A collaboration between one of our finest sportswriters, New York Times columnist Lipsyte, and one of the premier academic sports historians, Levine (Michigan State Univ.), tracing the history of American sport through the lives of 16 of its most important icons. It ought to be a blockbuster. It isn't. The basis for a six-part series to air this fall on TBS, Idols, at its best, is studded with insights into the awkward relationship between sport and commerce, an all too increasingly friendly embrace that is beginning to look like a death grip. By retelling the familiar stories of 16 sports heroes and heroines, the authors trace the growth of that embrace while also charting changing American attitudes toward African-Americans and women. American sport is powered, they argue, by ``twin engines . . . money and macho,'' from the last bare-knuckle championship on the North American continent, in which the great John L. Sullivan outlasted Jake Kilrain, to Martina Navratilova's farewell to Wimbledon. The book deals intelligently with the class, race, and gender barriers that are as thoroughly imbricated in sport as in the rest of society and offers some useful correctives to many legends (not merely the self-consciously silly posturings of the ``Win one for the Gipper'' speech but, more important, the real nature of George Gipp's football-mercenary career at Notre Dame). But Lipsyte and Levine often are forced to oversimplify both sports and political history in an effort to shoehorn more material into their essays, and the choice of the profile as vehicle proves unsatisfying, with many judgments that would make sense in a broader context reading like a parody of political correctness when placed in these TV-sized capsules. Lipsyte and Levine mesh well together, and it would be great to see them write a real, comprehensive social history of American sport.
Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1995
ISBN: 1-57036-154-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1995
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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