Product Description

The extraordinary biography of two of the world's greatest athletes - Jesse Owens and Joe Louis. Jesse Owens and Joe Louis have been hailed as American icons for the last sixty-five years, yet they were unfailingly human in everything they achieved and endured: as vulnerable as they were courageous; as troubled as they were brilliant; as restless in themselves as they are now rooted in history. IN BLACK AND WHITE will tell, for the first time, the story of the shared political legacy, extraordinary personal links and enduring friendship between 4-times Olympic gold medallist Jesse Owens, and Heavyweight World Boxing Champion Joe Louis, black athletes born in an America demeaned by racism and poverty. Award-winning sports journalist Donald McRae explores these two most revered of sportsmen whose finest achievements cannot be diminished by their later tragedies; their little-known stretches of debt, despair, drug-addiction and mental illness as they struggled to find a life beyond the track and the ring. It is a deeply personal story of two of the greatest athletes the world has ever known.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #397681 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 432 pages

Independent, November 8, 2002
'An atmospheric triumph of a book'

Guardian
'A book noteworthy both for its compassion and for its vivid recreations of some of the most dramatic sporting encounters of modern times'

Scotland on Sunday
'A compelling read with a message that resonates far beyond the sporting arena'

Customer Reviews

Untold and extraordinary
This must be one of the best sports books ever never mind 2002. McRae's book wonderfully evokes the times and places in the lives of two great sportsmen. In places, as in the aftermath of Louis's last fight or in the final demise of the great men, it is unbearably moving. At other times, for example during Owens's world record-breaking streak in one afternoon during a college meet, it is thrilling, page-turning stuff. Other highlights include the recreation of Louis's key fights and the background detail of the appalling racism at the heart of American life. Louis and Owens come across as real, heroic figures with fiercely strong and weak human traits. Despite the fact that they were modest men achieving extraordinary feats in their fields, they also posted small victories in their society at large not least in the way American institutions regarded, valued and treated their non-white citizens. A must read.

In Black &White The Untold Story of jesse owens & Joe Louis
McRae has written another Masterpiece.
For sports lovers & historians alike this is a must read.
McRae's research is second to none & his writing is informative, fluid & compassionate - he offers real insight into the lives of both superstars as well as a telling narrative on America's struggle with racism since the 1920's. The spirit of the Olympics is personified in Jesse Owens, the power-hungry values of Olympic administration are personified by Avery Brundage while
the rotten core of Boxing administration is exposed throughout the book. One cannot fail to be moved by this book especially by both the dignity, achievements & human failings of both sporting icons.

Reservations Overcome
At the outset McRae's telling of the story by snap-shots seemed to me irritatingly tabloid, as did the quantity of invented dialogue and somewhat sentimentalised psychology. It's difficult to remember when these reservations disappeared, but they were overcome by the narrative pace, the impressive research of primary and secondary sources and the sophisticated selection of material. The result is a book which tells much of the story of the lives of Joe Louis and Jesse Owens without being a biography of either and focuses crucially on their relationships with the white establishment represented, at its worst, by such figures as the appalling Avery Brundage whose career as Olympic supremo continued untroubled by his part in driving Jesse Owens out of sporting competition.