Author Description

bestselling Author David Maraniss Weaves Sports, Politics, And History Into A Groundbreaking Tour De Force the Athletes Competing In The 1960 Rome Olympics Included 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 Eighteen Seized The World Stage For The First Time, Four Years Before He Became Muhammad Ali. along With These Unforgettable Characters And Dramatic Contests, There Was A Deeper Meaning To Those Late-summer Days At The Dawn Of The Sixties. Change Was Apparent Everywhere. The World As We Know It Was Coming Into View. Rome Saw The First Doping Scandal, The First Commercially Televised Summer Games, The First Athlete Paid For Wearing A Certain Brand Of Shoes. In The Heat Of The Cold War, Every Move Was Judged For Its Propaganda Value. East And West Germans Competed As A Unified Team Less Than A Year Before The... The Barnes & Noble Review Steroids, Apartheid, Racial Strife In The United States, Massive Amounts Of Cold War Propaganda, A Dead Bicyclist, The Rise Of Female Athletes, Creepy Spies, China's Distaste For Taiwan/formosa, The Powerful Growth Of Television -- The 1960 Rome Olympics Had It All.