A biography of the nation's first celebrity heavyweight champ retraces the life of Jack Dempsey--hobo, roughneck, boxer, millionaire, movie star, and eventually, a man of compassion and generosity. 

I'm a big boxing fan and also an avid reader, so it was a great joy to find a book which shed so much light on one of the great heavyweight champions and was also so well written. Kahn spends quite some time giving background on the '20s, he describes the (sometimes hypocritical) attitudes towards the First World War and Prohibition, this serves to "flesh out" the character of Dempsey and give some appreciation of some of the choices he made. 

The contrasts between the irresponsible jingoism and scare-mongering of America at this time with the personal struggle of Dempsey against his harsh poverty is very effective.