GREAT TIME COMING: The Life Of Jackie Robinson From Baseball to Birmingham [Hardcover]

David Falkner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 1995

The author of The Last Yankee chronicles the life of Jackie Robinson, revealing previously unexamined efforts that make him more than a symbolic hero of the Civil Rights movement and showing the real person behind the saintly image. 30,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Far more than a sports book, this is an in-depth portrait of an individual of admirable simplicity and forthrightness, as well as a great athlete. Born in Georgia but raised in Southern California, Robinson was a gifted athlete in many sports in high school and junior college and while at UCLA. It was his intensity and fury, born partly from discrimination, that made him a fighter. Those same qualities got him in trouble as a lieutenant in the segregated U.S. Army during WWII, but brought him success at last when he broke the color line in major league baseball. His spectacular career on the diamond is well known, but Falkner (The Last Yankee) goes beyond his subject's sporting career to detail what happened to Robinson from the time he left the Dodgers in 1957 until his death in 1972. He relates how Robinson devoted himself to the goal of integration with equal rights for all, while around him swirled struggles by the NAACP, the Black Panthers and the Republican and Democratic parties to ally themselves with Robinson, the legend and the symbol, and while diabetes wracked his body. A comprehensive account. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Falkner (The Last Yankee, S. & S., 1992) has crafted an excellent biography of one of the most historically important sports figures of modern times. Although Great Time Coming doesn't supersede Jules Tygiel's classic Baseball's Great Experiment (1983), it is a solid offering and one of this season's best. For most collections.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First edition (February 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671793365
• ISBN-13: 978-0671793364
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,339,275 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good biography, warts and all, January 9, 2001

By 

Howard Wexler (White Plains, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Great Time Coming: The Life Of Jackie Robinson From Baseball to Birmingham (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book greatly and learned a lot about this complex man.

Growing up in Brooklyn, I heard many stories about Jackie Robinson. All of them praised his courage and admired what he went through. But nobody ever thought of him as a saint, he was a complex character with many rough edges.

Most of what has been written about him has deified him incorrectly. The author makes it very clear early in the book that he wanted to show Robinson as "warts and all". And he succeeds, Robinson comes across as a complex human being.

Two things to note regarding the research done on this book. The author refers often to other biographies, especially when they disagree on various points. He then gives his account of the given point, a very good procedure.

The author also notes that he was not given any access to the "official" Jackie Robinson archives and that Jackie's widow and her minions refused to cooperate in any way shape or form with this book as well as trying to discourage others. All I can say about that is how petty those actions are.

I especially liked the depth in which the author discussed Robinson's post-baseball life, especially in the political arena. Robinson supported several prominent Republican politicians, such as Rockefeller and Nixon and took a lot of heat for his views. The author did a wonderful job in this area.

Great job by the author is separating man and myth.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Robinson Fans, This Is A Must!, June 18, 2000

By 

Frank Murphy - See all my reviews

This review is from: GREAT TIME COMING: The Life Of Jackie Robinson From Baseball to Birmingham (Hardcover)

I'm a big Jackie Robinson fan and this book taught me things I never understood or knew! Great reading. Great insights into the life of a true pioneer! BUY IT!