Customer Reviews

Jackie Robinson: A Biography

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In his excellent biography of Brooklyn Dodgers infielder Jackie Robinson, author Arnold Rampersad has painted with a crisp and lively narrative an objective, balanced , and candid portrait of a legend. Here is seen the complex, driven man that was Jackie Robinson, "warts" and all. He was the proud and fiercely determined African American athlete, extraordinarily gifted in at least four sports; a sometimes overly sensitive man who despised racism always fought against it, even in the pre-Civil Rights era of the 1930s and 1940s, and even at the risk of conviction by military court-martial. He used an unconquerable will and ambition to became a football, baseball, basketball and track star at Pasadena Junior College; one of the greatest football running backs in UCLA history, and ultimately, under the guidance of legendary Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey, the first African American professional baseball player of the modern era. Rampersad traces Robinson's struggle against racism during his early Dodger years; it is a poignant and compelling story.

The book also shows the more human side of Robinson: a quiet and sensitive man, and a political activist whose fight for racial equality was consistent throughout his life; a wonderfully loving husband but sometimes distant father; and a businessman of tremendous integrity. At Rampersad's hands, Jackie Robinson is a genuinely heroic and admirable person. This is a book which allows the reader to really get to know its subject. It is one of the finest biographies I've read in many years. Highly recommended!

I wasn't a huge baseball fan when I started this book, but I'd heard of Jackie Robinson. I used to think I knew who he was. Well, you don't anything until you read this book! The comforting text inches over every exciting aspect of Jackie Robinson's life. It was written using information that Jackie Robinson's wife provided for the first time. The topics range from rising above racism to sharing personal family experiences. If you love baseball, this book is absolutely for you. However, if you're not really into sports (like me), then you'll still adore this true-life story that seems almost unreal.

This biography does an outstanding job of giving an overview of Robinson's life and times, from his early, awnry but talented years in Pasadena, through UCLA, then the military, and then the Brooklyn Dodgers and beyond. It paints a picture of a strong willed gentleman with enormous pride, dedicated to his family, and dedicated to the idea of racial integration and equality. The influences of his mother on his early, somewhat (understandably) confrontational character, that allowed him to ultimately be the individual who paired with Branch Rickey to integrate "America's Pastime" are clearly laid out.

Some reviewers have faulted the author for not being more interpretive of Robinson's politics - specifically, that he was a Nixon supporter in 1960 and a Rockefeller supporter in 1968 (while also being a strong supporter of Civil Rights, active in almost every civil rights organization) and Humphrey supporter as well. I think the book lays out all the facts for the reader to see for themselves. Robinson's coming of age - in an era when a Dixiecrat from a Jim Crow state (LBJ) led the passage of the Civil Rights Act - was a time of a shifting political landscape that didn't settle out until near his death (he also broke badly with Nixon later in Nixon's career). The Republican party's mantra of self-reliance, and Robinson's determination to succeed in business in the same way he did in sports, made his attraction to the party not a big leap; the alienation of this country's African American establishment from big business was not a pre-ordained fact in the time Robinson lived.

Finally, Robinson's own family struggles were also a reflection of the confusing and troubling times in which he lived.

Robinson died too young for us all. This is a great book and I would highly recommend it..

Arnold Rampersad's biography of Jackie Robinson was published in 1997, but the story is timeless and definitely worth reading today. The book explores Robinson's life, from his birth in Georgia in 1919 through his death in Connecticut in 1972. His years on the diamond are important, but are only a subset of the overall story.

Robinson, of course, is best known for breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier in 1947. But the author's analysis goes well beyond Robinson's achievements as an athlete. The chronological exploration of Robinson's life offers thorough commentary on his exploits in college in Southern California, his political and social involvement throughout the 1960's, and his relationships with his family, the media, business people, and other contemporaries throughout his life.

I heard the author speak earlier this year and he noted that Robinson's family was pleased with the first half of the book (Robinson's years as an athlete), but not so pleased with the second half (Robinson's years as a political activist and a businessman). This isn't surprising -- Rampersad is balanced in his analysis, providing both favorable and critical passages on Robinson's life.

I've read many biographies and baseball books over the years and I believe "Jackie Robinson: A Biography" is among the best in both categories.

The book "Jackie Robinson: A Biography," is an amazingly descriptive masterpiece of the life of Jackie Robinson. I gained interest in this book following a review that I read that promoted and gave a detailed summary of its contents. After reading this book I found that this review gave an accurate description and evaluation of the book.

Arnold Rampersad was able to successfully portray all aspects of Mr. Robinson's life, from the day he was born to the day of his death. He used association effectively to compare Jackie with other great Americans and to make him the face of the African American people. This book not only focused on the great baseball career he had with the Brooklyn Dodgers, but highlighted his early sports career while in school and the work he did for the community following his playing days.

Some reviewers felt that the author did not accurately show the reader the adversity that Jackie faced in his playing days, when in fact it was repeatedly acknowledged in nearly every game and road trip throughout the book. The author gives great detail to this struggle that affected both Jackie and his supporters.

I encourage anyone with an interest in baseball to read this book, along with anyone who wants to learn about what it takes for even a man as great as Jackie Robinson to make a positive impact on society.

Senior English Student 2010

i'm not particularly interested in baseball, but i am particularly interested in American history from the human perspective. i could have read a much more dry account of the turmoils that dominated American race relations throughout the middle of the 20th century, but instead i've read this fascinating account of those terrible, backward days from the perspective of a true pioneer, Mr. Jackie Robinson.

of course he is looked back on now as a symbol, a mythological figure. i always knew peripherally of Jackie as the same thing most people do: the first black man to play major league baseball, a step forward & up in the painful struggle of the times. but this book presents him as a human being, a fallible man who lived most of his life not on the baseball field, but in a relentless pursuit of his ideals and desire for a better life for himself and everyone around him.

the reviewer before me questions the biographer's lack of judgement of Robinson. i am curious as to why he feels Rampersad should insert his own analysis; the biography presents analyses of Robinson by many of Robinson's contemporaries, and then presents the recorded facts available to clarify incidents & statements. yes, this is an intensely personal biography, perhaps too personal in places. it is very much centered on Jackie's private correspondences. it is absolutely told from Robinson's persepctive, as best can be reconstructed from his widow Rachel & the papers he left behind, but it feels very honest, not at all like an airbrushed bit of hero-polishing. it is in places very blunt about Jackie's shortcomings as observed by his peers & contemporaries.

before i stretch this out any longer, i'll just say that this is the most engrossing biography i can ever recall having read. it's an account of a fascinating life in an amazingly recent time, in an America that seems so long ago but is still discouragingly recent. readers will learn not just about Jackie Robinson, but about two American eras as well.

Professor's Rampersad's biography of Jackie Robinson is a book that's needed now. It's incredibly informative about the man behind the legend. (I think Roger Angell's blurb sums it up: "[the] book arrives just in time to save the man from his own legend.") However, Rampersad doesn't focus much on Robinson's baseball life, and he seems to be holding back judgment on Robinson despite the opportunities to do so.

Before digging in the dirt, I want to say that this book is crisply written and chock full o' facts about Robinson's life. Rampersad obviously had the full support of Robinson's widow, Rachel, and her views are constantly felt throughout the book. It's almost told from her point of view, in fact, and thus feels like a intimate, loving homage to the man.

But there are some issues and character flaws in Robinson that Rampersad shows or hints at, but never fully explores. For example, we never truly felt the force of the hatred leveled against Robinson during his efforts to integrate baseball. There are a few quick references to name-calling, a couple of pitches thrown his way, but what made Robinson so bitter, what filled him with the hatred that so obviously ate at him later in his career? It's implied, rather than shown, as if it were too terrible even to discuss. On the whole, the chapters on Robinson's baseball career are woefully thin. It's clear that Rampersad is not much of a baseball fan - including a few factual errors about the sport's rules and game play - and it's a shame, because baseball is as much about its stories as it is about its action.

And then there's Robinson's role as Civil Rights' leader, which Rampersad describes, but withholds all judgment on. Why exactly did Robinson favor the Republican Party, even long after it was obvious that the GOP proved to be the party of segregation and white privilege? Also Rampersad only hints at the acrimony and in-fighting between Robinson and such organizations as the NAACP and SLCC.

Presented with the facts supplied by Rampersad, it seemed that Robinson was a vain, proud, and sensitive man, who was extremely susceptible to flattery, especially from powerful whites. It also seems that his success in baseball convinced him that he would be successful in other areas, especially politics. But it seemed that he was over his head in that area, always a tool of the professionals, Nixon and Rockerfeller.

Notice I say "seem" a lot! That's because Rampersad never states any of this outright, he only hints at it - enough to acknowledge these characteristics, but fails to explore them. Rampersad never digs into Robinson's psychology, never explains or contemplates motivation, cause, or effect of any of Robinson's endeavors. It's so easy on Robinson that I suspect Rampersad wrote this book for Robinson's widow - or maybe her approval of the book was necessary as part of some deal for use of her letters. Or perhaps Rampersad was too aware of Robinson's near-saint-like stature in our nation's culture to find any fault with the man. In any case, he definitely pulls all punches, and the book, though informative, feels incomplete.

Yes, Robinson was a hero. Yes, he was courageous. But he was also a man, full of frailties and inconsistencies, just like the rest of us. To withhold judgement does him as much diservice as it does us...

In my Ballantine trade paperback edition, 1998, the first twelve chapters and 309 pages of narration are an easily read, well-paced, and interesting account of a prominent American baseball player. This first section is pretty much a sports biography--and a good one--though it is especially interesting because it is the story of the troubles and achievements of the first black man to play in America's all-white national pastime. The book's last six chapters and 154 pages are an informative account of a retired baseball player who has become a cultural hero. As a celebrity he crusades for racial equality, gives many speeches, gets involved in political campaigns, raises a family, and contributes to the improvement of human civilization.

During my teens in the 1960s, I was a strong baseball fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Knowing a bit of my team's past, I knew that before 1958 they were the Brooklyn Dodgers. So I also knew a little of the Brooklyn Dodger standout Jackie Robinson. But as I read this biography, I came to understand that I actually knew VERY little of him. The book revealed gritty details that would have tarnished my boyhood image. He blundered. He commited his share of mistakes. He was wrong.

Nevertheless, despite his failure to keep physically fit, Jackie Robinson was an extraordinary human being, spiritually. And judging him relative to other human beings, I can't help wondering if he should be sanctified.

So here's to Saint Jack: Congratulations for successfully completely the mission that you always felt you had. Thank you for being a good leader for all Americans and for all human beings.

NOTE: At the end of Chapter 8, p 186 in my edition, Jack is said to have batted .296 in the 1947 World Series. Actually he batted .259. But neither this, nor any other minor mistakes detract significantly from the goodness of this fine piece of history.

I wonder why in all his baseball career no white ball player ever stayed with him in the colored hotels he was relegated to in protest against Jim Crow instead of ignoring his plight & staying in the sumptuous white only hotels. Hitting them in the pocketbook would have been a good start. Also why was so little mentioned about his mother who was a very corageous & remarkable woman. While it states he always loved her, Mallie is forgotten about while we are told how much he loved his mother in law.
I think Rahel is very exemplary but I question the amount of stress she placed on him by building a lavish over the top home in Conneticut that he could not afford instead of buying a nice ready made home among the many she was shown. Jack left these matters (as most family matters) to her & it sounded like the movie Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House in regard to the overwhelming costs that neither had any idea were going to be saddling them for years to come.
Also Rachel seemed to pick a strange time to embark on a heavy program of advanced study (commuting no less) at the same time Jack, in failing health, was involved in the civil rights struggle taking him all over the country & their eldest son was in serious trouble. She did not give him the total support on the home front but he never complained about her because his love for his family was so total.

I picked this audiobook up at a flea market for $4. While somewhat informative, it lacks historical context for much of the content. It is dense with what I consider irrelevant facts, like addresses and specific dates, but doesn't delve into such important general information as what was happening in the Civil Rights movement at key points in Mr. Robinson's life. (The book does occasionally delve into the historical context, but too seldom for my tastes.)

I can't help but compare this account to the Pullman Porter historical account, "Rising from the Rails," and this account fell short in nearly every aspect when it comes to painting a historical narrative. I suppose that is understandable, given that this is a biography rather than a historical account about an industry, but the larger importance of Mr. Robinson's elegant comportment in this amazingly delicate time in history, and his contribution to the Civil Rights movement as a result of his exemplary behavior (though he was not perfect by any means), seems to be lost in some of the minutiae of details presented.

I am a big fan of Levar Burton's, but his delivery of the material is a little more breathy and fawning than I was prepared for. He occasionally emphasizes names and places with the implication that these are important in the later parts of the book, only to never hear of them again.

Overall, an adequate factual historical account, but not a good comprehensive look at Mr. Robinson's historical impact on the Civil Rights movement and the role baseball played in its furtherance.