A biography on the former world heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano, volume one of three concentrates on his life and career from his birth in September 1923 through to his pivotal battle with Carmine Vingo in December 1949.

The first volume of a biography on the former world heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano. Volume One of Three focuses on the fighters life from birth in September of 1923 through to December 1949, paying close attention to his evolution through the Army and brief, but spectacular, amateur career before moving onto the formative stages of a profession that would see him unbeaten. This new second edition brings the authors original concept to print for the first time now complete with images."None of us are perfect. Not even our heroes. Since the death of boxing's only undefeated heavyweight champion in the history of the sport, only six biographers have had the gumption to even attempt to put to page the life story of Rocco Francis Marchegiano, or, Rocky Marciano. And even then, most have either not had access to, looked the other way, or simply glossed over the human struggles that Rocky, like all humans, deal with. Until now. John Cameron has taken the task to show that the heart that beat within the chest of Marciano, the heart that refused to go down to defeat, the heart that overcame seemingly impossible odds, was indeed a human heart. And that doesn't make Rocky less of a hero, but in fact, makes him an even bigger hero, and one more accessable to us. John Cameron is to be commended for going where no one else would dare to go!"Chuck Marbry (Ring Talk Boxing Journalist)"Cameron writes movingly about Rocky's childhood and the lives of his parents, Pierino Marchegiano and Pasqualina Picciuto. Rocky was their miracle baby. Even at a young age the future heavyweight champion of the world revealed traits that would one day distinguish him from other fighters."John J. Raspanti"John Cameron has written a fine book on Rocky Marciano."Ferdie Pacheco"I expected a couple of morsels to nourish and delight, instead I got an epicurean feast of revelations...I think it is safe to say, you know more about Rocky Marciano than anyone."Phil Guarnieri"If you're a fan of one of the most famous fighters ever to put on a pair of gloves, Rocky Marciano, (then) the name John Cameron might become a familiar one to you soon...(the project) is obviously a consuming labour of love for the author"Ian McNeilly (BoxRecNews.com/Boxing Monthly).

Boxing is one of the oldest sports in the world, reaching back to the Ancient Greeks, although it has become popular only in the past century or so. But, in some ways, it is a rather complicated sport since – to avoid unnecessary harm – it has been endowed with rules to keep it clean, referees to see the rules are obeyed, and organizations to regulate the sport. Boxing was once largely amateur, although the professional bouts attracted the most attention, but now it is also an Olympic sport. And, over the years, there has been one champion after another who symbolized what boxing was all about, such Joe Louis, Mohammad Ali and Cassius Clay. Naturally, these champions are the focus of the Historical Dictionary of Boxing as well, and they have the biggest entries in the dictionary section, but they had to fight against someone and there are dozens and dozens of other boxers with smaller entries. More of these boxers come from the United States than elsewhere, but there are others from Europe, Asia and Latin America, and there are also entries on the major boxing countries as well. Plus entries on the rules, on the organizations, and on the technical terminology and jargon you have to know just to follow the bouts. The introduction provides a broad view of boxing’s history while the chronology traces events from 688 B.C. to 2012 A.D. Not all that much has been written on boxing that is not ephemeral, but much of that literature can be found in the bibliography. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the sport of boxing.

In this captivating and complex portrait of an American sports legend, Russell Sullivan confirms Rocky Marciano's place as a symbol and cultural icon of his era. As much as he embodied the wholesome, rags-to-riches patriotism of a true American hero, he also reflected the racial and ethnic tensions festering behind the country's benevolent facade. Spirited, fast-paced, and rich in detail, Rocky Marciano is the first book to place the boxer in the context of his times. Capturing his athletic accomplishments against the colorful backdrop of the 1950s fight scene, Sullivan examines how Marciano's career reflected the glamour and scandal of boxing as well as tenor of his times.

"Fred Holly, the oldest of four children, begins his senior year in high school while he works part-time at the local Omaha art museum, a place where he can get lost for hours in the beauty before him. At the museum, Fred escapes his father's worries about the Vietnam War, the draft, and the changes that are roiling America. As fall progresses, James Day, Fred's best friend, begins spending most of his time with his male debate coach and Fred can't help but feel the strange pangs of jealousy. Soon thereafter, Charlotte, Fred's precocious eleven-year-old sister, is admitted to the hospital with kidney problems. As Charlotte's condition worsens and the likelihood of her coming home decreases, the Hollys lives descend into sadness. And only their dreams can hope to inspire their days."--BOOK JACKET.

COP: “Buddy, I think this is a whorehouse.” BUDDY CIANCI: “Now I know why they made you a detective.” Welcome to Providence, Rhode Island, where corruption is entertainment and Mayor Buddy Cianci presided over the longest-running lounge act in American politics. In The Prince of Providence, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Mike Stanton tells a classic story of wiseguys, feds, and politicians on a carousel of crime and redemption. Buddy Cianci was part urban visionary, part Tony Soprano—a flawed political genius in the mold of Huey Long and James Michael Curley. His lust for power cost him his marriage, his family, and close friendships. Yet he also revitalized the city of Providence, where ethnic factions jostle with old-moneyed New Englanders and black-clad artists from the Rhode Island School of Design rub shoulders with scam artists from City Hall. For nearly a quarter of a century, Cianci dominated this uneasy melting pot. During his first administration, twenty-two political insiders were convicted of corruption. In 1984, Cianci resigned after pleading guilty to felony assault, for torturing a man he suspected of sleeping with his estranged wife. In 1990, in a remarkable comeback, Cianci was elected mayor once again; he went on to win national acclaim for transforming a dying industrial city into a trendy arts and tourism mecca. But in 2001, a federal corruption probe dubbed Operation Plunder Dome threatened to bring the curtain down on Cianci once and for all. Mike Stanton takes readers on a remarkable journey through the underside of city life, into the bizarre world of the mayor and his supporting cast, including: • “Buckles” Melise, the city official in charge of vermin control, who bought Providence twice as much rat poison as the city of Cleveland, which was at the time four times as large, and wound up increasing Providence’s rat population. During a garbage strike, Buckles sledgehammered one city employee and stuck his thumb in another’s eye. Cianci would later describe this as “great public policy.” • Anthony “the Saint” St. Laurent, a major Rhode Island bookmaker and loan shark, who tried to avoid prison by citing his medical need for forty bowel irrigations a day, thus earning himself the nickname “Public Enema Number One.” • Dennis Aiken, a celebrated FBI agent and public corruption expert, who asked to be sent to “the Louisiana of the North,” where he enlisted an undercover businessman to expose the corrupt secrets of Cianci’s City Hall. The Prince of Providence is a colorful and engrossing account of one of the most tragicomic figures in modern American life—and the city he transformed.

The Boxer and the Barry Levinson-directed movie The Survivor premiering on HBO on April 27, 2022, are both based on the book by Alan Scott Haft, the eldest son of Hertzko (Harry) Haft: Harry Haft: Auschwitz Survivor, Challenger of Rocky Marciano Poland, 1941. Sixteen-year-old Harry Haft is sent to Auschwitz. When he is forced to fight against other inmates for the amusement of the SS officers, Haft shows extraordinary strength and courage, and a determination to survive. As the Soviet Army advances in April 1945, he makes a daring escape from the Nazis. After negotiating the turmoil of postwar Poland, Haft immigrates to the United States and establishes himself as a professional prizefighter, remaining undefeated until he faces heavy­weight champion Rocky Marciano in 1949. In The Boxer, Reinhard Kleist reveals another side to the steely Harry Haft: a man struggling to escape the memories of the fiancée he left behind in Poland. This is a powerful and moving graphic novel about love and the will to survive.

Throughout history, potters, sculptors, painters, poets, novelists, cartoonists, song-writers, photographers, and filmmakers have recorded and tried to make sense of boxing. From Daniel Mendoza to Mike Tyson, boxers have embodied and enacted our anxieties about race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. In her encyclopedic investigation of the shifting social, political, and cultural resonances of this most visceral of sports, Kasia Boddy throws new light on an elemental struggle for dominance whose weapons are nothing more than fists. Looking afresh at everything from neoclassical sculpture to hip-hop lyrics, Boddy explores the ways in which the history of boxing has intersected with the history of mass media. Boddy pulls no punches, looking to the work of such diverse figures as Henry Fielding and Spike Lee, Charlie Chaplin and Philip Roth, James Joyce and Mae West, Bertolt Brecht and Charles Dickens in an all-encompassing study that tells us just how and why boxing has mattered so much to so many.

George Mantello, First Secretary of the El Salvador Consulate in Geneva from 1942 to 1945, defied strict censorship to launch a press campaign against the daily deportation of 12,000 Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. This is the true story of one man’s efforts to bring horrific news of the Nazi genocide to the Swiss public and to the rest of the world. Armed with this information, prominent Swiss church leaders and theologians condemned the unfolding Holocaust from their pulpits, spurring large public demonstrations. In 400 articles appearing in 120 newspapers, Mantello reached opinion makers throughout the world community. International pressure halted the Hungarian deportations, and Mantello distributed thousands of Salvadoran citizenship papers to Jews in Nazi-occupied territories. In addition to Mantello’s role, Kranzler shows how Swiss theologians such as karl barth and paul Vogt mobilized thousands of Christians against the Germans and against the indifference of the Swiss government and the International Red Cross. This fresh look at the intersection of politics and religion also allows for a new assessment of Swiss complicity in the crimes of the Nazi Third Reich.