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Muhammad Ali Handbook (Handbook) (Hardback) - Common
Excellent Book
- GenresNonfictionSports
432 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2007
1 person is currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
Dave Zirin
32 books141 followersNamed of the UTNE Reader’s “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World”, Dave Zirin writes about the politics of sports for the Nation Magazine. He is their first sports writer in 150 years of existence. Zirin is also the host of Sirius XM Radio’s popular weekly show, Edge of Sports Radio. He has been called “the best sportswriter in the United States,” by Robert Lipsyte. Dave Zirin is, in addition, a columnist for SLAM Magazine and the Progressive.
[from http://www.edgeofsports.com/bio.html]
[from http://www.edgeofsports.com/bio.html]
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 20, 2020
I am a huge fan of Dave Zirin. He writes about the intersection of Sports and Politics and his 2014 book Brazil's Dance with the Devil: The World Cup, the Olympics, and the Struggle for Democracy was an astoundingly articulate analysis of disaster capitalism in action.
(my review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... )
But I hate boxing. The idea of a “sport” where one side wins by “knocking out” the other - QED causing brain damage - shouldn’t be a sport. Zirin casually notes that Ali (Clay) had “...the ability to scramble the brains of his opponents.”
Yuck.
This “handbook”, one in a series of books by various authors, chock-full of glossy photos, printed on delicious smelling shiny paper, really could have benefited by some editing. The photos are chronological, and there is an incomplete timeline provided, but I was often confused by when?what? The randomly placed “interviews” with folks who either wrote about or knew Ali would mention an event - he was temporarily disowned by the Nation of Islam’s Elijah Mohammed? When? For how long? - and I would go scrambling for an earlier or later story.
And errors - on page 192 it states that Ali was with Martin Luther King, Jr. for a protest in 1970. King was murdered in 1968.
But this is worth reading because we all need to hear Ali’s brilliance, his confidence, his resistance, at a time of segregation and Jim Crow, of more overt hatred of Blacks in the USA. Zirin describes Ali as "a man who would never confuse sweetness with weakness, and who would speak out for those denied a seat at the table, not for those who own the restaurant.”
Early in his career, Ali was magic with his loquaciousness and honesty:
“Where do you think I’d be next week if I didn’t know how to shout and holler and make the public take notice? I’d be poor and I’d probably be down in my hometown, washing windows or running an elevator and saying ‘yassuh’ and ‘nawsuh’ and knowing my place.”
He could speak in rhyme and riddle. And this, when explaining why he refused to go to Vietnam (very early, in 1966 - causing him to be widely reviled):
“I ain’t got no quarrel with the VietCong...No VietCong ever called me a nigger.”
Demonstrating how little has changed, 40 years later:
2006 A older Black woman, in the aftermath of Katrina, held up a sign that said:
“No Iraqi ever left me to die on a roof.”
One of the randomly spaced interviews was a sports writer named Lipsyte who noted that “What Clay did was make guys stand up and decide which side of the fence they were on.” But Lipsyte, certain in his opinion, calls Ali “dumb”.
Not a clear understanding of intelligence, IMHO. Ali was a genius, not only in the ring, but with his words. Could a “dumb” guy have given this spontaneous retort?:
It was 1967 and Ali was in Louisville with MLK, Jr. to protest unfair housing, a reporter kept bugging him about the war, “...until finally he turned around, cameras whirring” and said:
“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?
No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end.
I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of our people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality...If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs.
So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.”
Ali’s inevitable brain damage, and infirmity at a young age lead to what I believe is a vulnerability, a susceptibility, that changed him. His 4th wife, who married him when he was already significantly damaged, cared for him for the rest of his life, and reportedly strongly influenced his decisions from then on, seems to have been okay with the status quo, must have had different goals and ideals than the early Ali - otherwise it’s hard for me to believe Ali would have passively stood, silent as Bush gave him the “Medal of Freedom” 2007.
The photo is heartbreaking; Ali looks dead. Expressionless. Helpless.
“To see the once-indomitable Ali, besieged with Parkinson’s, eyes filmed over, hands shaking, led around by the self-described “War President” was horrifying.”
I prefer to remember the Ali who refused to be afraid, who gave others courage, who clearly called the USA out on its hypocrisy and vicious institutional racism, and who said:
“I am America. I am the part you won’t recognize, but get used to me. Black, confident, cocky - my name not yours. My goals, my own. Get used to me.”
(my review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... )
But I hate boxing. The idea of a “sport” where one side wins by “knocking out” the other - QED causing brain damage - shouldn’t be a sport. Zirin casually notes that Ali (Clay) had “...the ability to scramble the brains of his opponents.”
Yuck.
This “handbook”, one in a series of books by various authors, chock-full of glossy photos, printed on delicious smelling shiny paper, really could have benefited by some editing. The photos are chronological, and there is an incomplete timeline provided, but I was often confused by when?what? The randomly placed “interviews” with folks who either wrote about or knew Ali would mention an event - he was temporarily disowned by the Nation of Islam’s Elijah Mohammed? When? For how long? - and I would go scrambling for an earlier or later story.
And errors - on page 192 it states that Ali was with Martin Luther King, Jr. for a protest in 1970. King was murdered in 1968.
But this is worth reading because we all need to hear Ali’s brilliance, his confidence, his resistance, at a time of segregation and Jim Crow, of more overt hatred of Blacks in the USA. Zirin describes Ali as "a man who would never confuse sweetness with weakness, and who would speak out for those denied a seat at the table, not for those who own the restaurant.”
Early in his career, Ali was magic with his loquaciousness and honesty:
“Where do you think I’d be next week if I didn’t know how to shout and holler and make the public take notice? I’d be poor and I’d probably be down in my hometown, washing windows or running an elevator and saying ‘yassuh’ and ‘nawsuh’ and knowing my place.”
He could speak in rhyme and riddle. And this, when explaining why he refused to go to Vietnam (very early, in 1966 - causing him to be widely reviled):
“I ain’t got no quarrel with the VietCong...No VietCong ever called me a nigger.”
Demonstrating how little has changed, 40 years later:
2006 A older Black woman, in the aftermath of Katrina, held up a sign that said:
“No Iraqi ever left me to die on a roof.”
One of the randomly spaced interviews was a sports writer named Lipsyte who noted that “What Clay did was make guys stand up and decide which side of the fence they were on.” But Lipsyte, certain in his opinion, calls Ali “dumb”.
Not a clear understanding of intelligence, IMHO. Ali was a genius, not only in the ring, but with his words. Could a “dumb” guy have given this spontaneous retort?:
It was 1967 and Ali was in Louisville with MLK, Jr. to protest unfair housing, a reporter kept bugging him about the war, “...until finally he turned around, cameras whirring” and said:
“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?
No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end.
I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of our people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality...If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs.
So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.”
Ali’s inevitable brain damage, and infirmity at a young age lead to what I believe is a vulnerability, a susceptibility, that changed him. His 4th wife, who married him when he was already significantly damaged, cared for him for the rest of his life, and reportedly strongly influenced his decisions from then on, seems to have been okay with the status quo, must have had different goals and ideals than the early Ali - otherwise it’s hard for me to believe Ali would have passively stood, silent as Bush gave him the “Medal of Freedom” 2007.
The photo is heartbreaking; Ali looks dead. Expressionless. Helpless.
“To see the once-indomitable Ali, besieged with Parkinson’s, eyes filmed over, hands shaking, led around by the self-described “War President” was horrifying.”
I prefer to remember the Ali who refused to be afraid, who gave others courage, who clearly called the USA out on its hypocrisy and vicious institutional racism, and who said:
“I am America. I am the part you won’t recognize, but get used to me. Black, confident, cocky - my name not yours. My goals, my own. Get used to me.”
November 29, 2019
If you were or are now an Ali follower, you will not find that much new here. However, if you only know him as a legend of the past, his name, this is a good overview of a man who used his sports fame to promote important social and political issues. Very few sports figures take up issues outside of sports, but Ali had the courage to do so. His title was taken away as a consequence, that is formally taken away. He didn't lose it in the ring. This tells that tale. What worked really well here are the many photographs that are included. They add extra stars to the rating.
December 21, 2009
This is a terrific history of Ali and his place in culture and society. Both the writing and the photos are top-notch. The only negative aspects of the book are occasionally-sloppy editing and too much anti-Bush content.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews