No Man Stands Alone: The True Story of Barney Ross [Hardcover]

Barney Ross (Author), Martin Abramson (Author), Everett Raymond Kinstler (Illustrator), Eddie Cantor (Foreword)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Lippincott; 1st edition (1957)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0006AV6NO
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #938,448 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible guts of a true champion, January 22, 2006

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: No Man Stands Alone: The True Story of Barney Ross (Hardcover)

Barney Ross is one of the heroes of my childhood. He is one of the fighters who held crowns in two divisions. He was a role model for me , and other Jewish kids not simply because he was a Jewish fighter(There were lots of Jewish fighters in those days) but because he had incredible guts and was a true champion.
I saw quite a few of his fights including the fight mentioned in the fine review written on this website in which Ross took a tremendous beating from Henry Armstrong and refused to go down.
His autobiography tells the story of his hard-times orphan childhood, and his coming to be a fighter. It also tells of how he volunteered for service in the Second World War and received a Silver Star for heroic action on Guadacanal. It was on Guadacanal where he was severely wounded, and received huge doses of morphine that he became addicted, an addiction which would have disastrous consequence in the rest of his life.
He tells his story with modesty and frankness. This is the story of a true American - Jewish hero, and one of the great boxers of his time.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Barney Ross (Almost)Stands Alone, October 12, 2005

By 

Brian Schiff "jaywilton" (Detroit Mi. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Man Stands Alone: The True Story of Barney Ross (Hardcover)

Of all the world's heroic figures,I've had the closest bond with
Barney Ross,who died of cancer at 58 in January,1967,the year of my Bar Mitzvah;in fact,he won the world's lightweight title on June 23,1933 by decision over Tony Canzoneri-34 years and a day before I read my Haftorah.I do not believe it is a coincidence that in 1933,the year Hitler came to power in Germany,
Ross won the world title;if The Torah had been written in the twentieth century,Ross would've had a starring role in it.Since it wasn't,we'll have to settle with 'No Man Stands Alone.'Aside from that,there was a horrible attempt at a movie about him called 'Monkey On My Back',starring Cameron Mitchell and sort of another attempt of a movie about him,which became 'Body and Soul' about a fictitious Ross,with John Garfield,who wouldn't play Ross because he didn't want to play a junkie;Ross sued and won in both cases.The fact is ,he became addicted to morphine after his experience at Guadalcanal in World War II,for which he probably should've won The Congressional Medal of Honor;he didn't have to be there-he enlisted in the Marines in his thirties after his boxing career,in which he was the first boxer
to hold titles in three weight divisions,retiring with a record of 72-4-3.He went into his last fight with Henry Armstrong on May 31,1938 with a not quite healed from one of his wars with Ceferino Garcia.He was 29,took an incredible beating,refused to go down-and rallied in the last round;when it was over,the crowd was silent.Armstrong later said
he was glad he didn't fight Ross in his prime.The former rabbi of my synagogue,Noah Gamze-then at The Loop Synagogue in Chicago,remembered Ross having to decline the honor of lifting The Torah because of broken hands.In fact,Ross,born Barnet Rasofsky was supposed to become a rabbi;this went out the window when he was 13 and his Orthodox father was murdered in his small grocery store
in Chicago.The family was split up-and for a time, Ross ran errands for Al Capone;Capone finally told him,"Here's a twenty.Buy your family something and go back to school or get a job...look I told you something.Now beat it before I get mad."Ross later tried to run guns to Israel in the 1948 war-19 years before The Six Day War,which ended days before my Bar Mitzvah;if anyone is looking to make an autobiographical movie-'No Man Stands Alone' is a unique and terrific choice.