About this item
America's black boxing champion. Hitler's favorite athlete. And a world at war. Joe Louis was born on an Alabama cotton patch and raised in a Detroit ghetto. Max Schmeling grew up in poverty in Hamburg, Germany. For both boys, boxing was a way out and a way up. Little did they know someday they would face each other in a pair of battles that would capture the imagination of the world.In America, Joe was a symbol of hope to a nation of blacks yearning to participate in the American dream. In Germany, Max was made to symbolize the superiority of the Aryan race. The two men climbed through the ropes with the weight of their countries on their shoulders -- and only one would leave victorious. The battles waged between Joe and Max still resonate today. War in the Ring is the story of these two outsized heroes, their lives, their careers, and the global conflict swirling around them.
About the Author
John Florio was raised in Flushing, NY. He credits the streets of Queens as one of his earliest influences, along with black-and-white movies, old superhero comics, Sports Illustrated, Humphrey Bogart, and the Hardy Boys.A fan of pop fiction and creative nonfiction, Florio is the author of the historical crime novels, Sugar Pop Moon and Blind Moon Alley. With Ouisie Shapiro, he wrote the nonfiction books, War in the Ring, One Nation Under Baseball, and One Punch from the Promised Land. Florio and Shapiro are contributors to the New Yorker and the Atlantic; their work has also been seen in the New York Times, the Undefeated, VICE, and Sports Illustrated. Florio holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Southern Maine, an MA from New York University, and an MBA from St. John's University. He currently serves on the faculty of the Stonecoast MFA creative writing program at the University of Southern Maine.Visit John Florio at johnfloriowriter.com.
