Howard L. BinghamBesprekingen

The story I thought I knew until I read the book! A fascinating look at this period of American History and how Ali came back to regain his heavyweight title. From hero to goat to hero a remarkable story.

An entertaining review of Ali's life during the sixties,. The book addresses the influence of the Vietnam War, the Nation of Islam, and the civil rights movement on Ali. The main focus is on the legal battle over Ali's refusal to serve in Vietnam as a conscientious objector, and on the political and social issues driving the case. Ali's life was certainly influenced by events, but the authors argue that Ali, by standing on principle, was a hero who impacted events himself. I enjoyed this book, and learned a great deal about the events of the period in general, and Muhammad Ali in particular.½

This is a conversational general reader's account of Ali's experiences before, during, and after his refusal to submit to induction into the US armed forces during the Vietnam War era. His reasons were religious and spiritual, but the general public did not believe him. But he stuck to his position, was stripped of his boxing title, underwent a seriously exhausting legal battle, and eventually prevailed, returned to the ring and regained the title. A readily accessible account of important events in an important American figure.

Fascinating book about Ali but I think it suffered in two respects: first, it is more of a journalistic narrative of the events as they happened than a hardcore philosophical analysis of the rightness or wrongness of Ali's case, and I think it fails to go deep enough into the consequences of letting each man choose his war, so to speak; and second, I felt like much of the history of Joe Louis and Jack Johnson was unnecessary, though it is obvious why the author put it in there, as it clarifies Ali's place as a black heavyweight champion. In fairness to Ali, they changed the rules to target him specifically, and his test scores should have prevented him from even qualifying for the draft; until they changed the rules, they DID prevent him from qualifying.

The facts are definitely intriguing. I am not led to believe that Ali is a hero, despite the author's seeming insistence on this point. But I can see why others believe this. Certainly all the other characters in this saga are scoundrels, so comparatively Ali is all the saints wrapped up into one.½

Enjoyable biography of Muhammad Ali's early life and career up until the end of his Supreme Court battle. While the book is certainly written from a pro-Ali view and wasn't the best sourced (like more normal biographies), I found it very informative, especially for someone who grew up well past Ali's fighting career.

Howard Bingham’s title, “Muhammad Ali's greatest fight : Cassius Clay vs. the United States of America”, explains the thesis of his book. Ali’s most powerful opponent wasn’t Liston or Frazer or Foreman but the government of the United States. I have to say that this could well be the most enjoyable book I will read this year. Bingham presents the very compelling story of Ali’s fight to follow his own personal morality. Because even a serious student of history cannot know everything about an era or topic I was pleased to see that Bingham does an excellent job of explaining to the reader the history of race and boxing in America and, just as importantly, he bookmarks events in Ali’s story with the world events that shape it.

This is not the story as it was reported in the newspapers and on network news. Bingham is a friend of Ali and worked as his photographer for a time so, in addition to details that the media left out, there is some bias. However, as any historian knows, everything written has a bias. I think that the 1960s media was more biased against Ali than Bingham is for him. As American writer Budd Schulberg observed in the early 1970s, if you knew someone’s opinion of Ali, you knew where that person stood on half a dozen other issues. “Never before in this ideological sense had there been a champion of the world. Never before a champion fighting for millions of people of the United States against the government of the United States.”

What I found most interesting was that Ali failed the military aptitude test, twice, the second time under observation by a military appointed psychiatrist who testified that Ali made an honest effort to answer the questions. It is obvious to anyone who has heard or read Ali that he is verbally brilliant. His poetry and his off the cuff eloquence is legendary. That he had such problems with math brings up the question did his school fail their brilliant boxing champion or, as one of his teachers speculated, does he struggle with a learning disability which, in the 1950s would have been a mystery to everyone. When it was apparent that Ali honestly did not meet the standards the Pentagon lowered the minimum score required for induction into the military from 30 to 15. Ali’s score was 16.

My only disappointment with the book is that it is not better documented. That is not the fault of the book, it is meant to be popular, not scholarly, history and is documented as well as I should expect, but is it wrong to hope for more?

Regardless of your opinion on Ali and the draft I think that you will find this book as entertaining as it is enlightening.½

When it comes to boxing, Muhammad Ali knew he was the greatest. He knew it, his opponents knew it, and the whole world knew it. But that is just a small part of what made Muhammad Ali famous. His courage to stand up for his religious beliefs was his greatest victory. His refusal to be inducted in the US Army and participate in the war against Vietnam at the risk of a prison sentence, the loss of his Heavyweight Boxing Championship title, the confiscation of his passport, and a potentially ruined career inevitably made him a legend in his own time.

"Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight" focuses on his battle with the United States government to be accepted as a conscientious objector and his struggle with the World Boxing Association to regain his confiscated boxing title. After a few introductory chapters covering his childhood and a brief history of boxing, the book’s primary content is based on the ten year period of time when this occurred... the 1960’s.

If you’ve already read Thomas Hauser’s "Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times" you may find sections quite repetitive. In fact, entire paragraphs are exactly the same. Some examples: from Hauser’s book Chapter 7 titled Exile - pages 181, 186, 187, and 192 paragraphs match the content of this book in Chapter 8 - also titled Exile- on pages 189, 178, 190, and 202. However, for anyone who is not interested in reading hundreds of pages of his entire biography but wishes to understand the significance of Muhammad Ali’s fame, this is a good book; short, concise, and to the point with great detail about the Black Muslims, the Vietnam war protests, his connection to Malcolm X and association with Martin Luther King Jr., and Muhammad Ali’s unwavering religious faith and sincere concern about civil rights.

Prior to reading this book, I knew very little about Muhammad Ali's refusal to be drafted for the Vietnam War or his relationship with the Nation of Islam. This book focuses on the period of time from when Ali was drafted up until his case for draft evasion was heard by the Supreme Court. It does a good job of showing how his decision to not be drafted due to religious reasons related to the overall civil rights movement and the country's feelings on the Vietnam War. It is incredible to think that less than 50 years ago one man could be a target of so much hate, and sad to think that the prime years when Ali should have been defending his heavyweight titles were instead spent defending his beliefs.

The authors clearly spoke to a lot of people during their research for the book and while it is slanted favorably towards Ali, they do not hesitate to mention his blemishes, such as his poor financial judgment and extramarital affairs. In fact, these character flaws make it even more clear that Muhammad Ali is not some mythical figure, but a regular man who stood up for what he believed in, and held true to those beliefs no matter what the cost.

I really enjoyed this book, which focused on Muhammad Ali's private and personal life more than his boxing career. As others who got it as an ER have said, it's well-documented and an easy read.

I felt that the book had a "revisionist" tone in that it often was concerned with debunking conventional wisdom - about Muhammad Ali himself (sometimes due to his own autobiography in which the ghostwriter apparently made up more than one anecdote), about the nature of the theology and praxis of the Nation of Islam, about his court case and what it was about and what it was not about. Since I was born in 1968 I sort of missed the original and it was like reading a commentary rather than a source text. That said, it certainly held my interest - I read it in a single evening. I appreciated the book because I really felt like I was getting Muhammad Ali's own perception of events.

There was one thing that the book didn't really answer for me that I remain curious about - if he changed his name because he was given this new name by Elijah Mohammad, why didn't he go for an actual legal name change? He was constantly having little tiffs with bureaucrats who refused to use his new name and contended that his old name was his "legal" one. Has it been hard, in the past, to change one's name legally? Because as far as I know it is a pretty easy thing to do these days.

Mohammad Ali is unbelievably popular the world over. I heard that during his rematch with Frazier in Zaire, which was broadcast everywhere, Cairo was completely silent and there was absolutely no one on the streets. Even during the world cup this would be unheard of. He seems to be a very likeable person, a little bit cocky, a little bit proud, but in 1966 it was really hard to be against the war and he had a lot to lose, and his stance took a fair amount of guts.

I very much recommend this book for anyone interested in '60s history, Mohammad Ali, and boxing in general.

Finished reading an ER book, Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight: Cassius Clay vs. The United States of America last night. I am having a hard time writing a review of the book without accounting for the historical times it describes. It is recommended for any who have even the slightest interest in knowing more of those times, and of Muhammad Ali. The book takes his story from his early development as a boxer to the Supreme Court hearing his case. The author's history is well documented and seems, to me, to be reliable.

Cassius Clay, as a young man, discovered his natural talent as a boxer early in his life and was on his way, via winning a gold metal in the Olympics, to being rich and famous when he made two choices which changed all that. First, he converted to The Nation of Islam in about 1961 and then, much later, he decided to decline the invitation to be drafted into the U.S. Army and fight in Vietnam. This author does an excellent job of accounting the racist environment in which he boxed, and lived, and the history of the impacts of his decisions.

The Nation of Islam was not, and is not, the same as the religion we know today. It was an off shoot developed in the U.S. by Elijah Muhammad, and preached by Malcolm X. It was a mixture of Islamic religious ideas and ideas of black nationalism, anti-racism, and black self determination in the U.S. during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960-70s. Elijah Muhammad "gave" Cassius Clay his new name, Muhammad Ali, and influenced him greatly, as did Malcolm X.

The author does an excellent job of accounting all the legal maneuverings to send Muhammad Ali to jail for his "draft dodging". He puts these events in the context of the historical segregation in boxing which made many white boxers refuse to fight black boxers, and paranoid FBI wiretapping Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders, of the riots when King was assassinated, and the internal battles inside The Nation of Islam which resulted in Malcolm X being assassinated, also. Muhammed Ali was attacked for his stand against the War in Vietnam, and was stripped of his title as Heavyweight Champion. He became, for many racist journalists, politicians, and regular people, the poster child for the Anti-War movement before it had become mainstream.½

Sonny Liston? Joe Frazier? George Foreman? Lean Spinks? Which each of these heavyweights who fought with Muhammad Ali gave him his toughest fight? Who was the adversary who was the most persistent and determined? As memorable as these and many other fights of Ali’s career were, the claim of Howard Bingham and Max Wallace is that his most dogged opponent was the government of the United States, a case they make in the new paperback edition of Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight: Cassius Clay vs. The United States of America (M. Evans: Lanham, MD, 2000).

Bingham and Wallace sketch out a biography of the early life of Ali, which includes his childhood growing up in Louisville, his rising career as a professional boxer, and his membership in the Nation of Islam. But the focal point of their work is his ongoing conflict with the United States government over his status as a resistor to being drafted into the Army, something that occurred simultaneously with the years that should have been the peak of his boxing career.

Ali claimed to be opposed to military service as a conscientious objector due to religious reasons. This claim was vigorously opposed by the government at many levels, which the authors demonstrate included local draft boards, state boxing commissions, local politicians, members of Congress and the FBI. His claim was intrinsically connected with the mood of the country at-large in regard to civil rights and opposition to the war in Vietnam. As the author’s present Ali’s case they also note that for large segments of the population the mood on the events of the 60’s was something that evolved over time. They cite comments from a number of people that could have been assumed to be natural supporters of Ali, i.e. black America at-large; who initially supported the war effort and thought that he was clearly wrong both in resisting military service. These opinions changed, both for Blacks and the country, but only gradually and not in ways that overtly shaped the outcome of Ali’s legal case.

The authors are in Ali’s corner, so-to-speak, holding him up as a leading example of someone resisting the war in the interest of the greater good. They cite sportswriter Jerry Izenberg, who said: "You have to remember that all those kids protesting the war were basically acting out of self-interest. They didn't want to go to Vietnam so they did everything they could to stay out of the Army. They got themselves student deferments, they fled to Canada, very few of them actually took a real stand. Compare that to Ali who put everything he had on the line and was willing to go to jail for what he believed in." (194)

Ali may have said he was willing to go to jail for his cause, and the authors give numerous quotes to support that contention, but at the same time Ali’s legal appeal ran for four years and I think that particular claim rings a bit hollow, given that at any time he could made his point while incarcerated and his appeal progressed through the legal system.

Much like a fight with two opponents slugging out 15 rounds to reach a decision, so did Ali’s legal fight play out. He won his appeal through an action of the Supreme Court, who somewhat reluctantly uncovered the right holes in the government case to decide in his favor. Undaunted and without holding any grudges, after a three-year absence as his legal case was reaching its conclusion, he was able to return to boxing. And three years later Ali regained the world title.

I enjoyed this book and recommend it as a very readable glimpse into the convergence of a colorful personality, one who generated either affection or dislike, with no middle ground, and a fractious time in US history.