Muhammad Ali: The Making of an Icon

by Michael Ezra

Overview

Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Clay) has always engendered an emotional reaction from the public. From his appearance as an Olympic champion to his iconic status as a national hero, his carefully constructed image and controversial persona has always been intensely scrutinized. In Muhammad Ali, Michael Ezra considers the boxer who calls himself “The Greatest” from a new perspective. He writes about Ali’s pre-championship bouts, the management of his career and his current legacy, exploring the promotional aspects of Ali and how they were wrapped up in political, economic, and cultural “ownership.”

Ezra’s incisive study examines the relationships between Ali’s cultural appeal and its commercial manifestations. Citing examples of the boxer’s relationship to the Vietnam War and the Nation of Islam—which serve as barometers of his “public moral authority”—Muhammad Ali analyzes the difficulties of creating and maintaining these cultural images, as well as the impact these themes have on Ali’s meaning to the public.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781592136636
Publisher:	Temple University Press
Publication date:	01/28/2009
Series:	Sporting
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
File size:	358 KB

About the Author

Michael Ezra is Chair of the American Multicultural Studies Department at Sonoma State University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 
Introduction: Why Another Book about Muhammad Ali?

Part I: Louisville Sponsoring Group 
Louisville's Favorite Son: The Professional Debut 
Choosing Management: The Courtship of Cassius Clay 
The Early Bouts, 1961-1962 
Clay vs. Moore: The Seminal Text 
The Most Hated Man in Boxing? The Early Bouts, 1963 
Damage Control through Moral Authority: The Louisville Sponsoring Group's Specialty 
The Relationship between Cassius Clay and the Louisville Sponsoring Group: A Summary 
The Commercial Elements of Clay-Liston I

PartII: Nation of Islam 
Main Bout Inc.: How Commerce Affects Culture 
Carving Out Moral Authority: Ali's Race Man Phase

Part III: Good People 
Forty Years of Ali: The Making of an Icon 
The Legacy of Ali's Exile and the Nation of Islam 
The Prodigal Son Returns 
King of the World: The Consequences of Monarchy 
Death of a Salesman 
Lonnie Ali: The Savior 
Thomas Hauser: The Literary Rehabilitation of Ali's Legend 
Olympic Torch: From Literature to Television 
Beyond Moral Authority: The Apotheosis of Muhammad Ali 
Culture Meets Commerce: The Muhammad Ali Center, Naming Rights, and the Price of Moral Authority 
The Backlash: Exploring Contradictory Meaning of Ali

Notes 
Index

What People are Saying About This

Richard OBrien

"Michael Ezra's rigorously researched and engagingly written book at once illuminates and liberates one of our towering national figures. Stripping away the cant and fuzziness that has grown up around Muhammad Ali, Ezra delivers a fresh, intellectually challenging and ultimately invigorating understanding of the fighter and the man."--(Richard O'Brien, Boxing Editor, Sports Illustrated)

Carlo Rotella

"Muhammad Ali is a terrific book. Disciplined, convincing, equipped to deliver on his bold and original thesis, Michael Ezra makes fresh sense not only of Ali as cultural icon and historical figure but of the vast Ali literature and mythos that surrounds him."--(Carlo Rotella, Boston College, author of Cut Time: An Education at the Fights)

Editorial Reviews

According to Ezra (American multicultural studies, Sonoma State Univ.), more has been written about Muhammad Ali than about anyone else in history. Ezra's contribution explores how Ali's cultural status has always been determined by who has been making money off of him. First, as Cassius Clay, he was the brash but lovable "Louisville Lip," guided to the heavyweight championship by the beneficent (and white) Louisville Sponsoring Group. Then his star fell as he came under the control of the Nation of Islam. And, finally, his image has been reconstructed under the direction of his wife, Lonnie, and with the help of what Ezra sees as sycophantic biographers. Scholars will appreciate Ezra's work, with its plethora of footnotes and paucity of ring action, more than Joe Fight Fan may. In the end, this book increases our understanding of how difficult it is to know the real Ali, a simple man paradoxically imbued with great complexity. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.-
—Jim Burns

Library Journal

“Muhammad Ali is a terrific book. Disciplined, convincing, equipped to deliver on his bold and original thesis, Michael Ezra makes fresh sense not only of Ali as cultural icon and historical figure but of the vast Ali literature and mythos that surrounds him.”
—Carlo Rotella, Boston College, author of Cut Time: An Education at the Fights

From the Publisher