Beyond glory

The heavyweight fights in New York in 1936 and 1938 between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling symbolized and galvanized the hopes, hatreds, and fears of a world moving toward total war. We see boxing genius Louis taking New York by storm in the 1930s, the savior of a sport in decline and a symbol of redemption for black America after the scandalous reign of Jack Johnson two decades earlier. Schmeling, we learn, was a kind of chameleon, a cultural icon in Weimar Germany who maintained his privileged status after the Nazi takeover. We see the extraordinary buildup to the 1938 rematch--the worsening international tensions seemingly raising the stakes, while radio allowed the whole world to listen. Margolick makes clear the divisions the two men came to represent as the Nazi threat became increasingly clear, and as America began to feel the effects of a nascent civil rights movement.