Boxing

(see also Culture of Violence)

Basics:

On the Web: Articles

Another Toughman Death Prompts Scrutiny. Vickie Chachere, Kansas City Star (6/22/03).

Arguments against banning boxing.

Australian Medical Association's effort to ban boxing (1998).

Requiem for a Featherweight. Chrisanne Beckner, Sacramento News & Review (5/27/04).

On the Web: Specialized Sites

Boxers' Organizing Committee (trade union for professional boxers).

International Boxing Federation/US Boxing Association.

Original Toughman Contest.

Women's Boxing (links to reading matter pro & con, including health issues).

World Boxing Association.

In the Library: Articles

Callahan, Tom. "Boxing's allure," Time (6/27/88): 66-72.

Cowart, Virginia S. "Boxing makes more headlines than usual, & a lot of the news hasn't been good," Journal American Medical Association 261,1 (1/6/89):14-17.

Dillner, L. "Boxing should be counted out, says BMA report," British Medical Journal 306,6892 (6/12/93):1561-62.

Dixon, Nicholas. "Boxing, paternalism & legal moralism," Social Theory & Practice 27,2 (4/01):323.

Enzenauer, Robert W. et al. "Boxing-related injuries in the US Army, 1980 through 1985," Journal American Medical Association 261, 10 (3/10/89):1463-67.

Gunby, Phil. "Boxing: AIDS?" Journal American Medical Association 259,11 (3/18/88):1613.

Leñero, Vicente. "Sábado de box," in his Talacha periodística (México, 1988), pp. 231-37.

McCrory, P. "Boxing & the brain," British Journal of Sports Medicine 36,1 (2/02):2.

Oates, Joyce Carol. "The man with the golden smile," NY Review (11/18/04):25-28. Review essay on Ward, Unforgivable Blackness & Johnson's place in boxing history.

Remnick, David. “The moralist,” New Yorker (7/1/02):46-53.

Van Allen, Mazurice W. & Howard Cosell. "Boxing should be banned," Saturday Evening Post (5-6/92):60-64.

Wallace-Wells, Benjamin. "Battered women: female boxing is brutal & hopeless," Washington Monthly (3/05):34-36.

In the Library: Non-Fiction Books

Ali, Muhammad with Richard Durham. The Greatest: My Own Story (NY: Random House, 1975).

Arnaud, Pierre & James Riordan (eds.) Sport & International Politics (NY: E & FN Spon, 1998).

Atyeo, Don. Blood & Guts: Violence in Sports (NY: Paddington, 1979).

Berger, Phil. Blood Season: Tyson & the World of Boxing (NY: Morrow, 1989).

Bernard, George C. The Morality of Prizefighting (Washington: Catholic U, 1952).

Blonstein, J.L. Boxing Doctor (London: S. Paul, 1965).

Bodner, Allen. When Boxing Was a Jewish Sport (Westport CT: Praeger, 1997).

Brailsford, Dennis. Bareknuckles: A Social History of Prizefighting (Cambridge: Lutterworth, 1988).

Buford, Bill. Among the Thugs (NY: Vintage Departures, 1993).

Cantu, Robert C. (ed.) Boxing & Medicine (Champaign IL: Human Kinetics, 1995).

Carpenter, Harry. Boxing: A Pictorial History (Chicago: Regnery, 1975).

Chandler, David; John Gill, Tania Guha & Gilane Tawadros (eds.). Boxer: An Anthology of Writings on Boxing & Visual Culture (Cambridge MA, 1997).

Cohen, Leah Hagar. Without Apology: Girls, Women & the Desire to Fight (NY: Random House, 2005).

Corbett, James J. The Roar of the Crowd: The True Tale of the Rise & Fall of a Champion [1925] (NY: Arno, 1976)

Cox, William D. (ed.) Boxing in Art & Literature (NY: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1935).

Dempsey, Jack with Myron M. Stearns. Round by Round, an Autobiography (NY: Whittlesey, 1940).

Dunning, Eric. Sport Matters: Sociological Studies of Sport, Violence, & Civilization (London: Routledge, 1999).

Early, Gerald Lyn. The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, & Modern American Culture (Hopewell NJ: Ecco, 1994).

__________ (ed.) The Muhammad Ali Reader (Hopewell NJ: Ecco, 1998).

Fraser, George M. Black Ajax (NY: Carroll & Graf, 1998).

Gilmore, Al-Tony. Bad Nigger! The National Impact of Jack Johnson (Port Washington NY: Kennikat, 1975).

Goldstein, Jeffrey H. (ed.) Sports Violence (NY: Springer-Verlag, 1983).

Gorn, Elliott J. The Manly Art: Bare-Knuckle Prize Fighting in America (Ithaca: Cornell, 1986).

Guttmann, Allen. Sports Spectators (NY: Columbia, 1986).

Hauser, Thomas. The Black Lights: Inside the World of Professional Boxing (NY: McGraw-Hill, 1986).

__________. A Beautiful Sickness: Reflections on the Sweet Science (Fayetteville: U. Arkansas, 2001).

Horrow, Richard B. Sports Violence: The Interaction Between Private Lawmaking & the Criminal Law (Arlington VA: Carrollton, 1980).

Isenberg, Michael T. John L. Sullivan & His America (Urbana: U. Illinois, 1986).

Kahn, Roger. A Flame of Pure Fire: Jack Dempsey & the Roaring 20s (NY: Harcourt Brace, 1999).

Lawler, Jennifer. Punch! Why Women Participate in Violent Sports (Terre Haute IN: Wish, 2002).

Leizman, Jon. Let's Kill 'em: Understanding & Controlling Violence in Sports (Lanham MD: University Press of America, 1999).

Liebling, A.J. The Sweet Science (NY: Viking, 1956).

__________. A Neutral Corner: Boxing Essays (San Francisco: North Point, 1990).

McRae, Donald. Dark Trade: Lost in Boxing (Edinburgh: Mainstream, 1996).

Mee, Bob. Bare Fists: The History of Bare-Knuckle Prize-Fighting (Woodstock NY: Overlook, 2001).

Messner, Michael A. & Donald F. Sabo. Sex, Violence & Power in Sports: Rethinking Masculinity (Freedom CA: Crossing, 1994).

Mitchell, Kevin. War, Baby: The Glamour of Violence (London: Yellow Jersey, 2001).

Newfield, Jack. Only in America: The Life & Crimes of Don King (NY: William Morrow, 1995).

Oates, Joyce Carol. On Boxing (NY: Doubleday, 1987).

__________ & Daniel Halpern (eds.) Reading the Fights (NY: Henry Holt, 1988).

Plass, Paul. The Game of Death in Ancient Rome: Arena Sport & Political Suicide (Madison: U. Wisconsin, 1995).

Ponce, Francisco. Julio César Chávez: adios a la gloria (México: Grijalbo, 2000).

Reemtsma, Jan Philipp. More than a Champion: The Style of Muhammad Ali (NY: Knopf, 1998).

Remnick, David. King of the World: Muhammad Ali & the Rise of an American Hero (NY: Random House, 1998).

Rendall, Jonathan. This Bloody Mary is the Last Thing: A Journey to the End of Boxing (Hopewell NJ: Ecco, 1998).

Riordan, James & Arnd Kruger (eds.) The International Politics of Sport in the 20th Century (NY: Routledge, 1999).

Roberts, Anthony Herber. Brain Damage in Boxers: A Study of the Prevalence of Traumatic Encephalopathy among Ex-Professional Boxers (London: Pitman Medical & Scientific, 1969).

Robinson, Sugar Ray with Dave Anderson. Sugar Ray (NY: Viking, 1970).

Sammons, Jeffrey T. Beyond the Ring: The Role of Boxing in American Society (Urbana: U. Illinois, 1988).

Sekules, Kate. The Boxer's Heart: How I Fell in Love with the Ring (NY: Villard, 2000).

Smith, Michael D. Violence & Sport (Toronto: Butterworths, 1983).

Steen, Robert. Sonny Boy: The Life & Strife of Sonny Liston (London: Methuen, 1993).

Sugden, John P. Boxing & Society: An International Analysis (Manchester: Manchester U, 1996).

Tosches, Nick. The Devil & Sonny Liston (Boston: Little, Brown, 2000).

Tunney, Gene. A Man Must Fight (NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1932).

Wacquant, Loic J.D. Corps et ame: carnets ethnographiques d'un apprenti boxeur (Montreal: Comeau & Nadeau, 2000). The author, recipient of a MacArthur Grant, has studied the social world of boxing in South Chicago.

__________. Body & Soul: Notebooks of an Apprentice Boxer (NY: Oxford, 2003)

Wallenfeldt, E.C. The Six-Minute Fraternity: The Rise & Fall of NCAA Tournament Boxing, 1932-1960 (Westport CT: Praeger, 1994).

Ward, Geoffrey C. Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise & Fall of Jack Johnson (NY: Knopf, 2004).

Wistrand, Magnus. Entertainment & Violence in Ancient Rome: The Attitudes of Roman Writers of the First Century A.D. (Goteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 1992).

Yeager, Robert C. Seasons of Shame: The New Violence in Sports (NY: McGraw-Hill, 1979).

In the Library: Fiction

Apple, Max. Zip: A Novel of the Left & the Right (NY: Viking, 1978).

Benedict, Pinckney. Dogs of God (NY: Doubleday, 1994).

Gardner, Leonard. Fat City [1969] (Berkeley: U. California, 1996).

Kalam, Murad. Night Journey: A Novel (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2003). African American boys & boxing.

Lipsyte, Robert. The Contender (NY: Harper & Row, 1967).

London, Jack. The Game (NY: Macmillan, 1905).

__________. The Abysmal Brute [1913] (Lincoln: U. Nebraska, 2000).

Mailer, Norman. The Fight (Boston: Little, Brown, 1975).

McNamer, Dierdre. One Sweet Quarrel: A Novel (NY: HarperCollins, 1994).

Murray, Yxta Maya. What it Takes to Get to Vegas (NY: Grove, 1999).

Phillips, Gary. Shooter's Point: A Martha Chainey Mystery (NY: Kensington, 2001).

Schulberg, Budd. The Harder They Fall [1947] (Chicago: Ivan Dee, 1996).

__________. Sparring with Hemingway: and Other Legends of the Fight Game (Chicago: I.R. Dee, 1995).

Toole, F.X. Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner (NY: Ecco, 2000).

Zinberg, Len. Walk Hard, Talk Loud: A Novel (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1940).

In the Library: Poetry

In the Library: Drama

Sackler, Howard. The Great White Hope: A Play (NY: Dial, 1968). White boxers striving to challenge early 20th-c. Black heavyweight champ.

In the Library: Photography

Fleischer, Nat; Sam André & Nat Loubet. A Pictorial History of Boxing (rev. ed.; NY: Hamlyn, 1981).

Sheed, Wilfrid. Muhammad Ali: A Portrait in Words & Photographs (NY: Crowell, 1975).

CD & Audio:

Film & Video:

"Body & Soul" [1947], dir. Robert Rossen, 104 m. In video stores. Classic story of fighter working his way up by devious means, brilliantly photographed by James Wong Howe.

"The Boxer" [1998], dir. Jim Sheridan, 114 m. In video stores.

"Broken" [2006], dir. David Wendelman, 16m. Veteran boxer Luis Morales contemplates retirement.

"Broken Noses" [1992], dir. Bruce Weber, 75m. In video stores.

"Campeón sin Corona" [1945], dir. Alejandro Galindo, 110m.

"The Champ" [1931], dir. King Vidor, 87m. Wallace Beery got an Oscar for his portrayal of a washed-up prizefighter.

"Champion" [1949], dir. Mark Robson, 100m. In video stores. Gripping story with Kirk Douglas well-cast as the unscrupulous fighter.

"City for Conquest" [1940], dir. Anatole Litvak, 101m. James Cagney is the boxer, devoted to a younger brother.

"Fat City" [1972], dir. John Huston, 100m. In video stores.

"The Fighter" [1952], dir. Herbert Kline, 78m. Richard Conte as a Mexican boxer who uses winnings to buy arms to seek revenge for his family's murder.

"The Fighter" [1983], dir. David Lowell Rich.

"Girlfight" [2001], dir. Karyn Kusama, 110m.

"Golden Gloves" [1940], dir. Edward Dmytryk, 69m.

"The Harder They Fall" [1956], dir. Mark Robson, 109m. Cruel exploitation in the "fight game.

"The Joe Louis Story" [1953], dir. Robert Gordon, 88m.

"Let's Do It Again" [1975], dir. Sidney Poitier, 110m. Con men use hypnotism to turn scrawny character into a boxer.

"Million Dollar Baby" [2004], dir. Clint Eastwood, 137m. Old pro trains scrappy young woman for ring.

"On the Ropes" [2000], dir. Nanette Burstein & Brett Morgen, 96m. Documentary on three young fighters & coach determined to guide them in positive direction.

"Raging Bull" [1997], dir. Martin Scorsese, 129m. In video stores. Story of fighter Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro).

"Requiem for a Heavyweight" [1962], dir. Ralph Nelson, 85m. In video stores. Devastating critique, with Anthony Quinn as a has-been fighter forced into corruption & degradation.

"Right Cross" [1950], dir. John Sturges, 90m. In video stores.

"The Ring" [1927], dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 73m.

"Rocky" [1976], dir. John G. Avildsen, 125m. In video stores. Two-bit fighter Sylvester Stallone has his one shot for fame & self-respect.

"Triumph of the Spirit" [1989], dir. Robert M. Young, 121m. In video stores.

"Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise & Fall of Jack Johnson" [2004], dir. Ken Burns, 214m. From PBS Home Video.

"When We Were Kings" [1997], dir. Leon Gast, 94m. Story built around 1974 Mohammed Ali vs. George Foreman bout in Kinshasa.