Customer Reviews

Manly Art

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The most scholarly treatise of the early prize ring in America that has ever been written. Elliott Gorn picks up where Pierce Egan and Nat Fleischer left off as the premier chronicler of boxing's illustrious past. This book covers every facet of bare-knuckle prizefighting during the days when men such as "Yankee" Sullivan, John Morrissey, and John L. Sullivan ruled the ring. From "The First American Champions" and "The Meanings of Prizefighting" to "Triumph and Decline" and "The End of the Bare-Knuckle Era": this great work describes what boxing was really like when men fought to a finish and many fights were winner take all.

This book not only reports on facts (like
dates, fighters, places, etc.), but also on the
whole milieu of bare-knuckled prize fighting.
It helps to explain what would drive men to
participate in a pastime that was both brutal and outlawed.

A great read for history buffs as well as boxing fans.
I highly recommend it

This is an excellent, well researched piece that historians will enjoy. Lots of detail, all well placed in the context of the times.

Title says it all... The Manly Art reads like a brutal trip through time, extraordinarily well researched and written. I can't speak highly enough of this exquisite work which enthusiastically drew me up to scratch from first page to last. History as it should be written, in that I'll never look at a boxing match the same way again. A true pleasure, and a well deserved 5 stars.

This is book is a masterpiece, one of the best books ever written on American sports.

....a Berkley grad ('73) would write one of the definitive works on the manly art?

Not me.

Imagine the cognitive dissonance I experienced when I saw a book about bare knuckle boxing written by Left Wing (no not a South Paw), Nation writtin commie! Thinking it perhaps some KGB/NKVD/MI6 inspired political operation to undermine traditional male activity/role models, my thoughts, driven by my finely honed subconscious mind, spontaneously organized themselves in defense of the male imperative (as manifested in the agon/agony of boxing), oh yeah, The Red was headin' for a beatdown!

Imagine my chagrin then as I perused the book; solid history (marred only infrequently by a left wing ideology) and sound analysis abounds! Gorn's work sits on the the shelf with Mee's masterwork (Bare Fists: The History of Bare Knuckle Prize Fighting as one of the definitive works on bare knuckle boxing. Great book, I wouldn't have believed someone who went to school on the West Coast could of done this! Great book!

This book was ok but after reading Bare Fists by Bob Mee this was a bit of a letdown. I highly recommend Mr. Mee's book on the bare knuckle era both for writing style and content. If you liked this book then pick up a copy of "Bare Fists".