Books by Randy Roberts

The authors of the bestselling JOHN WAYNE: AMERICAN offer a groundbreaking retelling of the most legendary battle in American history, and a rich exploration of a great American myth.

When Jack Johnson defeated white heavyweight champion Jim Jeffries in 1910, it was America's notions of racial superiority that staggered under his blows. Amid riots and lynchings, the search began for the Great White Hope who could put the "uppity" new champion in his place. Here is the startling true story of the most famous--and most hated--black American of his day. "Papa Jack" takes us into a violent and sordid world. It is an astonishing tale of black defiance--and white retribution--set against the dramatic canvas of sports and spectacle in Jim Crow America.

Heavyweight Champion of the World from 1919 to 1926, Jack Dempsey began his boxing career as a skinny boy of sixteen, riding the rails and participating in hastily staged saloon bouts against miners and lumberjacks. This biography charts the life and career of a man widely regarded as one of the toughest ever to enter the ring.

John Wayne remains a constant in American popular culture. Middle America grew up with him in late 1920s and 1930s, went to war with him in 1940s, matured with him in 1950s, and kept the faith with him in the 1960s and 1970s... This is a biography that reveals the changing scene in Hollywood and America from Great Depression through Vietnam War.