King of the World, David Remnick
King of the World, David Remnick
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King of the World
Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero

Author: David Remnick

Narrator: Bill Andrew Quinn

Unabridged: 11 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/02/2024


Synopsis

The bestselling biography of Muhammad Ali—with an Introduction by Salman Rushdie

On the night in 1964 that Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) stepped into the ring with Sonny Liston, he was widely regarded as an irritating freak who danced and talked way too much. Six rounds later Ali was not only the new world heavyweight boxing champion: He was "a new kind of black man" who would shortly transform America's racial politics, its popular culture, and its notions of heroism.

No one has captured Ali—and the era that he exhilarated and sometimes infuriated—with greater vibrancy, drama, and astuteness than David Remnick, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Lenin's Tomb (and editor of the New Yorker). In charting Ali's rise from the gyms of Louisville, Kentucky, to his epochal fights against Liston and Floyd Patterson, Remnick creates a canvas of unparalleled richness. He gives us empathetic portraits of wisecracking sportswriters and bone-breaking mobsters; of the baleful Liston and the haunted Patterson; of an audacious Norman Mailer and an enigmatic Malcolm X. Most of all, King of the World does justice to the speed, grace, courage, humor, and ebullience of one of the greatest athletes and irresistibly dynamic personalities of our time.

About David Remnick

David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker since 1998, began his career at the Washington Post, in 1982. He is the author of several books, including The Bridge, King of the World, Resurrection, and Lenin’s Tomb, for which he received both the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction and a George Polk Award for excellence in journalism. He became a staff writer at The New Yorker in 1992 and has since written more than two hundred pieces for the magazine. In 2015, he debuted as the host of the national radio program and podcast, “The New Yorker Radio Hour,” which airs weekly. Under Remnick’s leadership, The New Yorker has become the country’s most honored magazine, with a hundred and ninety-two National Magazine Award nominations and fifty-three wins. In 2016, it became the first magazine to receive a Pulitzer Prize for its writing, and now has won six, including the gold medal for public service.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Liviu on November 01, 2019

This was an excellent book and quite better than I expected; due to the vastness of its subject (the Sun King's reign lasted 72 years and for 50+ of them he was in true control at least in so far the administrative and technological development of the era allowed it) the book feels rushed here and t......more

Goodreads review by Jonathan on May 03, 2021

An enjoyable biography of pre-Revolutionary France's most important monarch. This Louis ruled for a long time (1654 -1715) and he was a prolific builder and war-maker. While we can still enjoy his palaces and fortresses today, and the provinces he added to France, he bankrupted his kingdom and impov......more

Goodreads review by Andrew on January 08, 2020

Having read Mansels biogtaphy of Louis XIV I can definitely appreciate he writing style, but I don't believe I would read anymore of his material. His knowledge of the period and the French court is extensive, and approaches the biography in a thematic sense, where he dissects it in through lenses s......more

Goodreads review by Jo on September 21, 2019

Louis XIV came to the French throne whilst only a small boy and ruled until his sixties. He's most famous for recreating his father's hunting lodge as the incredible palace of Versailles and for his string of mistresses. This new biography covers his personal life as well as his politics and other m......more

Goodreads review by Jordy on February 13, 2024

Mansel has tried what many other writers before him have tried on the subject of Louis XIV: he tried to look past the golden mask of the sun king. As a result, the biography reads as quite complete and detailed with the author discussing a lot of primary sources with the reader. Louis had many admire......more