The tenth and last child of an Alabama sharecropper, Jesse Owens grew up to win an unprecedented four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics. Far from a simple rags-to-riches fable, Owens's story embodies the complex hopes, ideals, and convictions of a celebrated black athlete caught up in an era of turbulent social change. 16-page photo insert.
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
In 1936, Jesse Owens became the man who showed up Hitler and his ideas of racial superiority at the 1936 "Nazi Olympics" in Berlin. Back home in the US, he faced all the frustrations of a talented black man whose name alone was enough to make money -- for other people. This is a powerful biography of an athlete who never lost his dignity.
From Publishers Weekly
The 10th and last child of an Alabama sharecropper, James Cleveland Owens was taken to Ohio as a child. There, while still in junior high school, he encountered a white coach who recognized his phenomenal talent and loved him like a son, a relationship that figured significantly in the athlete's racial attitudes throughout his life, according to Baker, a historian at the University of Maine. After successes in high school and college, Owens scored his greatest triumph at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, winning four gold medals. For some years after that he tried to parlay his fame into money, an attempt made onerous by the difficulty of marketing running skills and the prevailing racial feelings of the '30s and '40s. Eventually, however, he became an Illinois state official and a respected spokesman for Republicanism. As his fame persisted, notes Baker, he began to make money through endorsements, dying in comfortable circumstances. History Book Club alternate.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Myth Debunking story of an American hero,
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This review is from: Jesse Owens: An American Life (Paperback)
OK, so Adolf Hitler did not snub Jesse Owens according to this book. There are more stories about him that have become myth but are not really true. Therefore this book is worth reading.It chronicles his entire life from Alabama to Chicago and Arizona where he died in March 1980. Important figures in his life, important events etc. And of course his great feats at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin are mentioned. After this, his athletic career goes downhill and he enters in too many jobs, some good, some really bad. It is kinda sad to read bout all off them. He was a conservative man and did not want to know of the Civil Rights movement in the 60's and 70's which made him clash with the newer black athletes. On a darker side: his sexual escapades and troubles with the IRS are also mentioned. To me however this book seems far, it gives a balanced view of his life and is also very good to read. His friendship with a German athlete alone is a very nice but sad story, since his friend dies in 1944. This story seems to me more to the truth than all the myths we hear about him, read it!
2 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It was okay.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Jesse Owens: An American Life (Paperback)
I think all books are good but can be better. This one I think is better but could be worse.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
TODAY LITTLE OAKVILLE, ALABAMA, is far removed from the mainstream of American life. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
athletic fame, dual meet, youth commission, black athletes, white athletes, fastest human, afternoon finals, victory stand, black press, amateur competition, boycott movement, low hurdles Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Jesse Owens, Ohio State, United States, New York, Larry Snyder, Los Angeles, Ralph Metcalfe, Henry Owens, Chicago Defender, Olympic Village, Charles Riley, Joe Louis, Berlin Olympics, Big Ten, Ann Arbor, World War, Eulace Peacock, Avery Brundage, East Tech, Eddie Tolan, Emma Owens, Mexico City, Queen Mary, University of Michigan, American Olympic Committee New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
TODAY LITTLE OAKVILLE, ALABAMA, is far removed from the mainstream of American life. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
athletic fame, dual meet, youth commission, black athletes, white athletes, fastest human, afternoon finals, victory stand, black press, amateur competition, boycott movement, low hurdles Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Jesse Owens, Ohio State, United States, New York, Larry Snyder, Los Angeles, Ralph Metcalfe, Henry Owens, Chicago Defender, Olympic Village, Charles Riley, Joe Louis, Berlin Olympics, Big Ten, Ann Arbor, World War, Eulace Peacock, Avery Brundage, East Tech, Eddie Tolan, Emma Owens, Mexico City, Queen Mary, University of Michigan, American Olympic Committee New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
27
books
cite this book:
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- The Nazi Olympics: Sport, Politics, and Appeasement in the 1930s by Arnd Kruger on page 69, page 112, and Back Matter
- Jesse Owens (Sports Heroes & Legends) by Thomas Streissguth in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Hidden Heroism: Black Soldiers In America's Wars by Robert Edgerton in Back Matter
- Dreamers, Discoverers & Dynamos: How to Help the Child Who Is Bright, Bored and Having Problems in School (Formerly Titled 'The Edison Trait') by Lucy Jo Palladino in Back Matter
- The African-American Male: An Annotated Bibliography by Jacob U. Gordon on page 100
See all 27 books citing this book
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