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Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties
Shortlisted for the 1999 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award and voted one of twenty-five “Books to Remember 2000” by the New York Public Library
Is there a more characteristic figure of the sixties than Muhammad Ali—playful and political, popular and non-conformist, defiant and triumphant? In a unique new book, Mike Marqusee puts the great boxer back in his true historical context to explore a crucial moment at the cross-roads of popular culture and mass resistance. He traces Ali’s interaction with the evolving black liberation and anti-war movements, including his brief but fascinating liaison with Malcolm X, as well as his encounters with Martin Luther King. Marqusee’s elegant and forceful narrative explores the origins and impact of Ali’s dramatic public stands on race and the draft, and reinterprets the “Rumble in the Jungle,” shedding new light on its triumph and tragedy. Above all, he imbues Ali’s story with a long-neglected international dimension, revealing why he was embraced with such warmth by diverse peoples across the globe.
This timely antidote to the apolitical celebration of Ali as “a great American” revisits the man and the period with a fresh eye, casting new light on both his courage and his confusions. And, in a new afterword for this second edition, Marqusee reflects on Ali’s legacy in the era of the “war on terror.”
Is there a more characteristic figure of the sixties than Muhammad Ali—playful and political, popular and non-conformist, defiant and triumphant? In a unique new book, Mike Marqusee puts the great boxer back in his true historical context to explore a crucial moment at the cross-roads of popular culture and mass resistance. He traces Ali’s interaction with the evolving black liberation and anti-war movements, including his brief but fascinating liaison with Malcolm X, as well as his encounters with Martin Luther King. Marqusee’s elegant and forceful narrative explores the origins and impact of Ali’s dramatic public stands on race and the draft, and reinterprets the “Rumble in the Jungle,” shedding new light on its triumph and tragedy. Above all, he imbues Ali’s story with a long-neglected international dimension, revealing why he was embraced with such warmth by diverse peoples across the globe.
This timely antidote to the apolitical celebration of Ali as “a great American” revisits the man and the period with a fresh eye, casting new light on both his courage and his confusions. And, in a new afterword for this second edition, Marqusee reflects on Ali’s legacy in the era of the “war on terror.”
326 pages, Paperback
First published August 17, 1999
11 people are currently reading
298 people want to read
About the author
Mike Marqusee
21 books8 followersMike Marqusee was an American-born writer, journalist and political activist who has lived in Britain since 1971. He was the author of numerous books including If I Am Not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew, Wicked Messenger: Bob Dylan and the Sixties, Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties, Anyone but England: An Outsider Looks at English Cricket, a novel, Slow Turn, and a collection of poetry, Street Music. He was a regular correspondent for a range of publications including The Guardian, Red Pepper and The Hindu.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 11, 2020
You know a nonfiction book is good when it not only informs you but challenges you, and forces you to look at resources beyond the scope of the book. That's what this book did for me. I knew about the fact that Muhammad Ali refused to enlist in the war in Vietnam but I knew that information without any context and this book set the scene for that, and made it clear why it was a politically charged and a controversial decision at the time.
This book not only focuses on Ali's defiance to the war but it discusses his change of religion and name, his allegiance to the Nation of Islam, his falling out with Malcolm X and being a global icon by standing in solidarity with the people of Vietnam. While the civil rights movement was taking place in the United States, the process of decolonisation was taking place in Africa, and Muhammad Ali became of great significance during that time especially with his actions outside the ring. It discusses his treatment by the American press and politicians alike, and how attitudes changed towards him once he returned to the ring after a three year ban, and later, as he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
This book also offers a history of boxing as a sport, how it used black athletes to make money for their white counterparts, without expressing any political inclination of their own. There is extensive commentary on the expectations from black athletes and how they should behave, in and out of the ring.
If you're looking for a book that details each fight of Ali's career, this one is not it. While it does talk about the political scenario and Ali's career trajectory as a whole, it sheds light on the most important fights of his career.
This book not only focuses on Ali's defiance to the war but it discusses his change of religion and name, his allegiance to the Nation of Islam, his falling out with Malcolm X and being a global icon by standing in solidarity with the people of Vietnam. While the civil rights movement was taking place in the United States, the process of decolonisation was taking place in Africa, and Muhammad Ali became of great significance during that time especially with his actions outside the ring. It discusses his treatment by the American press and politicians alike, and how attitudes changed towards him once he returned to the ring after a three year ban, and later, as he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
This book also offers a history of boxing as a sport, how it used black athletes to make money for their white counterparts, without expressing any political inclination of their own. There is extensive commentary on the expectations from black athletes and how they should behave, in and out of the ring.
If you're looking for a book that details each fight of Ali's career, this one is not it. While it does talk about the political scenario and Ali's career trajectory as a whole, it sheds light on the most important fights of his career.
February 22, 2016
An excellent and detailed exploration of Ali's controversial political and religious beliefs. If you're looking for a comprehensive biography about Ali in and out of the ring, this isn't the book. But that's not what Marqusee intended it to be. He notes the important fights, and goes into detail with some, but this book serves as a reminder that Ali was so much more than a boxer. In recent years, Ali has been commodified to become less threatening to America's status quo. It's sad to see that, really. After reading this, it angers me to think how his words have been stripped of context and used to sell shoes (yes, I'm looking at you Nike and Lebron James!) among other things. Ali's career epitomized the revolutionary times in which he gained fame. It's important to remember him that way, and not as the humbled, softened version we are given now that his Parkinson's has worsened and he's unable to speak. This book stands as a testament to the revolutionary Ali, who truly is The Greatest!
January 28, 2016
Malcolm X, Nation of Islam, Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War, Black Power, Black Atlantic (global Black self-awareness), Bob Dylan (a celebrity being political advocate like Ali, Bertrand Russell (embracing Ali for being against Vietnam War), Communism, and of course, boxing, the book touches on all these subjects coherently. Now I know little about many subjects, which is provoking me to read a lot about the era. And in the center of all of these subjects is none but The Greatest: Mohammad Ali! This book, is about the journey of Mohammad Ali discovering and defining himself. It’s about a man who played a crucial role both nationally and internationally in the 60s.
Ali has a very rich character, so it's no wonder that each one of us conceptualize him differently. Growing up, I would hear a lot about this proud "Muhammad Ali Clay" (as we call him in Arabic), a black Muslim who didn't fear to stand up against those suppressing racist. Even local article writers mention him very often, at least it was the case back in the 90s (I wasn't around in the 80s so I wouldn't know). Now we have another black "muslim" figure to talk about, Obama lol.
After winning the championship, Ali announced that the rumors were true, he did convert to Islam and that he was affiliated with Nation of Islam (Malcom-X and all) and that he rejected Civil Rights Movement: "I can't be when I see all the colored people fighting for forced integration get blown up. They get hit by stones and chewed by dogs and they blow up a Negro church and don't find the killers... I'm the heavyweight champion, but right now there are some neighborhoods I can't move into. I know how to dodge boobytraps and dogs. I dodge them by staying in my own neighborhood. I'm no trouble-maker.. I'm a good boy. I never have done anything wrong. I have never been to jail. I have never been in court. I don't join any integration marches... A rooster crows only when it sees the light. Put him in the dark and he'll never crow. I have seen the light and I'm crowing". Americans, both black and white, were shocked and had confused reaction and felt betrayed that they championed him yet he stabbed them in the back! Yet, a conservative columnist said that Ali is simply free to do what he wanted, it's a free country.
Boxing is shockingly a very complex sport. Most of the action happens behind the curtains. Being a man-on-man match, it's easy to fix and control. And during Boxing’s 200 years of history, it was heavily controlled by aristocrats.
And such, these behind-the-curtains people, they wanted to make black boxing role models whom they controlled. "By the very fact of becoming a high-profile (and well-rewarded) 'symbolic representative’ of an oppressed and excluded group, an individual is likely to share less and less in common with that group. And, in further irony, the more black sports stars remind people of the oppressive realities of black life, the less they are accepted as role models for it". It's as if they just don't want to hear about it, they want to believe it didn't exist, they wanted to create these role models to prove themselves, and they then together with these role models bury their heads in the sand. Now that's some deep-shit guilty psyche.
The first black heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson, was very controversial and ended up being exiled. "No black fighter was given a shot at the heavyweight title for twenty-two years after Johnson lost it... When Joe Louis emerged in the early thirties, his handlers were determined to learn from Johnson's bitter experience. Louis was given lessons in table manners and elocution; he was told to go for a knockout rather than risk the whims of racist judges; he was told never to smile when he beats a white man and, above all, never to be caught alone with a white woman".
-----
"The ritual and regimen of the Nation [of Islam] appealed to Clay for some of the reasons he loved the discipline of training and the gym. Both demanded care and respect for the body and rewarded deferred gratification. More importantly, both offered a whole way of life, a shelter from the world outside and a means of prospering within it. Like many contemporary religious movements, the Nation of Islam was in part a protest against secular modernity. It offered personal purity, hierarchical family values and race consciousness as a means of negotiating the rapids of social flux. Formally, it pitted the individual against the temptations of the modern world, while informally allowing him to come to an accommodation with it, even to exploit and master it".
Clay speaking at Liston before their awaited fight: “I make you great. The fans love you because I'm the villain".
After announcing he was part of Nation of Islam, Cassius Clay became Cassius X Clay. Then at the same time the Nation abandoned Malcolm X (and a reward was put in his head) he became Mohammad Ali. "The awarding of an 'original name' was a rare honor in the Nation of Islam, one not bestowed even on Malcolm X".
The relationship between Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X is really complex. It started as the behind-the-curtains Mentor (Muhammad) and the charismatic-speaker Hero (Malcolm). But Malcolm was wild and (politically) ambitious, he didn't want to be just a blind pupil, add to that the rise of Clay and winning over Liston, Muhammad shifted, off he goes (Malcolm) and the Mentor found a new hero, Clay, who was actually in a good relationship with Malcolm. Then Malcolm moved on, and "for the first time he publicly attacked officials of the Nation of Islam, while asking civil rights leaders to forgive the many bad things he'd said about them". Then Clay broke with Malcolm forever. Note that Muhammad didn't want to relate Clay with the Nation before the fight, fearing that if he lost then it will damage Nation's image, all while Malcolm was a very big support for Clay in the fight (even praying together just before the fight), and as soon as he wins, Muhammad jumped on the wagon. It seems that Clay disconnected himself from Malcolm (to Ali’s regret later) because he didn't want to be involved with politics. That's some really deep shit.
-----
"It is too often forgotten that the American sixties were merely a single facet of a global phenomenon. Ali was one of those who acted as a transmitter between struggles in America and struggles outside. Through his media appearances in every corner of the planet, Ali played a major role in stimulating the worldwide circulation of ideas and images that lies at the heart of the sixties. He became part of the overlapping global conversations and movements, linking sports fans, the Black Atlantic, the Third World and the international opposition to America's war in Vietnam"
Are African Americans, Africans or Americans? To me, it seems that African Americans were subconsciously convinced (along with whites) that Africans were uncivilized, as if being of black race made you inferior. Africans were represented as uncivilized in Hollywood for many decades. The same goes with Middle East, where colonization convinced people that Middle East is an exotic and "oriental" place, which in turn alienated people from their heritage (at least this what I understood from Edward Said). Black Power and pride beautifully fought that back, and Ali pride of being ever so beautiful!
Oh and the timeless longing for home (no matter how badly "home" treated you): "when asked by the British press whether he had any plans to escape the draft by going into exile, Ali answered with mournful clarity, 'regardless of the right or wrong back there, that is where I was born. That is where I'm going to return'"
In his rejection to go to Vietnam War: "'I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong' It sounds so modest, yet it struck people as terrifyingly outlandish. It could be the plaint of any ordinary soldier-citizen. Just how is it that the ostensible enemies of the nation-state to which one is assigned becomes one's personal enemies? This is a magical process which national establishment have managed with great care and ingenuity since the dawn of the modern era. The counter-process through which Ali broke free of its mystic grip, and defined his own loyalties, is ab exemplary voyage of the sixties.
The "I" who had no quarrel with the Vietcong was, first, the highly personal "I" of a young man wondering why he was supposed to kill or be killed by people he didn't know. It was also the "I" of a boxer who wanted to be left alone to be a boxer, a man who had made great efforts to free himself of the burden of representation, a man who only wanted to be an "I". But because of his conversation to the Nation of Islam, and his travels to Africa, this "I" assumed other, collective attributes; black, Muslim, African. Ultimately, it became the "I" of all those who felt they had no quarrel with the Vietcong, and all those who felt they did have a quarrel with America. Ironically, Ali's reclamation of his selfhood had given his "I" new representative burdens".
Then Ali, in the same time he was pushed to be drafted in the war, and meeting with MLK, finally spoke out: "in your struggle for freedom, justice and equality, I am with you". The author says "it was extraordinary statement from the man who had told the world he didn't want to 'carry a sign'... Both Ali's turn to the Nation and his support for the integration struggle in Louisville had their roots in his personal identification with a larger constituency. It was his abiding sense of responsibility to that constituency that compelled him to re-define again and again the parameters of that role model, to reconstruct who and what he represented, independently of the powers that be, even as he exploited their media in order to do it". Elijah Muhammad didn't like Ali's political activities, he renounced his honorary name and called him “Cassius Clay ". When Elijah died, his son took over and refined Nation of Islam, he dropped the “white is evil” and made the Nation more consistent with mainstream Sunni view of Islam (there are two mainstreams, Sunni and Shia). I was welcomed by many followers of the Nation, among them is Ali. Some disagreed and made another Nation that is consistent with Elijah’s teachings. Malcolm X (dead by now) would’ve welcomed the son’s refining, he discovered that mainstream Islam, and more importantly the Quran, had a “all men are equal” message, when he visited Mecca for pilgrimage. Ali then in 2005 embraced Sufism, which is a very spiritual Islamic view.
"There are some who have discovered belatedly with shock that Ali was an imperfect hero. Perfect heroes, however, are not only implausible but also useless. They can only be admired, not imitated. Ali's flawed humanity reminds us that role models are always incomplete and contradictory".
Ali has a very rich character, so it's no wonder that each one of us conceptualize him differently. Growing up, I would hear a lot about this proud "Muhammad Ali Clay" (as we call him in Arabic), a black Muslim who didn't fear to stand up against those suppressing racist. Even local article writers mention him very often, at least it was the case back in the 90s (I wasn't around in the 80s so I wouldn't know). Now we have another black "muslim" figure to talk about, Obama lol.
After winning the championship, Ali announced that the rumors were true, he did convert to Islam and that he was affiliated with Nation of Islam (Malcom-X and all) and that he rejected Civil Rights Movement: "I can't be when I see all the colored people fighting for forced integration get blown up. They get hit by stones and chewed by dogs and they blow up a Negro church and don't find the killers... I'm the heavyweight champion, but right now there are some neighborhoods I can't move into. I know how to dodge boobytraps and dogs. I dodge them by staying in my own neighborhood. I'm no trouble-maker.. I'm a good boy. I never have done anything wrong. I have never been to jail. I have never been in court. I don't join any integration marches... A rooster crows only when it sees the light. Put him in the dark and he'll never crow. I have seen the light and I'm crowing". Americans, both black and white, were shocked and had confused reaction and felt betrayed that they championed him yet he stabbed them in the back! Yet, a conservative columnist said that Ali is simply free to do what he wanted, it's a free country.
Boxing is shockingly a very complex sport. Most of the action happens behind the curtains. Being a man-on-man match, it's easy to fix and control. And during Boxing’s 200 years of history, it was heavily controlled by aristocrats.
And such, these behind-the-curtains people, they wanted to make black boxing role models whom they controlled. "By the very fact of becoming a high-profile (and well-rewarded) 'symbolic representative’ of an oppressed and excluded group, an individual is likely to share less and less in common with that group. And, in further irony, the more black sports stars remind people of the oppressive realities of black life, the less they are accepted as role models for it". It's as if they just don't want to hear about it, they want to believe it didn't exist, they wanted to create these role models to prove themselves, and they then together with these role models bury their heads in the sand. Now that's some deep-shit guilty psyche.
The first black heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson, was very controversial and ended up being exiled. "No black fighter was given a shot at the heavyweight title for twenty-two years after Johnson lost it... When Joe Louis emerged in the early thirties, his handlers were determined to learn from Johnson's bitter experience. Louis was given lessons in table manners and elocution; he was told to go for a knockout rather than risk the whims of racist judges; he was told never to smile when he beats a white man and, above all, never to be caught alone with a white woman".
-----
"The ritual and regimen of the Nation [of Islam] appealed to Clay for some of the reasons he loved the discipline of training and the gym. Both demanded care and respect for the body and rewarded deferred gratification. More importantly, both offered a whole way of life, a shelter from the world outside and a means of prospering within it. Like many contemporary religious movements, the Nation of Islam was in part a protest against secular modernity. It offered personal purity, hierarchical family values and race consciousness as a means of negotiating the rapids of social flux. Formally, it pitted the individual against the temptations of the modern world, while informally allowing him to come to an accommodation with it, even to exploit and master it".
Clay speaking at Liston before their awaited fight: “I make you great. The fans love you because I'm the villain".
After announcing he was part of Nation of Islam, Cassius Clay became Cassius X Clay. Then at the same time the Nation abandoned Malcolm X (and a reward was put in his head) he became Mohammad Ali. "The awarding of an 'original name' was a rare honor in the Nation of Islam, one not bestowed even on Malcolm X".
The relationship between Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X is really complex. It started as the behind-the-curtains Mentor (Muhammad) and the charismatic-speaker Hero (Malcolm). But Malcolm was wild and (politically) ambitious, he didn't want to be just a blind pupil, add to that the rise of Clay and winning over Liston, Muhammad shifted, off he goes (Malcolm) and the Mentor found a new hero, Clay, who was actually in a good relationship with Malcolm. Then Malcolm moved on, and "for the first time he publicly attacked officials of the Nation of Islam, while asking civil rights leaders to forgive the many bad things he'd said about them". Then Clay broke with Malcolm forever. Note that Muhammad didn't want to relate Clay with the Nation before the fight, fearing that if he lost then it will damage Nation's image, all while Malcolm was a very big support for Clay in the fight (even praying together just before the fight), and as soon as he wins, Muhammad jumped on the wagon. It seems that Clay disconnected himself from Malcolm (to Ali’s regret later) because he didn't want to be involved with politics. That's some really deep shit.
-----
"It is too often forgotten that the American sixties were merely a single facet of a global phenomenon. Ali was one of those who acted as a transmitter between struggles in America and struggles outside. Through his media appearances in every corner of the planet, Ali played a major role in stimulating the worldwide circulation of ideas and images that lies at the heart of the sixties. He became part of the overlapping global conversations and movements, linking sports fans, the Black Atlantic, the Third World and the international opposition to America's war in Vietnam"
Are African Americans, Africans or Americans? To me, it seems that African Americans were subconsciously convinced (along with whites) that Africans were uncivilized, as if being of black race made you inferior. Africans were represented as uncivilized in Hollywood for many decades. The same goes with Middle East, where colonization convinced people that Middle East is an exotic and "oriental" place, which in turn alienated people from their heritage (at least this what I understood from Edward Said). Black Power and pride beautifully fought that back, and Ali pride of being ever so beautiful!
Oh and the timeless longing for home (no matter how badly "home" treated you): "when asked by the British press whether he had any plans to escape the draft by going into exile, Ali answered with mournful clarity, 'regardless of the right or wrong back there, that is where I was born. That is where I'm going to return'"
In his rejection to go to Vietnam War: "'I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong' It sounds so modest, yet it struck people as terrifyingly outlandish. It could be the plaint of any ordinary soldier-citizen. Just how is it that the ostensible enemies of the nation-state to which one is assigned becomes one's personal enemies? This is a magical process which national establishment have managed with great care and ingenuity since the dawn of the modern era. The counter-process through which Ali broke free of its mystic grip, and defined his own loyalties, is ab exemplary voyage of the sixties.
The "I" who had no quarrel with the Vietcong was, first, the highly personal "I" of a young man wondering why he was supposed to kill or be killed by people he didn't know. It was also the "I" of a boxer who wanted to be left alone to be a boxer, a man who had made great efforts to free himself of the burden of representation, a man who only wanted to be an "I". But because of his conversation to the Nation of Islam, and his travels to Africa, this "I" assumed other, collective attributes; black, Muslim, African. Ultimately, it became the "I" of all those who felt they had no quarrel with the Vietcong, and all those who felt they did have a quarrel with America. Ironically, Ali's reclamation of his selfhood had given his "I" new representative burdens".
Then Ali, in the same time he was pushed to be drafted in the war, and meeting with MLK, finally spoke out: "in your struggle for freedom, justice and equality, I am with you". The author says "it was extraordinary statement from the man who had told the world he didn't want to 'carry a sign'... Both Ali's turn to the Nation and his support for the integration struggle in Louisville had their roots in his personal identification with a larger constituency. It was his abiding sense of responsibility to that constituency that compelled him to re-define again and again the parameters of that role model, to reconstruct who and what he represented, independently of the powers that be, even as he exploited their media in order to do it". Elijah Muhammad didn't like Ali's political activities, he renounced his honorary name and called him “Cassius Clay ". When Elijah died, his son took over and refined Nation of Islam, he dropped the “white is evil” and made the Nation more consistent with mainstream Sunni view of Islam (there are two mainstreams, Sunni and Shia). I was welcomed by many followers of the Nation, among them is Ali. Some disagreed and made another Nation that is consistent with Elijah’s teachings. Malcolm X (dead by now) would’ve welcomed the son’s refining, he discovered that mainstream Islam, and more importantly the Quran, had a “all men are equal” message, when he visited Mecca for pilgrimage. Ali then in 2005 embraced Sufism, which is a very spiritual Islamic view.
"There are some who have discovered belatedly with shock that Ali was an imperfect hero. Perfect heroes, however, are not only implausible but also useless. They can only be admired, not imitated. Ali's flawed humanity reminds us that role models are always incomplete and contradictory".
September 22, 2019
This might have just become one of my favorite books. It took a long time to finish, partly because I’m busy working with refugees, and partly because I kept going back to re-read large chunks of it.
And it has some goddamn good writing, not to mention the historical insights, deep cut references, and just an unbelievable collection of name drops.
You don’t have to know anything about Ali or even care about boxing to appreciate it. You probably do have to be interested in how culture and social consciousness interact, anti-nationalism, the difference between a thing of significance versus representations of it... I don’t know if that makes sense.
Anyways, it also features the most savage line on Clarence Thomas I’ve encountered since that one Randy Newman song.
And it has some goddamn good writing, not to mention the historical insights, deep cut references, and just an unbelievable collection of name drops.
You don’t have to know anything about Ali or even care about boxing to appreciate it. You probably do have to be interested in how culture and social consciousness interact, anti-nationalism, the difference between a thing of significance versus representations of it... I don’t know if that makes sense.
Anyways, it also features the most savage line on Clarence Thomas I’ve encountered since that one Randy Newman song.
October 13, 2023
Me gustó tanto la peli de One Night in Miami que le tenía muchas ganas al libro en el que se inspiró y me ha dado exactamente lo que buscaba. Provee de muchísimo contexto a la época, igual demasiado (la de veces que he tenido que parar de leer para buscar un concepto o persona en la wikipedia... 🙄)
A veces le da excesivas vueltas a ciertas ideas y se le nota mucho el fanboyismo, hasta el punto en que pasa de puntillas con algunos aspectos que no debería. Pero en general un buen chapuzón de historia (súper específica).
A veces le da excesivas vueltas a ciertas ideas y se le nota mucho el fanboyismo, hasta el punto en que pasa de puntillas con algunos aspectos que no debería. Pero en general un buen chapuzón de historia (súper específica).
July 11, 2017
Kjempebra analyse av karrieren til den største, men trengte vi virkelig et halvt kapittel om Bob Dylan??
December 2, 2009
This is not a biography in the traditional sense, but rather an exploration of those past and contemporary events that shaped Ali and how he in turned influenced the events of his culture. I was surprised by his attitude toward the civil rights movement and moved by how he changed and grew through the years.
I was very interested by the connections the author made between Ali and the rise of Black Power out of the civil rights movement, by Ali's influence on American/African/International culture, and by Ali's relationship with his religion and his sport. A thread that runs through the book is Ali's opposition to being drafted and the stand he took on that. He didn't want to be a representative for his race, his religion, his sport or any of the movements of the time; "I know where I am going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want."
I grew up with Ali in the background. White kids in rural Ontario, we all knew who Ali was, heard of the Rumble in the Jungle and the Thrilla in Manilla. During the seventies, there just was no way you could miss Ali, he was loud and he didn't disappear politely when there was controversy. So with that in mind, I thought this might be a dispassionate look at the man behind the proud brash words, but it's a passionate, loving and open look at Ali, and frankly it's all the better for being those things.
Caveat: There's a lot of food for thought here, although I was both disappointed and frustrated by the lack of footnotes. Notes on Sources at the end of the book does not make up for a complete lack in citing original sources.
I was very interested by the connections the author made between Ali and the rise of Black Power out of the civil rights movement, by Ali's influence on American/African/International culture, and by Ali's relationship with his religion and his sport. A thread that runs through the book is Ali's opposition to being drafted and the stand he took on that. He didn't want to be a representative for his race, his religion, his sport or any of the movements of the time; "I know where I am going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want."
I grew up with Ali in the background. White kids in rural Ontario, we all knew who Ali was, heard of the Rumble in the Jungle and the Thrilla in Manilla. During the seventies, there just was no way you could miss Ali, he was loud and he didn't disappear politely when there was controversy. So with that in mind, I thought this might be a dispassionate look at the man behind the proud brash words, but it's a passionate, loving and open look at Ali, and frankly it's all the better for being those things.
Caveat: There's a lot of food for thought here, although I was both disappointed and frustrated by the lack of footnotes. Notes on Sources at the end of the book does not make up for a complete lack in citing original sources.
July 24, 2011
Muhammad Ali is one of the most complex, divisive and challenging figures in recent US history, he is – icon, athlete, activist. Mike Marqusse shows us how Ali's life is about so much more than boxing and in doing so shows just how good a sports biography, or perhaps a biography of an athlete can be. In doing so he also takes us inside the politics of the 1960s and 1970s, where Ali both is the story and tells a story, makes his context and is shaped by and only able to be understood through his context - this is a rare moment where a superb political popular cultural figure finds a superb and savvy biographer. Whilst I may not agree with all of his case, there is no faulting its clarity, rigour and compelling character.
September 3, 2008
Outstanding book that both looks at Muhammad Ali's rise and contextualizes his importance in the context of both sports and the Black Freedom Movement of the sixties (and before).
The author really knows his stuff in both boxing/sports and American civil rights/revolutionary history. It's wonderful to read about Ali's importance as a global figure, the contrast between he and earlier black boxers like Jack Johnson (and even other sports figures like Jackie Robinson), as well as his importance in the context of W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Robeson, The Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, and a host of others. I strongly recommend this book, and will be seeking out the author's other works soon!
The author really knows his stuff in both boxing/sports and American civil rights/revolutionary history. It's wonderful to read about Ali's importance as a global figure, the contrast between he and earlier black boxers like Jack Johnson (and even other sports figures like Jackie Robinson), as well as his importance in the context of W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Robeson, The Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, and a host of others. I strongly recommend this book, and will be seeking out the author's other works soon!
September 6, 2016
An excellent, well researched book on the character and nature of the nascent civil rights movement of the early 20th century to the 1970's. There is so much more in this than just stories about Muhammad Ali. For such a short book it covers a wide range of issues relating to boxing, politics, the NOI, protest music in the 1960's including Bob Dylan and a range of earlier, almost forgotten characters such as Paul Robeson as well as more well known individuals like Booker T. Washington, Garvey etc. Recommended to anybody wanting to know more about the civil rights movement in America from a sporting perspective and how that arena influenced the generation which came after it.
October 3, 2021
If David Remnick's King Of The World is the bible of Ali biographies, this may be the Dead Sea scrolls. If there was a book I could send to LeBron James and the modern black athletic stars of the day, it might be this. Ali's example and the person and impact he really was/had must not be forgotten, as he has been repackaged at the end of his life into his death. Some complain about cancel culture but what America did to Ali was the biggest attempt at canceling someone but in the end he was victorious as he had been and would be most of the time in the ring. This book unapologetically kept Ali's blackness in the forefront as Ali did... until he transformed into a humanist.
July 10, 2016
Forget Bill Clinton. Here is the Ali that matters. The friend of Malcolm X and Sam Cooke. The fighter who refused to be drafted to fight in Vietnam or to fight in Sun City. Ali went up with the black struggle in the Sixties and was brought down with its decline in the Seventies. This book shows how he was inspired by that struggle and at the same time was able to make a huge contribution to it - simply by refusing to be what White America wanted him to be. A superb book about racism, boxing and resistance.
August 2, 2021
I believe it is well researched and that there is some good insight. There were a lot of things I never knew about, happening before I was born.
However, at times it drags, and some of the places where he decides to fill in more information on the political backdrop and when to assume things are known seems arbitrary. There is a brief reference to the Vietnam draft disproportionately bringing up men of color, which is plausible, but something more on how that worked and a source would have been great, whereas I could have been perfectly happy with less time spent on Bob Dylan.
Similarly, Marqusee refers to the Nation of Islam multiple times as a cult. There are reasons a case could be made, but it feels like an oversimplification, and that the word choice needs backing up.
And of course, there is the paternalism. Marqusee even acknowledges that he is a white man and so his perspective is going to be lacking, but he doesn't seem to let that hold him back too much.
Interesting material that could have been better, though by all accounts Marqusee was an excellent mentor, probably largely to other white men.
However, at times it drags, and some of the places where he decides to fill in more information on the political backdrop and when to assume things are known seems arbitrary. There is a brief reference to the Vietnam draft disproportionately bringing up men of color, which is plausible, but something more on how that worked and a source would have been great, whereas I could have been perfectly happy with less time spent on Bob Dylan.
Similarly, Marqusee refers to the Nation of Islam multiple times as a cult. There are reasons a case could be made, but it feels like an oversimplification, and that the word choice needs backing up.
And of course, there is the paternalism. Marqusee even acknowledges that he is a white man and so his perspective is going to be lacking, but he doesn't seem to let that hold him back too much.
Interesting material that could have been better, though by all accounts Marqusee was an excellent mentor, probably largely to other white men.
November 15, 2023
While the subject was to be the relationship between Malcolm X and Mohammad Ali, this book encompassed the trials and triumphs of many Black musicians, athletes, and celebrities. It isn't hard to determine the Author's blind spots but he encouraged the charisma of Muhammad Ali to shine through his prose. This complex look at the sixties puts paid the "peace and love" narrative endorsed in high school history classes.
April 18, 2022
Muhammad Ali is a multimedia artefact for my generation. Mike Marqusee, true to form, looks beyond the surface of Ali's celebrity and brings out his impact on society like nothing else. No amount of documentary footage will unveil what this book does about Ali's journey from a talented boxer to a homing beacon for entire communities.
December 28, 2009
It's the second book of Mike Marqusee's i've read, and i think i may have a new fave author...
Marqusee excels at impressionistic cultural histories, and here as elsewhere he focuses on his personal heroes to explain their significance in what was clearly the most important era in his life - "the sixties."
Normally this wouldn't work -- i mean, normally wtf do i care who some guy idolized forty years ago?
But Marqusee has shown me that it can be done without navel gazing. It doesn't have to be embarrassing like a mid-life crisis, or bad poetry. With a class and anticolonial analysis, and a sympathetic eye to understanding the less obvious motivations and perils of choices made by people at the time (kinda similar to Collingwood's view of how history should be written), Marqusee makes the era come alive.
As with his biography of Bob Dylan (Chimes of Freedom), what interests Marqusee is not the tumult and the exuberance of the revolutionary breakthrough we are used to seeing - white hippies, Black Panthers and all - but rather what happened five minutes before, when there was no victory in the air, when everything seemed fucked, but when against the odds some people chose to do what must have seemed crazy at the time. Like when you're not expecting a musical remix, and then a new rhythm breaks through the first tune and you're not sure if it's a mistake before you realize what being done. Marqusee shows us a glimpse of what it was like for those who could listen to the new beat when most people could only hear it, who saw it before it was acknowledged -- certainly before it was what it has since become.
The case in point: a young boxer, chosing to jeopardize (how Marqusee puts it, it must have seemed like torpedoing) his career and his success to do what was right - Muhammad Ali, standing by the Nation of Islam, refusing to fight in Vietnam. Doing what he felt was right even when it breaks our heart, as when on the NOI's say-so he broke off his warm friendship with Malcolm X, literally turning his back on him in one painful encounter when fate would have their paths cross in Ghana -- even as Malcolm was standing there like a jilted lover insisting that that the young boxer was indeed the greatest, that he still loved him.
As in his bio of Dylan, Marqusee argues that the american genocide in Vietnam was the climax of a global conflagration that had entered its newest spectacular phase twenty years earlier with the anticolonial revolutions following World War II. In the united states this means that the Black Revolution was what came first, what set things in motion, the leap forward that in its turn prepared the ground for the antiwar explosion.
Marqusee uses that era -- the sixties, which he himself experienced as a kid coming of age in the u.s. -- as his pivot, but he swings a wide arc, tracing boxing in the Black nation back to the late nineteenth century, situating it in what Paul Gilroy has termed the "Black Atlantic", examining the tensions between laughing-with and laughing-at that Black boxers like other Black entertainers have always had to navigate.
& he looks forwards to our time, too: showing how neocolonialism beat back the Black revolution and what this meant for boxing in general, and Ali in particular. i wish this had been drawn out more, but even with the cursory examination of how Mobutu-the-butcher and Marcos-big-dick teamed up with Don King and used Ali to create their own circuses, the message was clear. The negative comparison of Ali with Michael Jordan was spot on, too -- like: people say Jordan's a model, but what for? being wealthy?
My only caveats about this book are (1) there is some quick name dropping, some quick references to facts, and if you don't know what is being referenced it might be a bit bewildering. This is not a major thing, and Marqusee actually does the opposite -- fully explaining who folks were and their context -- more often than not. So much so that someone who never watched sports and abhors boxing (which i can't tell apart from wrestling, silly me) never felt unsure of what was being described. But i'm less sure that a boxing fan who was not particularly interested in politics would've enjoyed it quite so much.
The second caveat, really nitpicking, is that i found a bit too much of an overlap with his Dylan bio. Like he's had these great insights, and he put them in both books - but having read both books so soon the one after the other i occasionally suffered from deja vu. Even in their structure, when Michael Jordan comes in for his last minute appearance as a shallow materialistic foil for Ali, i was reminded of how Marqusee used Bruce Springsteen as a similar foil for Dylan right at the end of Chimes of Freedom.
But perhaps it makes sense, as what is being traced is how individuals - albeit from different worlds and with different priorities and personalities - navigated the same storm.
Neither of these caveats should discourage comrades from picking up this book - it's a great read, a wonderful blending of cultural and political history, and really inspirational to boot.
Which i never thought i would say about a book about professional sports.
Marqusee excels at impressionistic cultural histories, and here as elsewhere he focuses on his personal heroes to explain their significance in what was clearly the most important era in his life - "the sixties."
Normally this wouldn't work -- i mean, normally wtf do i care who some guy idolized forty years ago?
But Marqusee has shown me that it can be done without navel gazing. It doesn't have to be embarrassing like a mid-life crisis, or bad poetry. With a class and anticolonial analysis, and a sympathetic eye to understanding the less obvious motivations and perils of choices made by people at the time (kinda similar to Collingwood's view of how history should be written), Marqusee makes the era come alive.
As with his biography of Bob Dylan (Chimes of Freedom), what interests Marqusee is not the tumult and the exuberance of the revolutionary breakthrough we are used to seeing - white hippies, Black Panthers and all - but rather what happened five minutes before, when there was no victory in the air, when everything seemed fucked, but when against the odds some people chose to do what must have seemed crazy at the time. Like when you're not expecting a musical remix, and then a new rhythm breaks through the first tune and you're not sure if it's a mistake before you realize what being done. Marqusee shows us a glimpse of what it was like for those who could listen to the new beat when most people could only hear it, who saw it before it was acknowledged -- certainly before it was what it has since become.
The case in point: a young boxer, chosing to jeopardize (how Marqusee puts it, it must have seemed like torpedoing) his career and his success to do what was right - Muhammad Ali, standing by the Nation of Islam, refusing to fight in Vietnam. Doing what he felt was right even when it breaks our heart, as when on the NOI's say-so he broke off his warm friendship with Malcolm X, literally turning his back on him in one painful encounter when fate would have their paths cross in Ghana -- even as Malcolm was standing there like a jilted lover insisting that that the young boxer was indeed the greatest, that he still loved him.
As in his bio of Dylan, Marqusee argues that the american genocide in Vietnam was the climax of a global conflagration that had entered its newest spectacular phase twenty years earlier with the anticolonial revolutions following World War II. In the united states this means that the Black Revolution was what came first, what set things in motion, the leap forward that in its turn prepared the ground for the antiwar explosion.
Marqusee uses that era -- the sixties, which he himself experienced as a kid coming of age in the u.s. -- as his pivot, but he swings a wide arc, tracing boxing in the Black nation back to the late nineteenth century, situating it in what Paul Gilroy has termed the "Black Atlantic", examining the tensions between laughing-with and laughing-at that Black boxers like other Black entertainers have always had to navigate.
& he looks forwards to our time, too: showing how neocolonialism beat back the Black revolution and what this meant for boxing in general, and Ali in particular. i wish this had been drawn out more, but even with the cursory examination of how Mobutu-the-butcher and Marcos-big-dick teamed up with Don King and used Ali to create their own circuses, the message was clear. The negative comparison of Ali with Michael Jordan was spot on, too -- like: people say Jordan's a model, but what for? being wealthy?
My only caveats about this book are (1) there is some quick name dropping, some quick references to facts, and if you don't know what is being referenced it might be a bit bewildering. This is not a major thing, and Marqusee actually does the opposite -- fully explaining who folks were and their context -- more often than not. So much so that someone who never watched sports and abhors boxing (which i can't tell apart from wrestling, silly me) never felt unsure of what was being described. But i'm less sure that a boxing fan who was not particularly interested in politics would've enjoyed it quite so much.
The second caveat, really nitpicking, is that i found a bit too much of an overlap with his Dylan bio. Like he's had these great insights, and he put them in both books - but having read both books so soon the one after the other i occasionally suffered from deja vu. Even in their structure, when Michael Jordan comes in for his last minute appearance as a shallow materialistic foil for Ali, i was reminded of how Marqusee used Bruce Springsteen as a similar foil for Dylan right at the end of Chimes of Freedom.
But perhaps it makes sense, as what is being traced is how individuals - albeit from different worlds and with different priorities and personalities - navigated the same storm.
Neither of these caveats should discourage comrades from picking up this book - it's a great read, a wonderful blending of cultural and political history, and really inspirational to boot.
Which i never thought i would say about a book about professional sports.
October 23, 2007
Fascinating picture of boxing when it was still often a weird race-class metaphor, and also a secret history of the sixties. Did you know, for example, that the Nation of Islam once attempted to ally themselves with the American Nazi party? Other fascinating digressions include Bob Dylan, Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, and Sam Cooke. At the book's close (where the author compares Ali to Michael Jordan), you get a sinking feeling: this sort of principled athlete -- willing to forsake his sport career to take a political stand -- just doesn't exist anymore.
To get the best possible experience, this should be read alongside The Devil and Sonny Liston by Nick Tosches, which offers a very grim perspective on boxing metaphors and the sixties (plus Tosches believes Liston took a dive on May 25, 1965).
To get the best possible experience, this should be read alongside The Devil and Sonny Liston by Nick Tosches, which offers a very grim perspective on boxing metaphors and the sixties (plus Tosches believes Liston took a dive on May 25, 1965).
January 7, 2008
I definitely recommend this book. I am not a big boxing fan - I have always found Muhammed Ali interesting (and loved the film When We Were Kings) but I don't particularly like boxing. Still, I decided to read the book and am glad I did. Its a well-written, engaging telling of Ali's life, interwoven with politics and culture of the times.
May 16, 2008
A convoluted look at how the revolutionary attitude of the 1960s changed Ali and how he changed the revolution. There are too many tangents focusing on other figures, from Malcolm X to Bob Dylan, and it is sometimes hard to follow the argument. The conclusion, though, was powerful and passionate.
Read
December 20, 2013A complex book to discuss a complex man. It loses it's way when it meanders around Bob Dylan, but that might be my personal taste. The book returns to the earlier form for The Rumble in the Jungle. Overall presenting a portrait of a man in his time.
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