Rome 1960 : the Olympics that changed the world
/ David Maraniss
- 1st Simon & Schuster hardcover ed
- New York : Simon & Schuster , 2008.
- xiii, 478 p., [24] p. of plates : ill. ; 25 cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 436-460) and index.
Author Maraniss weaves sports, politics, and history into a tour de force about the 1960 Olympics. Along with the unforgettable characters and dramatic contests, there was a deeper meaning to those days at the dawn of the sixties. Change was everywhere. Old-boy notions of Olympic amateurism were crumbling. Rome saw the first doping scandal, the first commercially televised Summer Games, the first athlete paid for wearing a certain brand. In the heat of the Cold War, the city teemed with spies and rumors of defections, and every move was judged for propaganda value. While East and West Germans competed as a unified team, less than a year before the Berlin Wall, there was a dispute over the two Chinas. Fourteen nations were being born in sub-Saharan Africa. There was increasing pressure to provide equal rights for blacks and women. The world as we know it was coming into view.--From publisher description.
Pulitzer Prize winner.
9781416534075
2008013013
Olympic Games (17th : 1960 : Rome, Italy).
Olympics---Political aspects Olympics----Social aspects. Cold War