Learn more about CCRLS
Reading recommendations from Novelist
Cover image for King of the world : Muhammad Ali and the rise of an American hero
Format:
Book (regular print)
Title:
King of the world : Muhammad Ali and the rise of an American hero
ISBN:
9780375500657

9780375702297
Edition:
1st ed.
Publication Information:
New York : Random House, ©1998.
Physical Description:
xvii, 326 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Contents:
Underground man -- Two minutes, six seconds -- Mr. Fury and Mr. Gray -- Stripped -- The bicycle thief -- Twentieth-century exuberance -- Secrets -- Hype -- The cross and the crescent -- Bear hunting -- "Eat your words!" -- The changeling -- "Save me, Joe Louis ..." -- Gunfire -- The anchor punch -- What's in a name? -- Epilogue: Old men by the fire.
Summary:
"There were mythic sports figures before him - Jack Johnson, Babe Ruth, Joe Louis, Joe DiMaggio - but when Cassius Clay burst onto the sports scene from his native Louisville in the 1950s, he broke the mold. He changed the world of sports and went on to change the world itself. As Muhammad Ali, he would become the most recognized face on the planet. This unforgettable story of his rise and self-creation, told by a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, places Ali in a heritage of great American originals. Cassius Clay grew up in the Jim Crow South and came of athletic age when boxers were at the mercy of the mob. From the start, Clay rebelled against everything and everyone who would keep him and his people down. He refused the old stereotypes and refused the glad hand of the mob. And, to the confusion and fury of white sportswriters, who were far more comfortable with the self-effacing Joe Louis, Clay came forward as a rebel, insistent on his political views, on his new religion, and, eventually, on a new name. His rebellion nearly cost him the chance to fight for the heavyweight championship of the world. King of the World features some of the pivotal figures of the 1960s - Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad, John F. Kennedy - and its pivotal events: the civil rights movement, political assassinations, the war in Vietnam."--Jacket.
Program Information:
Accelerated Reader Grades 9-12 7.6 18 Quiz 25925 English non-fiction.

Accelerated Reader AR UG 7.6 18.0 25925.
Geographic Term:
Holds: