by HDonaldCapps » Fri Oct 14, 2011 1:57 am
Blood and Smoke: A True Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and the Birth of the Indy 500, by Charles Leerhsen, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011.
The centennial of the first running of the International 500 Mile Sweepstakes at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Decoration Day, 1911, prompted both attention on that event as well as the inclination to cash in on this occasion with a book that with the right marketing could not only celebrate the first running of the race but also provide readers with something of a mystery story. There was also the hope that Blood and Smoke would be the "definitive" book on the race.
If you wish to read the "definitive" book on this race, dear reader, you should realize that your must continue to wait since this is not that book.
Personally promoted by Leerhsen with the interesting approach of directly marketing the book on several of the "nostalgia" racing fora, Blood and Smoke is really not a "bad" book as much as it is really the sort of book that a sports journalist would write to cash in on a "hot" topic. While Leerhsen is a "good" writer, that does not necessarily mean that his writing is "good" history. While two of the best books on sports that I have read concern racing -- horse racing, that is, Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit and Bill Nack's Secretariat, this is not even close to being in their league.
I challenged Leerhsen on a number of the assertions he made when visiting several of the fora earlier this year. This was obviously not what he was expecting. In several cases I manged to draw his ire and cause his temper to boil a bit. In fact, he basically, left in a huff and refused to engage further any more discussion. I would suggest that a historian would have been both willing and able to better support his assertions and have tempered his hype a bit bit more.
That Leerhsen clearly implies that the true winner of the event was Ralph Mulford in a Lozier -- although he takes great pains to avoid saying so outright (the "wink-wink, nudge-nudge" theory of journalism), is not the basic problem with the book. Indeed, one does find much to consider that outcome when the matter is studied, but rather that the less one knows and the less one is interested in the historian's craft, the better the book is. Indeed, for the general public this is probably not a bad read. Often overly melodramatic and not much different than what is too often found in magazines -- sports and otherwise -- as writing these days, it probably suits the crowd it was aimed out -- not automotive historians....
If you find this on the remainder shelf or otherwise deeply discounted, it might be a good buy. I did buy a copy when it came out -- providing Mr. Leerhsen with at least some pocket change and read it several times, noting various points that would be interesting to have seen the references for the source material; no footnotes but "A note on sources" can be found at the end of the book. It begins with, "No truth was injured intentionally in the creation of this work of nonfiction. No quotes are made up, no scenes manufactured." While this might be true, neither does the book do the truth justice.
For the most part, from my perspective, my qualms with the book are as much a matter of interpretation of the material as it is any other issue. As a historian, I take some exception to some of his conclusions as well as how they are presented. However, given that very few with interest in the past of automobile racing are all that terribly concerned with the issue related to a viewing the past as "history," often being more concerned with issues of nostalgia or relatively trivial issues or objects (i.e., the machinery), it is reasonable to assume that the opinion of the majority reading the book would side with Mr. Leerhsen and his view of the event.
Such is Life.
HDC
[b]Blood and Smoke: A True Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and the Birth of the Indy 500[/b], by Charles Leerhsen, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011.
The centennial of the first running of the International 500 Mile Sweepstakes at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Decoration Day, 1911, prompted both attention on that event as well as the inclination to cash in on this occasion with a book that with the right marketing could not only celebrate the first running of the race but also provide readers with something of a mystery story. There was also the hope that [b]Blood and Smoke[/b] would be the "definitive" book on the race.
If you wish to read the "definitive" book on this race, dear reader, you should realize that your must continue to wait since this is not that book.
Personally promoted by Leerhsen with the interesting approach of directly marketing the book on several of the "nostalgia" racing fora, [b]Blood and Smoke[/b] is really not a "bad" book as much as it is really the sort of book that a sports journalist would write to cash in on a "hot" topic. While Leerhsen is a "good" writer, that does not necessarily mean that his writing is "good" history. While two of the best books on sports that I have read concern racing -- horse racing, that is, Laura Hillenbrand's [b]Seabiscuit[/b] and Bill Nack's [b]Secretariat[/b], this is not even close to being in their league.
I challenged Leerhsen on a number of the assertions he made when visiting several of the fora earlier this year. This was obviously not what he was expecting. In several cases I manged to draw his ire and cause his temper to boil a bit. In fact, he basically, left in a huff and refused to engage further any more discussion. I would suggest that a historian would have been both willing and able to better support his assertions and have tempered his hype a bit bit more.
That Leerhsen clearly implies that the true winner of the event was Ralph Mulford in a Lozier -- although he takes great pains to avoid saying so outright (the "wink-wink, nudge-nudge" theory of journalism), is not the basic problem with the book. Indeed, one does find much to consider that outcome when the matter is studied, but rather that the less one knows and the less one is interested in the historian's craft, the better the book is. Indeed, for the general public this is probably not a bad read. Often overly melodramatic and not much different than what is too often found in magazines -- sports and otherwise -- as writing these days, it probably suits the crowd it was aimed out -- not automotive historians....
If you find this on the remainder shelf or otherwise deeply discounted, it might be a good buy. I did buy a copy when it came out -- providing Mr. Leerhsen with at least some pocket change and read it several times, noting various points that would be interesting to have seen the references for the source material; no footnotes but "A note on sources" can be found at the end of the book. It begins with, "No truth was injured intentionally in the creation of this work of nonfiction. No quotes are made up, no scenes manufactured." While this might be true, neither does the book do the truth justice.
For the most part, from my perspective, my qualms with the book are as much a matter of interpretation of the material as it is any other issue. As a historian, I take some exception to some of his conclusions as well as how they are presented. However, given that very few with interest in the past of automobile racing are all that terribly concerned with the issue related to a viewing the past as "history," often being more concerned with issues of nostalgia or relatively trivial issues or objects (i.e., the machinery), it is reasonable to assume that the opinion of the majority reading the book would side with Mr. Leerhsen and his view of the event.
Such is Life.
HDC