Bøker av Randy Roberts

The authors of the bestselling JOHN WAYNE: AMERICAN offer a groundbreaking retelling of the most legendary battle in American history, and a rich exploration of a great American myth.

When Jack Johnson defeated white heavyweight champion Jim Jeffries in 1910, it was America's notions of racial superiority that staggered under his blows. Amid riots and lynchings, the search began for the Great White Hope who could put the "uppity" new champion in his place. Here is the startling true story of the most famous--and most hated--black American of his day. "Papa Jack" takes us into a violent and sordid world. It is an astonishing tale of black defiance--and white retribution--set against the dramatic canvas of sports and spectacle in Jim Crow America.

A ';humbling, inspiring... deeply emotional' biography of the boxing legend who held the heavyweight world championship for more than eleven years (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). Known as the Brown Bomber, Joe Louis defended his heavyweight title an astonishing twenty-five times. Through the 1930s, he got more column inches of newspaper coverage than President Roosevelt. At a time when the boxing ring was the only venue where black and white could meet on equal terms, Louis embodied Black America's hope for dignity and equality. And in 1938, his politically charged defeat of German boxer Max Schmeling made Louis a national hero on the world stage. Through meticulous research and first-hand interviews, acclaimed biographer Randy Roberts presents a complete portrait of Louis and his outsized impact on sport and country. Digging beneath the simplistic narratives of heroism and victimization, Roberts reveals an athlete who carefully managed his public image, and whose relationships with both the black and white communitiesincluding his relationships with mobsterswere deeply complex. ';Roberts is a fine match with his subject. He supports with powerful evidence his contention that Louis's impact was enormous and profound.' The Boston Globe

Heavyweight Champion of the World from 1919 to 1926, Jack Dempsey began his boxing career as a skinny boy of sixteen, riding the rails and participating in hastily staged saloon bouts against miners and lumberjacks. This biography charts the life and career of a man widely regarded as one of the toughest ever to enter the ring.

John Wayne remains a constant in American popular culture. Middle America grew up with him in late 1920s and 1930s, went to war with him in 1940s, matured with him in 1950s, and kept the faith with him in the 1960s and 1970s... This is a biography that reveals the changing scene in Hollywood and America from Great Depression through Vietnam War.