Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World »

With an eye for bringing the mysteries of history to light and a knack for reportage that won him a Pulitzer for his work for The Washington Post, David Maraniss pens compelling works of nonfiction that give readers insights into larger-than-life figures, from Bill Clinton to Vince Lombardi, while illuminating major events in American history.

"There was a deep meaning to those late-summer days at the dawn of the sixties. Change was apparent everywhere. The world as we know it was coming into view." Rome saw the first doping scandal, the first commercially televised Summer Games, the first athlete paid for wearing a certain brand of shoes. There was increasing pressure to provide equal rights for blacks and women as they emerged from generations of discrimination.

The Barnes & Noble Review

Steroids, apartheid, racial strife in the United States, massive amounts of Cold War propaganda, a dead bicyclist, the rise of female athletes, creepy spies, China's distaste for Taiwan/Formosa, the powerful growth of television -- the 1960 Rome Olympics had it all.

1 All the Way to Moscow 1

2 All Roads to Rome 24

3 No Monarch Ever Held Sway 52

4 May the Best Man Win 70

5 Out of the Shadows 91

6 Heat 110

7 Quicker Than the Eye 125

8 Upside Down 148

9 Track & Field News 161

10 Black Thursday 176

Interlude: Descending with Gratitude 200

11 The Wind at Her Back 205

12 Liberation 228

13 The Russians Are Coming 248

14 The Greatest 261

15 The Last Laps 285

16 New Worlds 308

17 The Soft Life 324

18 "Successful Completion of the Job" 347

19 A Thousand Sentinels 367

20 "The World Is Stirring" 380

Appendix 425

Acknowledgments 432

Bibliography 436

Sources 438

Notes 440

Index 461