Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 796.48 EAN: 9781416534075 ISBN: 1416534075 Label: Simon & Schuster Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 496 Publication Date: July 01, 2008 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Sales Rank: 9181 Studio: Simon & Schuster
Maraniss on top of his game
David Maraniss has written so many wonderful books that it isn't surprising to find "Rome 1960" to be such a great read. But it's still reassuring. Maraniss digs deep for his reporting, and writes with a clear eye and a genuine point of view. Good from beginning to end.
The Olympics that Changed the Olympics
Because the 1956 Olympics were in Melborne Australia few people got to see it or even hear it live. The 1960 Olympics was the first to be televised live in Europe and by tape in the States. The amount of TV was miniscule by today's standards but it helps to pay for a large amount of the costs. It was the first olympics that the Russians brought a full team to, and the last one that Europeans had any success at. It was the first fully integrated American team (Decathlete Rafer Johnson carried the flag) with a strong womans' contingent (runners and swimmers).
As important as anything else that happened was that there were fourteen new sub-Saharan states that participated for the first time and that won medallions. Abbe Bikela ... Read More
SPORTS AND HISTORY - WONDERFUL COMBINATION - WELL WRITTEN!
I am not particularly fond, overall, of sports literature and normally do not read in this particular genre, although, I must admit I enjoy watching sports, follow various sports year by year, and indeed, have been an overall participant in various sports, all my life, more so when I was younger. The Olympic games have always occupied a special place for me and the 1960 Olympics was the first one that I became truly aware of what was going on. My age at the time and the fact that I actually was able to watch many of the vents on television had much to do with this. That being said, I will admit to being a history nut and this work by David Maraniss is a history as much as it is a work about a particular sport.
Five-Star History
The strong response of Amazon reviewers is definitely justified and cheers are in order for both the author and Simon and Schuster for bringing Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World out just in time to coincide with the 2008 games. This is five-star historiography, with the perfect blend of biographical, cultural, political and athletic fact. Maraniss showcases the experience of a number of individuals (for American readers, Rafer Johnson, Wilma Rudolph, Cassius Clay, Avery Brundage, et al.) but situates that experience within its historical moment, a moment replete with racial overtones, cold war implications, doping allegations and other key elements. He tells you about the Roman weather and landscape, about the physical challenges and physical ailments of the athletes, ... Read More
The Cold War, Drugs, Twin China's, Erosion of Amateur Athletics, Brundage and the Great Stars That Shine
Maraniss defines the 1960 Olympics that changed the world not purely because of the political influence of the Cold War, that was obvious in 1936, but in describing the emergence of Russia as a dominant athletic power where the Soviet Union and the U.S. became the dominant medal winners and where the cold war rhetoric emerged more directly in the Olympics as they increasingly did over the next several. Other issues that came into the spotlight was the battle of the China's, National versus Communist requiring the former to accept a different name, the emergency of drug enhancements that resulted in the death of a Danish cyclist, the contrast in the dominance of black athletes such as Rafer Johnson and Wilma Rudolph and the Tennessee State contingent ... Read More
