pThis insightful study offers a fresh perspective on the life and career of champion boxer Joe Louis. The remarkable success and global popularity of the Brown Bomber made him a lightning rod for debate over the role and rights of African Americans in the United States. Historian Marcy S. Sacks traces both Louis's career and the criticism and commentary his fame elicited to reveal the power of sports and popular culture in shaping American social attitudes. Supported by key contemporary documents, emJoe Louis Sports and Race in Twentieth-Century Americaem is both a succinct introduction to a larger-than-life figure and an essential case study of the intersection of popular culture and race in the mid-century United States. p