Katherine C. Mooney is James P. Jones Associate Professor of History at Florida State University. She is the author of Race Horse Men: How Slavery and Freedom Were Made at the Racetrack. She lives in Tallahassee, FL.
“Deeply and impressively researched. . . . Ms. Mooney pieces
together a narrative with an arc so tight and clean that it’s a
wonder it actually happened. . . . It reads, in other words, like a
novel, and that is because the author brought not just rigor, but
craft.”—Max Watman, Wall Street Journal
“Isaac Murphy is a concise, yet highly informative, detailed
rendering of the world of thoroughbred horses and jockeys, the
Black struggle during the Nadir, and the impact of an extraordinary
Black athlete.”—Gerald L. Early, author of A Level Playing Field:
African American Athletes and the Republic of Sports
“An eloquent, deeply insightful portrait of an extraordinary
athlete at a time when this nation hovered between rising above old
racial wrongs and plunging back into a racist abyss. Isaac Murphy’s
brilliant career and heartbreaking decline embody this era’s great
potential and its tragic end. Required reading for anyone who wants
to understand the forces shaping sports, race, and national
character in the nineteenth century and beyond.”—Pamela Grundy,
co-author of Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of
Women’s Basketball
“Mooney deftly contextualizes one of the most significant figures
in horseracing history. Anyone interested in how American sports
and society reflect and affect each other should read this
book.”—James C. Nicholson, author of Racing for America: The
Horserace of the Century and the Redemption of a Sport
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