Joe Louis

Starred review from September 1, 2010

A sympathetic, moving life of the Brown Bomber by veteran cultural historian and biographer Roberts (History/Purdue Univ.; The Rock, the Curse, and the Hub: A Random History of Boston Sports, 2005, etc.).

As the author tells it, the story of Joseph Louis Barrow (1914–1981) is humbling, inspiring, depressing and deeply emotional. Born into a laboring family in rural Alabama, Louis, the seventh of eight children, showed no particular aptitude for much of anything. When his father's mental illness consumed him, Louis's mother remarried, and Joe eventually discovered the boxing world, where he began using Louis for a surname and discovered—after some shocks, disappointments and hard knocks—that he had the ability to be something special. And he was. As Roberts shows, America was a vilely racist society, both in the Jim Crow South and in the North. Louis, groomed by his handlers to be the laconic antithesis to the flamboyant Jack Johnson, still had the burden of an Atlas on his shoulders—the burden of the American black world, whose population grew to revere him and anoint him their avatar, their warrior who defeated, one after another, the representatives of oppressive white America. As war with Germany loomed, Louis came to represent America itself in his second fight (he'd lost the first) with the German Max Schmeling, who cavorted with Nazis and hung with Hitler. Roberts handles the boxing action with professional aplomb, and he knows when to cut away to tell us something of consequence and when to return to the ring. The author ably chronicles Louis's rise from Alabama cotton fields to the cavernous Yankee Stadium, where celebrities glittered in the ringside seats for his big fights; the development of the mass media (boxing was enormously popular on radio); Louis's career in the U.S. Army; and his sad decline, amid unpayable debts and mental illness.

All legendary athletes should hope for treatment by such capable, compassionate hands.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from September 15, 2010

When talk turns to who was the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time, four names usually come up: Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, and Muhammad Ali. Roberts (history, Purdue Univ.) has published biographies of Johnson and Dempsey and now focuses his attention on Louis. Soon after turning professional Joseph Louis Barrow, a product of rural Alabama poverty, became an icon for fellow African Americans. His 1938 defeat of Max Schmeling, Hitler's poster boy for Aryan supremacy, and his bounty of good works for "the cause" during World War II turned Louis into an idol. The fact that he was the antithesis of Jack Johnson in demeanor, soft spoken and seemingly free of festering racial wounds, helped, as did his boxing prowess, which resulted in 25 successful defenses of his title. VERDICT Well researched and well written, Roberts's study will appeal both to boxing fans and scholars of American social and cultural history. Like its subject, this book is a champion.--Jim Burns, Jacksonville P.L., FL

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.