| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 96.1

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 203 words from this article are provided below; about 398 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 96.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Fight Pictures: A History of Boxing and Early Cinema. By Dan Streible. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. xx, 396 pp. Cloth, $65.00, ISBN 978-0-520-25074-1. Paper, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-520-25075-8.)
Dan Streible begins his informative history Fight Pictures by pointing out that, unlike other sports, boxing had "an intimate relationship" with moving pictures from the outset of cinema (p. 2). Indeed, the first feature-length movie in America was the James J. Corbett–Robert P. Fitzsimmons heavyweight match filmed on St. Patrick's Day, 1897. By 1907 more than one hundred fight films had been made, and by 1915 that number had doubled. Many fake fight films appeared during this period, too.	1
Moving pictures help explain why prizefighting gained such popularity during the late 1890s. But Streible shows that films were but one part of a media environment that included press agents, advertising, and a sensational press that increasingly filled its pages with pictures—first illustrations but soon halftone photographs. This book is good at explaining how rapidly changing technology—improved electrical lighting and new cameras, for example—made possible better films and lavish spectacles. By 1900, "a common sociological world" had been created that joined together filmmaking, boxing, and the theater (p. 49).	. . .

There are about 398 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.