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27th out of 412 books
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350 voters
Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World
by
David Maraniss (Goodreads Author)
From the critically acclaimed and bestselling author David Maraniss, a groundbreaking book that weaves sports, politics, and history into a tour de force about the 1960 Rome Olympics, eighteen days of theater, suspense, victory, and defeatDavid Maraniss draws compelling portraits of the athletes competing in Rome, including some of the most honored in Olympic history: deca...more
Hardcover, 478 pages
Published
July 1st 2008
by Simon & Schuster
(first published 2008)
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A beautifully written book chronicling the summer Olympics in Rome four years before my birth. Maraniss uses the games of 1960 to capture the greater picture of the times– a world in division. He opens the book with the Tennessee State University women’s track team, nicknamed “The Tigerbelles”, and their coach, Ed Temple, to illuminate the the racial division in the United States. Rafer Johnson was our best athlete and team captain who also happened to be African American, and a second-class cit...more
When David Maraniss finished his much-praised biography of baseball superstar Roberto Clemente (Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero), he was "determined not to write another sports book anytime soon." He had previously written a highly regarded biography of perhaps the greatest football coach of all time, Vince Lombardi (When Pride Still Mattered), so his feeling was: been there, done that.
Besides, during a 30-year career at the Washington Post, Maraniss had developed a reput...more
Besides, during a 30-year career at the Washington Post, Maraniss had developed a reput...more
As something of a serious Olympics follower, I really enjoyed this book. The author makes a good case in that the '60 Olympics were something of a watershed in civil rights (at least in bringing the inequalities of the races to light more clearly), the cold war, the beginning of steroid use and doping in a systematic way, as well as the beginning of the recognition by athletes that being amateur in the US was very different than elsewhere. I enjoyed learning about various competitors as well tho...more
A very good book about this Olympics. With so much to cover.
The hypocrisy of Avery Brundage, first on display toward overlooking the Nazis' anti-Semitism at Berlin in 1936, now overlooks question about whether Soviet-bloc state-sponsored sport violates the spirit, or even the letter, of amateurism.
First, and already known to me ...
Ethopian Abebe Bikela winning the marathon in the capital city of the nation that conquered his 25 years before.
One of the greatest decathlon duels ever.
The atmosphere...more
The hypocrisy of Avery Brundage, first on display toward overlooking the Nazis' anti-Semitism at Berlin in 1936, now overlooks question about whether Soviet-bloc state-sponsored sport violates the spirit, or even the letter, of amateurism.
First, and already known to me ...
Ethopian Abebe Bikela winning the marathon in the capital city of the nation that conquered his 25 years before.
One of the greatest decathlon duels ever.
The atmosphere...more
I must still have lingering Olympic fever from this summer. The author goes through the Rome Olympics, pretty much day by day, and highlights the significant events and puts them in the context of what was going on in the world at large ... so for the most part, the Cold War. Headlines include decathlete Rafer Johnson, the first African-American athlete to be the flagbearer during the opening ceremonies and Wilma Rudolph getting gold medals; the first big Olympic drug scandal when Danish cyclist...more
I think it is fair to say that I am not the only victim of the quadrennial affliction known as “Olympic Fever”. I’m sure that I am not alone in reporting that I watch televised diving, pole vaulting and rowing only once every four years, often neglecting essentials like hygiene and sleep to do so. It is almost a truism to point out that the Olympics has captured the imagination and passion of both athletes and non-athletes alike and has become a unique institution that seemingly cuts across all...more
IU thought this would be part of my Italy reading blitz bit it was almost all about the summer Olympics and very little of the venue. The 1960 Olympics featured Rafer Johnson who won the decathalon and who 8 years later would cradle a dying RFK in his arms after wrestling the gun from his assasin. Cassius Clay. Wilma Rudolf and her band of woman sprinters from Tennessee State. It was cold war by proxy and the Russians beat the Americans. It was the start of the steroid era with a Dane cyclist co...more
This is a great history lesson on the condition of the world in 1960 set against the backdrop of the Olympics in Rome. Famous names such as Wilma Rudolph, Cassius Clay, Raifer Johnson and others who garnered medals at these Olympics are all the more meaningful for having heard their individual stories. The second-class status of women and blacks reflected the politics of the time. For example, Wilma Rudolph was treated as a star and earned the respect of the Italian people, along with people fro...more
Sports and politics in the same book that David Maraniss composed brilliantly. I had just turned four years old when the 1960 Olympics were held. I have a love of the Games and learned in later yers about 1960 Olympians Rafer Johnson, Abeke Bikila, Wilma Rudolph, Cassius Clay (Muhammed Ali) and the US hoops trio of Jerry West, Jerry Lucas and Oscar Robertson.
But there were other wonderful stories about these games -- the first that really matched Cold War powers against each other, showed a divi...more
But there were other wonderful stories about these games -- the first that really matched Cold War powers against each other, showed a divi...more
Feb 05, 2009
Bookmarks Magazine
added it
David Maraniss has demonstrated great range throughout his writing career. His latest effort is a timely and, for the most part, a well executed look at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Although the book's subtitle may be a bit of a reach, Maraniss has much to say about the implications of the Rome Games as a microcosm of the political, financial, and humanitarian forces shaping the world at the time. Only the New York Times Book Review opined that the event's obscurity today suggests that nothing was, i
...more
Maraniss blends history and the drama of sports well in this book, capturing the drama of the era very well. My only mild disappointment is that this book suffers from the same problem that coverage of the olympics on television usually has: not enough attention to sports in which Americans aren't competitive.
Still, there's plenty to marvel at here, and the events that Maraniss does cover don't suffer from a slant toward the athletes of any particular nation. Wilma Rudolph, Rafer Johnson, Cassiu...more
Still, there's plenty to marvel at here, and the events that Maraniss does cover don't suffer from a slant toward the athletes of any particular nation. Wilma Rudolph, Rafer Johnson, Cassiu...more
A really well written, very narrative history of the Olympics in 1960 in Rome. Spends a lot of time discussing many of the underlying stories from those Olympic games, such as the ongoing Cold War competition between the US and Russia/USSR, the China/Taiwan issue, how race relations played a part both with the South African team (which didn't have any African American participants on the team) and the US team (tho Cassius Clay, Wilma Rudolph and many other African Americans were winning gold for...more
I was really into track & field in 1960 and still somewhat in to swimming (having been bounced out of the Santa Clara Swim Club at age 10 for insubordination), so I knew many of the players here and thoroughly enjoyed the descriptions of the events. Maraniss recounts these well, and I was caught up in the drama of cliff-hanging competition even when I already knew the results. He is far less successful with the historical context (pop history of the Cold War, ponderous history of the Olympic...more
Maraniss focused mainly on a small group of athletes in this story about the 1960 Rome Olympics, which were transitional in many ways (athletically, politically [both international and domestic], and in how they were broadcast). He did an excellent job of balancing the story of those at the peak of their athletic prowess with how they were able to get to that point. I was left with a very melancholy feeling after finishing the book, as it echoed a different time and the reminder of how two of th...more
The author sees the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome as the games that provided the transition to the modern games with their multitude of problems--doping, political tensions reflected in the scoring, corporate sponsorship, and the debate about what being an amateur athlete really means. At its best, the book profiles the leading athletes from around the world and vividly recreates the tensions of a variety of events. At the other end of the spectrum, the book drags somewhat when discussing the polit...more
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Maraniss weaves together the experiences of dozens of athletes to tell the story of the Rome Olympics, and he does it brilliantly. He does a great job of showing how international and domestic politics shaped the perceptions of the games at home and abroad. Cassius Clay, Wilma Rudolph, Jerry West, an so many other characters come to life, and not just US athletes. The book is not a comprehensive portrait of the games; he focuses on specific events (decathalon, basketball, marathon, diving, boxin...more
1960 was the year I graduated from high school, so the impact of the Rome games was tangible and almost unavoidable. I found that reading this book brought me right back to those times. But with a twist. So much of the behind the scenes intrigue was understandably unknown to me at the time. To get a freshened perspective of how much was wrong with the games in those days and what has transpired since then is at once illuminating and disheartening. We all like to think we lived in the "best of ti...more
Synopsis: The Rome Olympics of 1960 were held when the world was in a transitory state. The Cold War was at its height, it was the first time that many of the Olympic competitions allowed women to compete and the United States (and much of the world) was in the midst of a racial revolution. While many of the athletes representing the United States were African Americans who were celebrated when they won, there were many restaurants and other places where they were prohibited due to the color of...more
Wonderful!
Any who enjoys watching the Olympics, should really enjoy this book!
Maraniss creates an exciting narrative among multiple stories. From Cassius Clay to the US-Soviet tensions to the lesser known such as Ed Temple the coach of the Women's track team.
The book works on multiple levels as this is not just a sports book, though the author is able to describe exciting competitions, he is also able to put the events in the context of history--the civil rights movement in the US, the rise of...more
Any who enjoys watching the Olympics, should really enjoy this book!
Maraniss creates an exciting narrative among multiple stories. From Cassius Clay to the US-Soviet tensions to the lesser known such as Ed Temple the coach of the Women's track team.
The book works on multiple levels as this is not just a sports book, though the author is able to describe exciting competitions, he is also able to put the events in the context of history--the civil rights movement in the US, the rise of...more
Sep 18, 2009
Adrian
added it
Subtitled 'The Olympics that changed the World' might overstate their importance some but this is still an engaging read. Highlights are the profiles of Wilma Rudolph, Igor Ter-Ovanesyan, Dave Sime and Rafer Johnson. Maraniss' details the propaganda efforts of US and Soviet governments' at a taut time in the Cold War including the CIA handing pamphlets to US athletes on how to try and turn Soviet athletes into defecting. The chauvinism of this time was still rampant not least among sports writer...more
What made this book interesting was how the 1960 Olympics mirrored so much of the current state of the world and foreshadowed what would become of the concept of "amatuer" athletics. In the 1960 Olympics, an African-American athlete (Rafer Johnson) led the team into the Olympic Stadium in Rome, yet couldn't stay at certain hotels or eat in certain restaurants in his own country. Germany competed as one team and Tawain could not compete as the Republic of China. Danish cyclists (and probably othe...more
Exhaustive book about every facet relating to the 1960 Rome Olympics--almost too exhaustive with detail after detail on athletes, sporting events, politicians, national history, Olympic history, administrators. I would have loved reading more about the actual athletes and sports rather than the endless (at least it felt endless at times) political machinations connected to behind the scenes Olympic workings. Maraniss gets way too carried away with that element versus some of the actual matches....more
From the critically acclaimed and bestselling author David Maraniss, a groundbreaking book that weaves sports, politics, and history into a tour de force about the 1960 Rome Olympics, eighteen days of theater, suspense, victory, and defeatDavid Maraniss draws compelling portraits of the athletes competing in Rome, including some of the most honored in Olympic history: decathlete Rafer Johnson, sprinter Wilma Rudolph, Ethiopian marathoner Abebe Bikila, and Louisville boxer Cassius Clay, who at ei...more
In preparation for the upcoming Olympics, this book was perfect to "get me in the mood". I believe the audio version I had might have been abridged, which is too bad, because this was a great book. I was too young at the time of the Rome Olympics to know much of the circumstances involved. There were some huge rivalries - not the least of which was the backdrop of the cold war and the start of the civil rights movement. I love the Olympics and stories about the athletes, so this book was right u...more
I've had this book on my "to read" list for a couple of years. I thought it would be interesting to read around the time of the London Olympics. Some of the major figures I was familiar with (Cassius Clay (aka Muhammad Ali), Wilma Rudolph, and Rafer Johnson), but so many stories I didn't know about. The 1960 Rome Olympics has several interesting plots - the rise of the Soviet Union as an Olympic power (this is the height of the Cold War, complete with attempts by the CIA to convince a Soviet lon...more
Rome 1960 is more than a book about sports. It looks at the unique place that the modern Olympics has in today’s world and uses the 1960 Games as a prism through which to examine the changing world of the 1960s. Maraniss couldn’t have picked a better games to do so. It was a Games high on drama on the field that took place during a turning point of world history, one that played out across the Games. It was a Games set against the Cold War. It featured the first real doping Olympic doping scanda...more
These Games were fascinating due both to their unique sociopolitical landscape and the athletic drama that captivates the world at each Olympiad. Unfortunately the writing does not reach the same level of achievement. The facts are presented, but the editorializing adds little because of its heavy handed tone that lacks nuance and seems to merely gloss the events in broad themes, feeling very repetitive and preachy by the end. If you are already aware of the results in Rome, this telling would s...more
What I liked was the attention to detail in the book, as the author took it day by day, journalling events to put you in the action. He introduced me to Rafer Johnson, the beginning of the Kenyan/African marathon dominance, and the rest of the Tigerbelles; I have always loved Wilma Rudolph's story, but I enjoyed knowing more.
I was raised during the Cold War, but it's been 20 years since the US vs. USSR so it was startling to read and remember the competition for superiority. It cheered me to se...more
I was raised during the Cold War, but it's been 20 years since the US vs. USSR so it was startling to read and remember the competition for superiority. It cheered me to se...more
1960 in Rome might be called the beginning of the modern drug era in sports. It also might be called birthplace of sports broadcasting and the start of the mega business that sport became worldwide in the later part of the 20th Century.
Author/journalist David Maraniss covers this summer from over 50 years ago like it was last week. The names and connections important to sport, such as Avery Brundage, to those connected to the greater culture as well as sport, such as Muhammed Ali, abound in the...more
Author/journalist David Maraniss covers this summer from over 50 years ago like it was last week. The names and connections important to sport, such as Avery Brundage, to those connected to the greater culture as well as sport, such as Muhammed Ali, abound in the...more
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David Maraniss is an associate editor at The Washington Post and the author of four critically acclaimed and bestselling books, When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi, First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton, They Marched Into Sunlight War and Peace, Vietnam and America October 1967, and Clemente The Passion and Grace of Baseballs Last Hero. He is also the author of The Clinto...more
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“Go about your work with a quiet confidence that cannot be shake...No matter what happens, remember if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you can move mountains.' (Ducky Drake, UCLA Track Coach)”
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“The time was ordinary, 24 seconds, but the victory was historic. From that crowded little red house in Clarksville, out of an extended family of twenty-two kids, from a childhood of illness and leg braces, out of a small historically black college that had no scholarships, from a country where she could be hailed as a heroine and yet denied lunch at a counter, Skeeter had become golden, sweeping the sprints in Rome.”
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Jul 31, 2008 06:04pm