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The Fight of His Life

Joe Louis’s Battle for Freedom During World War II

The Fight of His Life Open the full-size image

Contributors

By Randy Roberts

By Johnny Smith

Formats and Prices

Price

$32.00

Price

$42.00 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. Hardcover $32.00 $42.00 CAD
  2. ebook $18.99 $24.99 CAD

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The boxing champion whose fight against the Nazis in and out of the ring made him a global icon

During the 1930s and 1940s, no African American athlete commanded the spotlight more than heavyweight boxer Joe Louis. His 1938 knockout victory over German Max Schmeling struck an early blow against Nazi Germany. But it was Louis’s service in the looming war that transformed him from a patriotic role model into history’s first prominent Black athlete turned activist.

In The Fight of His Life, award-winning sports historians Johnny Smith and Randy Roberts tell the story of heavyweight champion Joe Louis’s battles both in and out of the ring. Already world-famous at the outset of World War II, Louis enlisted in the army, serving as a goodwill ambassador and promoting unity across military bases that crackled with racial tension. Yet Louis’s experience with segregation in the army sparked his political awakening. As the war dragged on, he advocated for Black soldiers facing discrimination. Once the war ended, he joined veterans and civil rights activists to fight for voting rights and racial equality.

 Expertly revising the life story of one of America’s most iconic Black athletes, Smith and Roberts’s biography celebrates Joe Louis’s forgotten fight against fascism abroad and racism at home.
 

Genre:

  • “A sharp, hard-hitting, beautifully written account of one of the greatest sports figures in all American history. The Fight of His Life is a book worthy of its subject—and when the subject is Joe Louis, that’s a monumental achievement.”
    Jonathan Eig, author of Ali: A Life and King: A Life, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

On Sale
Nov 4, 2025
Page Count
352 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9781541605060

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Randy Roberts

About the Author

Randy Roberts is distinguished professor of history at Purdue University. An award-winning author, he focuses on the intersection of popular and political culture, and has written or co-written biographies of such iconic athletes and celebrities as Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Bear Bryant, Oscar Robertson, John Wayne and Muhammad Ali, as well as books on the Vietnam War, the Alamo, the 1973-1974 college basketball season, and West Point football during World War II. A Season in the Sun is the second book he has written with Johnny Smith. Roberts lives in Lafayette, Indiana.

Learn more about this author

Johnny Smith

About the Author

Johnny Smith is the J.C. “Bud” Shaw Professor of Sports History at Georgia Tech. He is the author of Jumpman, and co-author of The Fight of His Life, War Fever, A Season in the Sun, and Blood Brothers. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

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