Paul Beston se zabývá především historií a kulturou boxu, přičemž jeho práce se vyznačuje hlubokým ponorem do klíčových momentů a postav tohoto sportu. Jeho psaní odhaluje nejen sportovní události, ale i jejich širší společenský a kulturní dopad. Jako redaktor vlivného časopisu Paul Beston přináší do svých analýz bystrý pohled na vývoj a význam boxu. Jeho schopnost propojit sportovní dějiny s dobovým kontextem činí jeho dílo poutavým pro čtenáře se zájmem o sport a historii.
For much of the twentieth century, boxing was one of America's most popular sports. This book details the illustrious history of the heavyweight title in the days when Americans reigned supreme and tells the stories of legendary champions such as John L. Sullivan, Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, and Muhammad Ali.
Twenty-four-year-old newspaperman Ray Sargent is a hardened cynic in the ways of the world: he's lost his parents and brothers, served in the Marines in France, survived the deadly flu pandemic of 1918, and written up everything from labor strikes to gambling dens. And he has a way with women-or so he supposes. But he's never met a woman like Marian Newhouse, the beautiful, brilliant reporter with a mysterious past who shows up in Toledo, Ohio, just as the Midwest's "glass city" is getting ready to host the biggest sports event in the world-a heavyweight championship fight between Jack Dempsey and Jess Willard. It's a time when everything seems up for grabs in the United States, when a midsize manufacturing city becomes the locus of national attention, and when a man who thought he had life figured out finds himself surprised by the oldest surprise of all.As a suffocating heat wave descends and Toledo's streets fill with out-of-town visitors, Ray befriends both boxers. On July 4, with the sun beating down on thousands in an open-air arena, a bell rings to settle the issue between Dempsey and Willard-but can Ray win Marian's heart before she marries a man she barely knows?