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Lew Freedman
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Joe Louis: The Life of a Heavyweight Paperback – April 5, 2013

by Lew Freedman (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 4 ratings
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Joe Louis held the heavyweight boxing championship longer than any other fighter and defended it a record 25 times. (In the 1930s and 1940s, the owner of the heavyweight title was the most prominent non-team sports competitor.) In addition, Louis helped bridge the gap of understanding between whites and blacks. During World War II he not only raised money for Army and Navy relief and entertained millions of troops as a morale officer, but became a symbol of American hope and strength.

This biography of Louis outlines his rise from poverty in Alabama to become the best-known African American of his time and describes how an uneducated man, simple at his core, became so articulate and ended up on the side of right in the battles he fought, with fist or voice.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    252 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    McFarland
  4. Publication date
    April 5, 2013
  5. Reading age
    18 years and up
  6. Dimensions
    6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0786459077
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0786459070
  9. See all details
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The Amazon Book Review
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“retells the story in an efficient fashion...a solid overview of Louis’s life...the power of Louis’s life is undeniable. Recommended”―Choice.

About the Author

Lew Freedman is a long-time, prize-winning journalist for such newspapers as the Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Tribune, Anchorage Daily News and Wyoming's Cody Enterprise. Specializing in sports and the outdoors, he has written more than 100 books. He lives in Columbus, Indiana.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ McFarland (April 5, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 252 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0786459077
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0786459070
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 4 ratings

About the author

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Lew Freedman

Lew Freedman

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Lew Freedman is a veteran newspaper sportswriter and experienced author of more than seventy five books about sports and Alaska subjects. He spent seventeen years at the ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS in Alaska and has also worked for the CHICAGO TRIBUNE and PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER. Lew is recipient of over 250 journalism awards. For more information please visit: www.LewFreedmanBooks.com, @LewFreedman on Twitter, or at his #ThunderontheTundra Facebook fan page.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
4 global ratings

Top review from the United States

J Clemence
3.0 out of 5 stars Good Biography of a Great Boxer
Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2013
In Joe Louis: The Life of a Heavyweight, author Lew Freedman takes the reader on a journey throughout the great boxer's entire life, from his humble beginnings in rural Alabama to his death in a Las Vegas hotel room. Freedman discusses aspects of Louis' life and career in the right amount of detail--enough to be informative, but not so much so as to lose the reader's interest. Likewise, although Freedman is a veteran sports reporter, he takes the time to explain the ins and outs of boxing, as well as to provide mini-biographies of the men Louis took on in the ring. (Max Schmeling was by far the most interesting of these characters.) This helped me, a boxing abecedarian, gain a better understanding of and appreciation for the sport. In addition, the book provides a very good description of what it was like to be a black man fighting for the heavyweight crown in a white man's world.

Overall, I did think this was a good book. Freedman's writing style was perhaps the biggest drawback to the book--in places, it just didn't "click" for me (e.g., using a phrase in a way that didn't make sense as I was reading it), and it felt like a long magazine article, not necessarily a book. And if I were Freedman, the one change I would have made would have been to provide web links (or perhaps set up a webpage to go along with the book) of actual Joe Louis fight footage. I watched some Louis videos on YouTube, and it helped me to understand the book's fight descriptions much better.
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Top reviews from other countries

John Jarrett
5.0 out of 5 stars Joe Louis
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 20, 2013
Verified Purchase
The book on Joe Louis is a knockout - Lew Freedman has done a good job on one of my all-time favourite fighters.
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