Joe Louis: Hard Times Man »

Randy Roberts is distinguished professor of history at Purdue University. His previous books include biographies of the boxers Jack Dempsey and Jack Johnson (both nominated for Pulitzer Prizes); a history of American sports since 1945; and books on Charles Lindbergh, John Wayne, and the Vietnam War. He lives in Lafayette, Indiana.

Joe Louis defended his heavyweight boxing title an astonishing twenty-five times and reigned as world champion for more than eleven years. He got more column inches of newspaper coverage in the 1930s than FDR did. His racially and politically charged defeat of Max Schmeling in 1938 made Louis a national hero. But as important as his record is what he meant to African-Americans: at a time when the boxing ring was the only venue where black and white could meet on equal terms, Louis embodied all their hopes for dignity and equality.

Through meticulous research and first-hand interviews, acclaimed historian and biographer Randy Roberts presents Louis, and his impact on sport and country, in a way never before accomplished. Roberts reveals an athlete who carefully managed his public image, and whose relationships with both the black and white communities—including his relationships with mobsters—were far more complex than the simplistic accounts of heroism and victimization that have dominated previous biographies.

Richly researched and utterly captivating, this extraordinary biography presents the full range of Joe Louis’s power in and out of the boxing ring.

Library Journal

When talk turns to who was the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time, four names usually come up: Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, and Muhammad Ali. Roberts (history, Purdue Univ.) has published biographies of Johnson and Dempsey and now focuses his attention on Louis. Soon after turning professional Joseph Louis Barrow, a product of rural Alabama poverty, became an icon for fellow African Americans. His 1938 defeat of Max Schmeling, Hitler's poster boy for Aryan supremacy, and his bounty of good works for "the cause" during World War II turned Louis into an idol. The fact that he was the antithesis of Jack Johnson in demeanor, soft spoken and seemingly free of festering racial wounds, helped, as did his boxing prowess, which resulted in 25 successful defenses of his title. VERDICT Well researched and well written, Roberts's study will appeal both to boxing fans and scholars of American social and cultural history. Like its subject, this book is a champion.—Jim Burns, Jacksonville P.L., FL