Fists of Glory provides a fascinating and intimate look at boxing from its origins in archaic Greece to its demise in late antiquity. Jean-Manuel Roubineau takes readers on a full sensory journey, replete with sights, smells, and percussive sounds, as he discusses all aspects of the sport, including rules and regulations, gear, weight classes, training regimens, cheating strategies, and boxing's relationship to other sporting contests like pankration.

Roubineau's expertise as a prize-winning social historian and twenty years as an amateur boxer enable him to chart in compelling detail how ancient boxing arose and developed. He discusses the development of punching bags, a forensic exam on a boxer's skeleton, and offers detailed medical accounts of horrific wounds as well as heated arguments about the benefits and dangers of an athlete's sexual abstinence. Throughout, he also embeds boxing in the wider cultural history of the ancient Mediterranean, showing how it played a central role in Greek and Roman entertainment, religion, philosophy, and even hygiene.

Fists of Glory also demonstrates how the ancient sport sheds light on modern boxing, with comparisons to the fighting styles, techniques, and careers of some of the most celebrated boxers in history. Boxing has always been an unforgiving discipline, a concentrated version of the struggle for survival. The classic writings of enthusiasts such as Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, Normal Mailer, and Joyce Carol Oates are invoked to illustrate the sport's beauty, energy, and its tragic dimensions--a perennial metaphor for life in cinema, literature, and popular culture.