Rome 1960

April 21, 2008
Overshadowed by more flamboyant or tragic Olympics, the 1960 Rome games were a sociopolitical watershed, argues journalist Maraniss (Clemente
) in this colorful retrospective. The games showcased Cold War propaganda ploys as the Soviet Union surged past the U.S. in the medal tally. Steroids and amphetamines started seeping into Olympian bloodstreams. The code of genteel amateurism—one weight-lifter was forbidden to accept free cuts from a meat company—began crumbling in the face of lavish Communist athletic subsidies and under-the-table shoe endorsement deals. And civil rights and anticolonialism became conspicuous themes as charismatic black athletes—supercharged sprinter Wilma Rudolph, brash boxing phenom Cassius Clay, barefoot Ethiopian marathoner Abebe Bikila—grabbed the limelight while the IOC sidestepped the apartheid issue. Still, we’re talking about the Olympics, and Maraniss can’t help wallowing in the classic tropes: personal rivalries, judging squabbles, come-from-behind victories and inspirational backstories of obstacles overcome (Rudolph wins the gold, having hurdled Jim Crow and
childhood polio that left her in leg braces). As usual, these Olympic stories don’t quite bear up under the mythic symbolism they’re weighted with (with the exception perhaps of Abebe Bikila), but Maraniss provides an intelligent context for his evocative reportage. Photos.

June 15, 2008
In this book, Maraniss ("Clemente"), who won the Pulitzer Prize for his "Washington Post" coverage of President Bill Clinton, provides more than mere coverage of the 1960 summer Olympics. Although his descriptions of the sporting events and the athletes' lives on and off the field (e.g., Muhammad Ali when he was still Cassius Clay) would be sufficient to make this book worthy of adoption for sports collections, the author's wealth of sociohistorical knowledge that he also bestows upon the reader makes the book essential. Whether or not the 1960 Rome Olympics literally changed the world or not is up for debateMaraniss offers little to justify the subtitlebut what is not debatable is the brilliance of Maraniss's historical accounts of the era, which these olympics did not much change: the Cold War, social tensions in the United States and Europe, the intrusion of politics into the world of sports, and the mingling of athletes and celebrities. Highly recommended for all libraries.Tim Delaney, SUNY at Oswego

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2008
While many Summer Olympic Games have left their mark on our collective memory--Berlin 1932 and Munich 1972 are two--Maraniss makes the strong point that the 1960 Rome Games represented a convergence of forces whose impacts are still felt today: television (and the big money it brought), corporate sponsorship, performance-enhancing drugs, the rise of women athletes, among others, all played out amid the tensions of the cold war and the American civil rights movement. Maraniss, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for national reporting, delivers a compelling narrative, bringing together all of those forces, while also seamlessly profiling the major figures of the games, from Olympic officials to the coaches and, of course, the athletes themselves, who in 1960 included sprinter Wilma Rudolph, decath-alete Rafer Johnson, and a young boxer from Louisville who was still known at that time as Cassius Clay. Though neatly coinciding with the 2008 Beijing Games, also a cauldron for sociopolitical issues, this is a fine stand-alone effort.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)