Jackie Robinson : A Biography

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Summary: Jackie Robinson: A Biography
Review: I like this book because it gives you a depth look on Jackie Robinson not Jackie the Baseball player. This is the best autobiography I have read.

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Summary: This book cooks!
Review: I wasn't a huge baseball fan when I started this book, but I'd heard of Jackie Robinson. I used to think I knew who he was. Well, you don't anything until you read this book! The comforting text inches over every exciting aspect of Jackie Robinson's life. It was written using information that Jackie Robinson's wife provided for the first time. The topics range from rising above racism to sharing personal family experiences. If you love baseball, this book is absolutely for you. However, if you're not really into sports (like me), then you'll still adore this true-life story that seems almost unreal.

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Summary: an engrossing, human story
Review: i'm not particularly interested in baseball, but i am particularly interested in American history from the human perspective. i could have read a much more dry account of the turmoils that dominated American race relations throughout the middle of the 20th century, but instead i've read this fascinating account of those terrible, backward days from the perspective of a true pioneer, Mr. Jackie Robinson.

of course he is looked back on now as a symbol, a mythological figure. i always knew peripherally of Jackie as the same thing most people do: the first black man to play major league baseball, a step forward & up in the painful struggle of the times. but this book presents him as a human being, a fallible man who lived most of his life not on the baseball field, but in a relentless pursuit of his ideals and desire for a better life for himself and everyone around him.

the reviewer before me questions the biographer's lack of judgement of Robinson. i am curious as to why he feels Rampersad should insert his own analysis; the biography presents analyses of Robinson by many of Robinson's contemporaries, and then presents the recorded facts available to clarify incidents & statements. yes, this is an intensely personal biography, perhaps too personal in places. it is very much centered on Jackie's private correspondences. it is absolutely told from Robinson's persepctive, as best can be reconstructed from his widow Rachel & the papers he left behind, but it feels very honest, not at all like an airbrushed bit of hero-polishing. it is in places very blunt about Jackie's shortcomings as observed by his peers & contemporaries.

before i stretch this out any longer, i'll just say that this is the most engrossing biography i can ever recall having read. it's an account of a fascinating life in an amazingly recent time, in an America that seems so long ago but is still discouragingly recent. readers will learn not just about Jackie Robinson, but about two American eras as well.

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Summary: Brings the Legend who was Jackie Robinson to life.
Review: In his excellent biography of Brooklyn Dodgers infielder Jackie Robinson, author Arnold Rampersad has painted with a crisp and lively narrative an objective, balanced , and candid portrait of a legend. Here is seen the complex, driven man that was Jackie Robinson, "warts" and all. He was the proud and fiercely determined African American athlete, extraordinarily gifted in at least four sports; a sometimes overly sensitive man who despised racism always fought against it, even in the pre-Civil Rights era of the 1930s and 1940s, and even at the risk of conviction by military court-martial. He used an unconquerable will and ambition to became a football, baseball, basketball and track star at Pasadena Junior College; one of the greatest football running backs in UCLA history, and ultimately, under the guidance of legendary Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey, the first African American professional baseball player of the modern era. Rampersad traces Robinson's struggle against racism during his early Dodger years; it is a poignant and compelling story.

The book also shows the more human side of Robinson: a quiet and sensitive man, and a political activist whose fight for racial equality was consistent throughout his life; a wonderfully loving husband but sometimes distant father; and a businessman of tremendous integrity. At Rampersad's hands, Jackie Robinson is a genuinely heroic and admirable person. This is a book which allows the reader to really get to know its subject. It is one of the finest biographies I've read in many years. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Brings the Legend who was Jackie Robinson to life.
Review: In his excellent biography of Brooklyn Dodgers infielder Jackie Robinson, author Arnold Rampersad has painted with a crisp and lively narrative an objective, balanced , and candid portrait of a legend. Here is seen the complex, driven man that was Jackie Robinson, "warts" and all. He was the proud and fiercely determined African American athlete, extraordinarily gifted in at least four sports; a sometimes overly sensitive man who despised racism always fought against it, even in the pre-Civil Rights era of the 1930s and 1940s, and even at the risk of conviction by military court-martial. He used an unconquerable will and ambition to became a football, baseball, basketball and track star at Pasadena Junior College; one of the greatest football running backs in UCLA history, and ultimately, under the guidance of legendary Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey, the first African American professional baseball player of the modern era. Rampersad traces Robinson's struggle against racism during his early Dodger years; it is a poignant and compelling story.

The book also shows the more human side of Robinson: a quiet and sensitive man, and a political activist whose fight for racial equality was consistent throughout his life; a wonderfully loving husband but sometimes distant father; and a businessman of tremendous integrity. At Rampersad's hands, Jackie Robinson is a genuinely heroic and admirable person. This is a book which allows the reader to really get to know its subject. It is one of the finest biographies I've read in many years. Highly recommended!

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Summary: It's a classic
Review: Jackie Robinson is more than a Athlete He is a Ground-Breaking Man in America He paved the way for Future Black Athletes.this Book Sheds light on him&what He dealt with.it can never be stated enough He forever changed the way the Game would be Viewed&watched.He was a Gifted Athlete&Person.this Book Reflects on a Human being that changed a way of Life in this Country that happen in the past 50 years that wasn't that long ago but the way people try to downplay many things that deal with Race you'd Swear it was a 100.Jackie Robinson shall never be forgotten for no Him who knows what the Sports World&Civil Rights be like??He Deserves a National Holiday to me.

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Summary: good but not vital
Review: One of the things that made the Edmund Morris biography of Ronald Reagan such a disappointment (see Orrin's review) is that we partisans had hoped that Morris would produce one of those rare volumes where the life of a great man would be rendered in equally great prose. After all, if you're a sufficiently important figure, there will be no shortage of biographies--it seems that half the historians in America are currently working on Lincoln books--but what you hope for is a book that is a sufficient artistic achievement that it will become a must read. That way, the subject's life story almost covertly stays in the public eye, while the audience is reading the book for its literary qualities. Such, for instance, is the case with Boswell's Life of Johnson where, but for the seminal nature of this work, Samuel Johnson, pithy quotes and all, would be a virtual unknown today.

Jackie Robinson's story is of course so well known to most of us today that such a text hardly seems necessary to preserve his place in history. But sadly, even many professional baseball players have little idea of what he achieved and it is so intrinsic to the American national character to sort of purge bad memories (like that of the color line which barred blacks from playing major league baseball) that it is easy to imagine that the memory of his accomplishments will diminish rapidly in the coming years. It would therefore be nice to have a biography of him that would be read compulsively by succeeding generations of Americans and kids in particular in the same way that we all tore through the novels of John R. Tunis (see Orrin's review) and Mark Harris (see Orrin's review) and the very fine Robert Creamer biographies of Babe Ruth (Babe : The Legend Comes to Life) and Casey Stengel (Stengel : His Life and Times), both interesting characters, but certainly less significant historical figures than Robinson.

Arnold Rampersad, who co-wrote Arthur Ashe's moving memoir Days of Grace (see Orrin's review), has produced a functional and authoritative life of Jackie Robinson, but it does not reach the heights one would have hoped. Indeed, it almost seems as if he found Robinson's story so compelling, which it is, that he tried to stay out of the way of it and let the events speak for themselves. Thus, while he remains an impartial presenter, perhaps even admirably so, the book ultimately seems a little lifeless. The best aspect of the book is that it recaptures the totality of Robinson's life--from the influence of his remarkable mother to his early confrontations with racism like his Court Martial and, after baseball, to his groundbreaking career in business and his involvement in politics, both Democrat and Republican politics. And Robinson is truly a figure of such moral courage and surpassing dignity that the mere facts of his life do make for a worthwhile and edifying story.

This is not a bad book, in fact it's quite good. It just isn't vital. If you're familiar with the basics of the story, you won't learn all that much and the writing is not of the quality to make it required reading. I had the strange feeling while I was reading it, that this was an adult version of the sports biographies we all read as kids (I particularly remember Tom Seaver and the New York Mets). It's okay as far as it goes; it just doesn't seem to go far enough.

GRADE: B+

Rating:
Summary: Pulls its punch
Review: Professor's Rampersad's biography of Jackie Robinson is a book that's needed now. It's incredibly informative about the man behind the legend. (I think Roger Angell's blurb sums it up: "[the] book arrives just in time to save the man from his own legend.") However, Rampersad doesn't focus much on Robinson's baseball life, and he seems to be holding back judgment on Robinson despite the opportunities to do so.

Before digging in the dirt, I want to say that this book is crisply written and chock full o' facts about Robinson's life. Rampersad obviously had the full support of Robinson's widow, Rachel, and her views are constantly felt throughout the book. It's almost told from her point of view, in fact, and thus feels like a intimate, loving homage to the man.

But there are some issues and character flaws in Robinson that Rampersad shows or hints at, but never fully explores. For example, we never truly felt the force of the hatred leveled against Robinson during his efforts to integrate baseball. There are a few quick references to name-calling, a couple of pitches thrown his way, but what made Robinson so bitter, what filled him with the hatred that so obviously ate at him later in his career? It's implied, rather than shown, as if it were too terrible even to discuss. On the whole, the chapters on Robinson's baseball career are woefully thin. It's clear that Rampersad is not much of a baseball fan - including a few factual errors about the sport's rules and game play - and it's a shame, because baseball is as much about its stories as it is about its action.

And then there's Robinson's role as Civil Rights' leader, which Rampersad describes, but withholds all judgment on. Why exactly did Robinson favor the Republican Party, even long after it was obvious that the GOP proved to be the party of segregation and white privilege? Also Rampersad only hints at the acrimony and in-fighting between Robinson and such organizations as the NAACP and SLCC.

Presented with the facts supplied by Rampersad, it seemed that Robinson was a vain, proud, and sensitive man, who was extremely susceptible to flattery, especially from powerful whites. It also seems that his success in baseball convinced him that he would be successful in other areas, especially politics. But it seemed that he was over his head in that area, always a tool of the professionals, Nixon and Rockerfeller.

Notice I say "seem" a lot! That's because Rampersad never states any of this outright, he only hints at it - enough to acknowledge these characteristics, but fails to explore them. Rampersad never digs into Robinson's psychology, never explains or contemplates motivation, cause, or effect of any of Robinson's endeavors. It's so easy on Robinson that I suspect Rampersad wrote this book for Robinson's widow - or maybe her approval of the book was necessary as part of some deal for use of her letters. Or perhaps Rampersad was too aware of Robinson's near-saint-like stature in our nation's culture to find any fault with the man. In any case, he definitely pulls all punches, and the book, though informative, feels incomplete.

Yes, Robinson was a hero. Yes, he was courageous. But he was also a man, full of frailties and inconsistencies, just like the rest of us. To withhold judgement does him as much diservice as it does us...

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Summary: Terrific Read
Review: This biography does an outstanding job of giving an overview of Robinson's life and times, from his early, awnry but talented years in Pasadena, through UCLA, then the military, and then the Brooklyn Dodgers and beyond. It paints a picture of a strong willed gentleman with enormous pride, dedicated to his family, and dedicated to the idea of racial integration and equality. The influences of his mother on his early, somewhat (understandably) confrontational character, that allowed him to ultimately be the individual who paired with Branch Rickey to integrate "America's Pastime" are clearly laid out.

Some reviewers have faulted the author for not being more interpretive of Robinson's politics - specifically, that he was a Nixon supporter in 1960 and a Rockefeller supporter in 1968 (while also being a strong supporter of Civil Rights, active in almost every civil rights organization) and Humphrey supporter as well. I think the book lays out all the facts for the reader to see for themselves. Robinson's coming of age - in an era when a Dixiecrat from a Jim Crow state (LBJ) led the passage of the Civil Rights Act - was a time of a shifting political landscape that didn't settle out until near his death (he also broke badly with Nixon later in Nixon's career). The Republican party's mantra of self-reliance, and Robinson's determination to succeed in business in the same way he did in sports, made his attraction to the party not a big leap; the alienation of this country's African American establishment from big business was not a pre-ordained fact in the time Robinson lived.

Finally, Robinson's own family struggles were also a reflection of the confusing and troubling times in which he lived.

Robinson died too young for us all. This is a great book and I would highly recommend it..