An Illustrated History of Boxi

by Nat Fleischer

Book Overview

Through An Illustrated History of Boxing, fans will experience the careers of fighters in every weight class, from flyweight to heavyweight. They can relive the days when Jack Dempsey, Max Baer,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0806522011
• ISBN13: 9780806522012
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Citadel Press
• Length: 461 Pages
• Weight: 3.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 8.4" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

The first, but not last, thing to read

This book was my first boxing book in the early 60s, and it is a great browsing volume for a beginning or long-time fight fan, especially for the photographs and art work. Nat Fleischer, founder of Ring Magazine, passed away some time ago, and it is well updated. But Fleischer is still the major author, and he is a mixed blessing. As much as I admire his vast knowledge, he can be unreliable--his top 10 lists (found in his Record Books) read more like chronologies than considered judgements--and his writing has an odd sense of structure. Most of the reports in the Ring bore his stamp-- Nat Loubet's and Dan Daniel's as well as his own--a digressive or winding motion, moving around topics, picking up and dropping off fight descriptions and contexts. And Fleischer, while generally upstanding and fair-minded, could also be cranky and reactionary, especially in his later years. Fortunately, his quirks are held to a minimum here, and the book is well worth owning.

The King of Sports

This book documents the history of boxing with excellent writing by respected boxing journalists. But the highlight has be its outstanding collection of photos and sketches. The book was originally written in 1959 and its strength clearly lies with its coverage of earlier heavyweight champions like Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis. But the current sixth edition is revised and updated through 2001. The emphasis is definitely on the heavyweights but the lower weight classes are also covered. For serious fans of boxing this is a must have book!

The Best Boxing Book Ever!!

If you are interesten in the early history of boxing,then look no further!!!Great array of pictures and stories of just about EVERY Boxer since James Figg made boxing famous!!The Chapter on Heavyweights alone is more than worth the price of this book!!If you love boxing and it's history GET THIS BOOK!!!

Worth buying

The good points of the book outweigh the bad in that it is a very good reference that tells the history of boxing in a very comprehensive way. Another great point is the illustrations. Huge photos that percieve the boxers as kings and look very dramatic.But there are some annoyances. First of all, it is very biased towards certain boxers, especially heavyweights. Pages 8 to 185 are reserved for the heavyweights. Pages 336 to 410 are reserved for the featherweight, bantamweight and flyweight divisions!Not least in the choice of photos. Why show pictures of Rocky Marciano with his kids or Dempsey at the horse-races or smoking his cigar(which takes up 3/4 page) etcetera etcetera when there are is SUCH an insufficient amount of photos for the lower classes. Why comment on how poor Primo Carnera is and show a photo. Why show so much on each heavy? It is irrelevent how they live their lives outside the ring when there is no photo which shows up Sandy Saddler as great as he was(except wrestling on the floor with Pep).And the middleweights too. Mickey Walker is shown painting his art, but there are is hardly anything on middleweight legend Carlos Monzon!These are only certain occurances. I am only recalling ones that are in my memory as of writing. But I would say half of the photos in the book should be replaced with photos of the less popular or lower weight boxers. Yes, HALF of the book's photos is like this.The fly/bantam/feather sections are short(obviously the bigger men are preferred) especially considering the huge size and huge abundance of pictures in the heavy, light-heavy and middle sections. Jimmy Wilde gets a few good pictures but then again they HAVE to do that he is such a legend.It may be very biased, but it undoubtedly is a worthwhile purchase. Especially for people who want to know the legends of the past like Jim Jeffries or Sullivan. But they really need to put more on the lower classes and the less popular but BETTER boxers.

History of Boxing Scores Stunning KO!

The History of Boxing by Fleischer and Andre is so riveting that I stayed up all night reading this book! From "Pugilisms First Heroes" to the last chapter update, the content is superb. There are so many priceless photos and illustrations pre-dating photographic equipment, from the British origins to Las Vegas! As a kid, I remember Hurricane Carter winning a televised Friday Night at the Fights brawl by knocking his opponent out of the ring. And the local Houston, TX heavyweights like Cassius Clay and Cleveland Big Cat Williams. Well, this book chronicles the champions.If I were to make a complaint, only the champions and their opponents are covered. So spectacular non-title fights are not covered here. I reckon that's the nature of the beast on a "best of" book like this that covers such a long period of time. But for what it is, it is all that and more!