Jesse Owens

by Baker, William J.

• ISBN13: 9780252073694
• ISBN10: 025207369X
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-05-19
• Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr

Summary

Born the tenth child of a poor Southern sharecropper and barely able to read or write, Jesse Owens would nevertheless go on to win an unprecedented four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, becoming an international superstar overnight and exploding Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy in the process. William J. Baker's Jesse Owens is the most complete and probing biography of Owens ever written, vividly detailing the successes and failures of this complex and troubled but ultimately indomitable figure who transcended his own athleticism and became an American icon.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Prologue	1	(162)
1. Southern Grit	5	(12)
2. Friends, Mentors, and Heroes	17	(16)
3. College Pride and Prejudice	33	(21)
4. Coping with Pressure	54	(19)
5. Bound for Glory	73	(16)
6. The Berlin Blitz	89	(20)
7. A Champion's Reward	109	(20)
8. Tarnished Gold	129	(17)
9. Chasing Rainbows	146	(17)
10. Patriotic Games	163	(19)
11. The Back Side of Success	182	(21)
12. An Athlete Growing Old	203	(18)
13. A Legend Memorialized	221	(11)
14. Durable Dreams	232	(6)
Notes	238	(37)
Index	275