Muhammad Ali: The Making of an Icon by Michael Ezra (review)

Why another book on Muhammad Ali, Michael Ezra asks in the introduction to Muhammad Ali: The Making of an Icon. After all, for the past generation the Guinness World Record outfit has listed Ali as the most written-about person in history. And as hard as that is to believe—where does Guinness get such information?—it very well may be true. Certainly, during the last half century Ali has been the most recognizable face in the world. And there was a time not very long ago when a person’s opinion of Ali was a barometer to his or her political, social, and cultural beliefs. Still, for all that, academic historians have written surprisingly little about the boxer/activist. Writer Thomas Hauser’s oral biography Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times (1991) remains the best life treatment of the man, and journalist David Remnick’s King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero (1998) is still the finest attempt to assess the importance of the fighter. In addition, Gerald Early’s admirable The Muhammad Ali Reader (1998) does not include a single selection from an academic historian. To the best of my knowledge, the only effort by academics to come to terms with Ali are the essays in Elliott Gorn’s edited Muhammad Ali, the People’s Champ (1998).

Ezra attempts to turn the attention of the academy to a serious, sustained study of Ali. His is not a biography. Rather it examines three aspects of Ali’s life—“his pre-championship boxing matches, the management of his career, and his current legacy” (1). In seeking to explore these aspects, Ezra focuses upon Ali as a “moral authority,” a powerful cultural, political, and financial force. This last point is Ezra’s most important contribution. He asks the obvious—but seldom studied—question: Who benefited financially from Ali’s image? As Ezra demonstrates, if one follows the money trail, he or she will come closer to understanding the real meaning of Ali. The money trail never moves in a straight line. Ezra begins with a detailed examination of the Louisville Sponsoring Group, the white businessmen who controlled the early years of Cassius Clay’s boxing career. He then considers the role played by the Nation of Islam during the middle part of Ali’s career. And he finishes with an investigation of the people who have tried, sometimes at cross-purposes, to shape and benefit from Ali post-fighting career. Occasionally, Ezra’s concern for the financial bottom line becomes limiting; money, in the end was not very important to Ali, and it might not have always been the overriding factor in those close to him. There were many different agendas. Financial gain was just one of them. Still, Ezra’s study is original and incisive, based on a wealth of primarily newspaper and secondary sources. It’s a book that opens windows rather than shuts doors, a study that says much and reminds the reader that much remains to be said.