Book Review Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics
A Great Book I Read For Black History Month and Reviewed to Connect Historically Relevant Topics to Today’s World
Several books and movies have told the story of Jesse Owens, so tackling this larger-than-life personality is no easy task. Jeremy Schaap, who also wrote Cinderella Man, was up to the task when he wrote Triumph. Schaap manages to cover all of Owens’ important life moments while also really going into detail about the racial tensions in the United States and the broader political and military tensions brewing globally in the 1930s.
The story of Owens starts with his upbringing and both his parents’ wish for him to have a better life than they did. Upward mobility for African Americans in the first half of the 20th century was not easy, but Owens’ opportunity came when he ran a near world-class time in the 100-yard run during gym class without any track gear. Charles Riley, the physical education teacher, and coach who witnessed Owens’ run, first thought the stopwatch was broken! The watch was not broken, and Riley quickly decided he needed to nurture Owens’ sprinting talent. By the time Owens graduated from high school, he had made a name for himself as a sprinter and long jumper and earned a spot at the Ohio…
