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Home books Biography and Memoir

King of the World: Muhammed Ali And The Rise Of An American Hero

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King of the World: Muhammed Ali And The Rise Of An American Hero

by David Remnick

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group | September 15, 1999 | Trade Paperback

Based on 5 ratings | Rate this

"Succeeds more than any previous book in bringing Ali into focus . . . as a starburst of energy, ego and ability whose like will never be seen again." -The Wall Street Journal

"Best Nonfiction Book of the Year" -Time

"Penetrating . . . reveal[s] details that even close followers of [Ali] might not have known. . . . An amazing story." -The New York Times

On the night in 1964 that Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) stepped into the ring with Sonny Liston, he was widely regarded as an irritating freak who danced and talked way too much. Six rounds later Ali was not only the new world heavyweight boxing champion: He was "a new kind of black man" who would shortly transform America''s racial politics, its popular culture, and its notions of heroism.

No one has captured Ali--and the era that he exhilarated and sometimes infuriated--with greater vibrancy, drama, and astuteness than David Remnick, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lenin''s Tomb (and editor of The New Yorker). In charting Ali''s rise from the gyms of Louisville, Kentucky, to his epochal fights against Liston and Floyd Patterson, Remnick creates a canvas of unparalleled richness. He gives us empathetic portraits of wisecracking sportswriters and bone-breaking mobsters; of the baleful Liston and the haunted Patterson; of an audacious Norman Mailer and an enigmatic Malcolm X. Most of all, King of the World does justice to the speed, grace, courage, humor, and ebullience of one of the greatest athletes and irresistibly dynamic personalities of our time.

"Nearly pulse-pounding narrative power . . . an important account of a period in American social history." -Chicago Tribune

"A pleasure . . . haunting . . . so vivid that one can imagine Ali saying, ''How''d you get inside my head, boy?''" -Wilfrid Sheed, Time

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Found in: Sports

All reviews of King of the World: Muhammed Ali And The Rise Of An American Hero

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outstanding
by Omeed Asadi
7 years ago

David really did an amazing job writing this book. He put himself into the legends shoes and told the story like it was his own experience. All i could say as a reader is cheers to an amazing accomplishment.
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Great Book
by Sandy Stephens
11 years ago

I had no idea that the early stage of Ali's career was so interesting. This book details the most interesting points of Ali's fights vs Liston. It also gives the reader true knowledge regarding Patterson, Malcolm X, The Gangsters, and others who played a role in the life of Ali.