... Read more

Book Description

John Adams didn't enjoy traveling. He much preferred to stay home with his wife and children. But John Adams also had a dream: He wanted to see the thirteen colonies free from English rule. He wanted to see the creation of a new country -- the United States of America. John Adams did whatever was needed to make his dream come true. ... Read more

Book Description

Dear Reader:

The Childhood of Famous Americans series, seventy years old in 2002, chronicles the early years of famous American men and women in an accessible manner. Each book is faithful in spirit to the values and experiences that influenced the person?s development. History is fleshed out with fictionalized details, and conversations have been added to make the stories come alive to today?s reader, but every reasonable effort has been made to make the stories consistent with the events, ethics, and character of their subjects.

These books reaffirm the importance of our American heritage. We hope you learn to love the heroes and heroines who helped shape this great country. And by doing so, we hope you also develop a lasting love for the nation that gave them the opportunity to make their dreams come true. It will do the same for you.

Happy Reading!

The Editors ... Read more

Book Description

Muhammad Ali has a unique place in global history. One of the most extraordinary athletes of all times, Ali is also, as he always was, an inadvertent but powerful figure in world affairs. From the first announcement of his membership in the Nation of Islam, through his courageous refusal to fight in Vietnam, to his spiritual calm in the face of crippling disease, Muhammad Ali’s steady values have inspired others the world over to rethink their racial, political, and spiritual attitudes.

Ali’s life over the years has put irony in a different light. When Muhammad Ali stood against those who criticized him for converting to the Nation of Islam, he told the world "I don’t have to be what you want me to be." What first appeared as simple defiance was revealed over the years as rock solid conviction – a conviction that allowed him to be and do what he believed in, while also embracing the world in his loving and laughing way.

Charles Lemert writes with grace, perspective, and affection. Muhammad Ali is the first book to unravel the reasons for the enduring respect and reverence that Muhammad Ali commands long after the end of his athletic career.

This text will appeal to those teaching and studying cultural studies, social theory, sports studies, and sociology, as well as to general readers interested in Muhammad Ali. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (5)

untold stories of those who fought "the greatest"
A great book, adding a perspective on Ali from the least reported angle - namely 15 of his opponents. Most lost, a few knocked Ali down, a few defeated him. All have won or lost the corresponding internal battle they had to fight.

the fighters range from well-known and immensely talented boxers (foreman, frazier) to some of the least capable and likely contenders for the title in the history of the sport. All are fascinating, not merely for their perspecitves on Ali, but also for the value of their own stories as minor players in the most turbulent and glorious period in boxing history.

Now if these 15 fights were only available on a dvd.....

Facing Ali
Have you ever wondered what happened to the many boxing opponents of Mohamed Ali?
Perhaps you would like to know the other side of the story, what did they think about their matches with Ali or what did they think about one of the greatest boxers of all time?

Whatever happened to George Chuvalo, Henry Cooper, Brian London, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Larry Holmes and many more who had the opportunity to demonstrate their pugilistic skills before millions of spectators?

As Stephen Brunt, author of Facing Ali, states in the opening remarks of his book, Facing Ali, "in boxing, in everything else, only one side of the story tends to be told."
Brunt writes a meaty book recounting his interviews with 15 boxers who had the good or bad luck, depending on how you would view it, in meeting up with Ali in the ring.
Other authors may have cluttered these interviews with the relentless analysis of their bouts; however, Brunt avoids falling into this trap and concentrates on exposing the human side of these pugilists.

The revelations are resonating even to the extent that when we put away the book they still linger on in our memories.
How can you not sympathize with Joe Frazier who fought 47 rounds with Ali? After all, he was constantly been used as a verbal punching bag for Ali, subjected to insults and taunts, such as being called stupid, ignorant, and the worst insult of all, gorilla.
As the book mentions, "with Frazier, it was different-different because Ali, no doubt sensing vulnerability, went straight for the heart, different because Frazier was unequipped to fight back, at least outside the ring."
Today Frazier's bitterness is evident when asked whether he knew where Ali was, whether he knows how he was, he replies, "I don't think nothin' about him, I know one thing. He thinks about me. He thinks about me everyday when he gets out of bed."
This latter comment, as Brunt points, out is in reference to Ali's infirmity, to his Parkinson's syndrome, and the part Frazier's left hook might have played in causing it.

One of the reoccurring themes that keeps on popping up throughout the reading of the book is that no matter what accomplishments many of these boxers achieved throughout their career, we only seem to remember their Ali encounters. Such is the example of Jurgen Blin, who won the European boxing title, however was badly defeated by Ali.

No doubt, Ali's insatiable fans will be snapping up Facing Ali, however, they may come away with a different picture of their hero.

This review first appeared in the reviewer's own site
www.bookreviews.com

The stories are very immersive
The book includes fifteen stories of boxers who fought Ali. The stories focus, as much, on the biographies of the challenger, as the effect Ali had on them. Ali wanted the fans to hate him, it increase crowd size, it was business because fans hoped the challenging prize figher would knock out Ali. Ali was a Olympian. Ali was a Muslim. Ali was a business man. Ali was an American.

In some cases the boxers experienced instanteous fame and money by fight Ali. They spent their money like there was no tommorow and when the money ran out, reality hit home. Fame, fortune, and glamour combined with prestige were the illustions of power surround this type of business. Ali's footwork, hand speed, grace and power cutup and demolished many fighters. Boxers never saw a big man move like Ali. He defensively dared them to strike him as he press against the ropes and dodge their deadly blows. Not one fighter would say they gain nothing from fighting Ali. He raised the standard of fighting and established an icon in the business. My favorite fight was the Ali - Frazier fight. Frazier was a bulldog with a mean left hook. Frazier press forward the whole fight taking incredible punishment. Ali was the sliding and gliding with the rapid fire jab. Occassionally, I'd watch that fight and think the fans definitely got their moneys worth with that fight.

Facing Ali - Very Good, but just shy of Great
Facing Ali - I can't think of a more exciting, fearful, awe inspiring and incredible position to be in - Facing Muhammad Ali - The other fighter in the ring - usually the first one introduced with "...in this corner..."

I love the idea of this book - the concept of understanding Ali or what it must have been like to face him in the ring. This part of the concept fell a tad short - not exactly what I wanted or expected.

I loved the way the chapters are divided and selected - you get to hear the story of 15 fighters that got to square off in the ring with Muhammad Ali.

As a Muhammad Ali fan and after reading so many books about him, I missed him - I missed Ali - He's in the book, but through the eyes of his opponents - these are their stories about their lives, careers (both before and after Ali) and of course their experience with the Great One and how he affected their lives.

It's a great look and unique perspective at what and who was in the other corner - 15 stories from 15 fighters

I was especially interested in Joe Fraziers comments - I understand why he hates Ali, but it just makes you sad to read it in print. I also really enjoyed the chapters of George Forman and Ken Norton, and - actually I really enjoyed the others too.

Simply put - it really is a cool book about some very interesting fighters and their moment(s) with Muhammad Ali - and after

A MUST have for Ali fans.

A must-read for any Ali fan.
For a casual boxing fan who's too young to remember Ali, this book might be a little obscure. But for boxing fans of my generation, who grew up on Ali, your boxing library won't be complete without it. Each of the 15 opponents featured here has an interesting story to tell, and the book provides a ton of material for serious boxing historians.

What is particularly interesting is how most of these men's lives were profoundly affected by their encounter(s) with Ali. Henry Cooper, for instance, a national hero in the U.K., will still always be best known for a single punch he threw in a fight he lost: the left hook that knocked Cassius Clay (as he then was) on his butt. A few of them regard Ali with love or reverence, a few with indifference, and one, in particular, with undying resentment. Overall, one gets a remarkable education on the human condition by comparing the stories of these 15 very different men. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Book Description

This book is the first to tell in detail the story of the passionate and secret love affair between two of the most prominent philosophers of the twentieth century, Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger.Drawing on their previously unknown correspondence, Elzbieta Ettinger describes a relationship that lasted for more than half a century, a relationship that sheds startling light on both individuals. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Identification with the aggressor
First let me sound completely old- fashioned. The Heidegger - Arendt affair is immoral from the beginning because it is an adulterous relationship.
Secondly, Herr Philosopher did use his power and position to enchant the very enchantable fledgling philosopheress.
Thirdly, however morally distasteful the relationship before the War its renewal afterwards represents a tremendous moral failing on Arendt's part.
Fourthly, Arendt showed in ' Eichmann in Jerusalem' a kind of contempt for her own Jewishness. Her willingness to slip over Heidegger's Nazi connection shows a moral failing at the deepest level. Heidegger is no ordinary person, and as person of stature much more , not much less, should have been expected with him. He identified with those who killed one third of Arendt's people.
Fifthly, Jaspers Arendt's other great mentor and friend was a truly noble person. He set an example in regard to Heidegger which Arendt unfortunately was unable to follow.
Sixthly, Arendt in this relationship from the beginning was the subordinate, the secondary, and in some way the ' slave'. The Jew subordinated to the superior Aryan Heidegger. She never overcame this, and this represents a tremendous moral stain. She was a great thinker and in some of her life actions a noble person but in this relationship she failed the moral test. Heidegger was a Nazi sympathizer. For that reason I believe he deserves his own special place in a very low circle underground.

Arendt / Heidgger
The story of Arendt and Heidigger's love affair is an interesting one, and this book is interesting because it tells that story, but for no other reason. The author seems to have chosen this subject becuase she had access to the material in the archive, and not because she had anything to say about the subject. It left me feeling that, aside from a a few gossipy details, I knew no more about either person than before. Not only do Arendt and Heidigger remain elusive, Ettinger does not even seem to want to go after them! Their relationship is primerily of interest becuase of what they thought and wrote: Ettinger presents the few enough facts about their relationship in a readable style, but has no grasp of the thought of either one.

I find it impossible to agree with reviewer quoted on the back of the jacket, that this is "a most valuble book, an important record". It isn't: it's an evening's light reading. I can imagine a biographer of either figure (or a playwright or novelist, for that matter), immersed and *interested* in their work, who will really show us why their relartionship was important. (And why was a book that must of necessity include German names and words set in a typeface without umlauts? Bizarre!)

a day in the lives of...
Just to be fair: The book is not exhaustive but nor is it "tabloid" as one reviewer put it. And it is certainly not "soft porn". There is nothing "lurid" in these pages. The writing is, as the more fair-minded reviewer suggested, restrained in a respectful way, to all parties concerned.
This brief account does not set out to describe the impact the affair had on the two individuals' respective work. For anyone to demand such an account seems to me totally unreasonable: That a private passion of the heart always impacts one's intellectual work is by no means a given.
What this book shows you, regardless of the subjective tinge the author may have imposed on the characters in question, is the mystery of the workings of the heart. Ettinger sketches a portrait of a woman in love but not just any woman, but a woman of exceptional intelligence, expansive soul, and loyalty -- to her own ideals of friendship. Cloying speculations concerning the psychological causes -- childhood traumas, etc -- that may have led these two individuals to live and love the way they did are left out and the book is the more elegant and tactful for it.
To call Arendt a naif for the way she allowed herself to be "abused over and over again" would be to admit to total lack of understanding of the very nature of love. Arendt shows over and over her desire, need, psychosis -- choose your favorite term -- to forgive a man who in many ways was unforgiveable. Love does that.
In this double portrait of two people who happened to be academic thinkers, some 50 years is rendered as if it were a day. Heidegger comes off here as a man not above the sort of pettiness and calculation you and I lapse into occasionally, while Arendt is portrayed, without forcing any evidence to this purpose, as the kind of woman who could leave behind a legacy of not only of thinking but also of loving in the grand style. Great and important as Heidegger may be in the history of western philosophy, he may, alas, very well have been one of those gnomish professors we've all come across in our lives: brilliant and thus all the more annoying when they put their intelligence and intellect in the service of self-serving calculation. This book, written in clear prose and balance, confirms the disturbing (and disappointing) fact character and thought are not always equally winged.
Forget the names of the characters involved. Read it as a document of a love that would have made a great B&W movie as well, with the late Ingrid Bergman as Arendt, and Mickey Rooney as Heidegger.

I couldn't possibly be right about this.
The German tradition in philosophy has been so notoriously wrong about the nature of women so often that it is only fair that I, who usually appears as nobody in the world of philosophy as often as I am wrongly genedered in any attempt to belong to the world of women, have to read this book occasionally to remind myself how unfair this whole question must be in any context.That philosophy, as a love of wisdom, might be compared to a love of women, as the kind of passion that Mozart might attempt to display in operatic splendor in "Don Giovanni" (I think this is the most reasonable opera that I have ever heard) faces grave danger in a book in which the man who has embraced most totally the greatness of philosophy (who but Heidegger might want this distinction?), is slammed for having an unreasonable love life.For all I know, this might have been the story of a philosopher who might as well have thought that all was fair in love and war, but it is really the story of the woman.The perfection in this book, for me, was the idea that Heidegger might have been offended when Arendt triumphantly returned to Germany as the author of a book on totalitarianism in which the style of the Nazi regime, which Heidegger supported in certain official capacities, was treated like communism under Stalin, the kind of enemy of freedom that modern people ought to be able to understand in a negative light much better than anything positive that I could say at this point.I doubt if I would have had much interest in Hannah Arendt, if not for this book.It made me wish that I could be that smart.

Respectful account of a tragic love affair
I must say, rarely do I find myself disagreeing as strongly with the consensus of other reviewers as I do in this case.Ettinger's book is a brief and restrained account of a characteristically German sentimental relationship which obviously had a strong long term impact on the thought of Hannah Arendt.The fact that Arendt, a fully assimilated German of Jewish origin, could enter so fully into a relationship of this nature,which is so typically a phenomenon of the Romantic German milieu, is both poignant and a profound rebuke to the obscene anti-Semitism from which she and so many millions suffered.

The Heidegger-Arendt love affair has much of the power ofthe great Abelard and Heloise love affair, with which it has strong affiinities.

Given the fact that the letters on which this book is based are intimate, and, in Arendt's case at least, were in many cases written by a young and still unformed intellect, Ettinger seems to have exercised great restraint and avoided scoring cheap points by being unsympathetic towards the excesses of the letter writers.

Ettinger does not flinch from contrasting Arendt's tormented and difficult-to-defend collaboration in Heidegger's post-War rehabilitation with Jaspers's principled and unyielding refusal to re-establish his relationship with Heidegger unless Heidegger rejected the Nazi Party and its crimes--which he never did, in private or public.

This is not a profound study--it is a refreshingly light 139 pages or so.But it accomplishes what it sets out to do:provide a preliminary account of a startling and anguished love affair which has an almost symbolic quality to it.

The only reason it doesn't get five stars is because of the extremely limited quotations from the letters themselves, which was probably a condition imposed on Ettinger by the Hannah Arendt Literary Trust. ... Read more

Book Description

The "Evolution of the Nation of Islam: The story of Elijah Muhammad" tells an American success story. Its' about a family who migrated to Detroit, Michigan from their Southern roots of Cordel County, Georgia in 1923. The family sought to escape southern racism only to weather the brutal and impoverished conditions of the Great Depression. With only a fourth grade education and the tutelage of his Arabian born mentor, a 19 year old, 40 cents-a-day wage earning Georgia plow boy, Elijah Poole became known to America and the world as The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam.

-It has been 27 years since the author's Grandfather, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad's passing (2-25-1975). The book also seeks to provide some insight on the Nation of Islam's broad-based value shift and the bastardizing of it's original message.

-This book is told in the words of a grandson, born and raised in America as a third generation Muslim. Jesus Muhammad-Ali afforded what may be termed a dual citizenship level of privilege in the Arab World--given the respect as a family member who pioneered religious tolerance for Islam in America.

-Published in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, THE EVOLUTION OF THE NATION OF ISLAM seeks to share the insights born out of my many visits to the Middle East. It offers a historical perspective which can only strengthen the bound of our common East-West alliance. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A compelling and informative biography
The Evolution Of The Nation Of Islam: The Story Of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is a compelling and informative biography written by the grandson of the famous, charismatic, founder and leader of the Nation of Islam, the well-known African-American religious movement. Presenting an up-close and very personal view by the family of Elijah Muhammad's strengths and foibles, The Evolution Of The Nation Of Islam offers a vivid and memorable picture of this controversial and influential twentieth century African-American religious figure.

Islam is a religion of love not the one of hate
How can someone profess to be the torch bearer of the believe system which he himself oppose in letter and spirit. We all know that Elijah Muhammad was not advocating to crush the root cause of disease but that of sympton. Islam is a religion of peace it does deamonise a person because of his colour. Rather it is the other way round. Western civilization does have all the signs of decay but the root cause is not the inherent evil nature of its people rather their acts which have made them follow the wrong path. Allah Himself have said repeated in Quran that those who repent will be blessed with his mercy. To understand true Islam one should read Quran the actual and true source of all the knowledge. A book which showed the right path to people like Malcolm X!

First-Hand Knowledge
I read Mr. Muhammad-Ali's book with fascination and illumination. The book provides many insights into the thought and personality of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. What Muhammad-Ali offers as a grandson is the kind of first-hand experience that no amount of scholarly investigation could otherwise provide. Judging by the plates in the book, it appears that Muhammad-Ali is an accomplished artist. This is required reading for anyone who is interested in the Nation of Islam.

Michael Lieb, author of CHILDREN OF EZEKIEL

very simple and smart read
I've been looking forward to this book project for sometime.The author put a lot of historical information about how the United States were allies with Saudi Arabia since the 1930s, and how Elijah Muhammad wanted blacks to work hard, and depend on themselves.This book is very inspiring.It's sad that there are factions of Muslims who are not living in positive ways these days, but for the most part we find very smart,peace-loving and God-respecting neighbors.

I recommend this book for the historical info and that it's presented in an easy read. ... Read more