Rome 1960 : the Olympics that changed the world / David Maraniss.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Maraniss, David.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Olympic Games--(17th : 1960 : Rome, Italy).

Olympic Games.

Olympics--Political aspects.

Olympics.

Olympics--Social aspects.

Cold War.

Physical Description:

xiii, 478 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First Simon and Schuster hardcover edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Simon & Schuster, 2008.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

1 All the Way to Moscow 1

2 All Roads to Rome 24

3 No Monarch Ever Held Sway 52

4 May the Best Man Win 70

5 Out of the Shadows 91

6 Heat 110

7 Quicker Than the Eye 125

8 Upside Down 148

9 Track & Field News 161

10 Black Thursday 176

Interlude: Descending with Gratitude 200

11 The Wind at Her Back 205

12 Liberation 228

13 The Russians Are Coming 248

14 The Greatest 261

15 The Last Laps 285

16 New Worlds 308

17 The Soft Life 324

18 "Successful Completion of the Job" 347

19 A Thousand Sentinels 367

20 "The World Is Stirring" 380.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 436-460) and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Altemus fund bookplate.

ISBN:

9781416534075

1416534075

9781416534082

1416534083

OCLC:

214066042

Online:

Publisher description