Author:
Maraniss, David.
Edition Statement:1st Simon & Schuster hardcover ed.
Imprint:New York : Simon & Schuster, 2008.
Descriptionxiii, 478 p., [24] p. of plates : ill. ; 25 cm.
Note:All the way to Moscow -- All roads to Rome -- No monarch ever held sway -- May the best man win -- Out of the shadows -- Heat -- Quicker than the eye -- Upside down -- Track & field news -- Black Thursday -- Interlude : descending with gratitude -- The wind at her back -- Liberation -- The Russians are coming -- The greatest -- The last laps -- New worlds -- The soft life -- "Successful completion of the job" -- A thousand sentinels -- "The world is stirring".
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references (p. 436-460) and index.
Note:Author Maraniss weaves sports, politics, and history into a tour de force about the 1960 Olympics. Along with the unforgettable characters and dramatic contests, there was a deeper meaning to those days at the dawn of the sixties. Change was everywhere. Old-boy notions of Olympic amateurism were crumbling. Rome saw the first doping scandal, the first commercially televised Summer Games, the first athlete paid for wearing a certain brand. In the heat of the Cold War, the city teemed with spies and rumors of defections, and every move was judged for propaganda value. While East and West Germans competed as a unified team, less than a year before the Berlin Wall, there was a dispute over the two Chinas. Fourteen nations were being born in sub-Saharan Africa. There was increasing pressure to provide equal rights for blacks and women. The world as we know it was coming into view.--From publisher description.
