I've just listened to Mark Steels's lecture about Ali, and although I knew about his involvement with the civil rights movement, realised I have missed a very important era of sport / politics cross over.

Can anyone recommend a definitive biography of the man? Especially the earlier years of his career and civil rights activism.

Cheers….

Ali`s bio by Thomas Hauser is said to be good.

If its an honest book on Ali – which very very few ever are – then the early years will show him to be a very racist, ignorant hypocrite.

Cheers mooman, it's an honest account I'm looking for. He seems a very 'complicated' man, who's obviously attracted a lot of rose-tinted coverage, sycophants and people plain exploiting him.

(Edit period has ended and I really want to go up and correct my first post. I know it's 'Mark Steel's lecture'…..)

i dont know which biography but if you havent already seen it then watch 'When we were kings' which is a film about his 1974 fight with George Foreman aka the Rumble in the Jungle.

A really close look at Ali and his views etc. It's awesome.

More here on IMDB

Ali, bomboyer!

its also worth watching the true stories:thrilla in manilla.
i think was shown last year i think on more4, after watching this film my opinion of ali but still he was i think greatest fighter but certainly frazier came across as the better person.

This is Norman Mailers account of the fight between Ali and George 'The Frying pan' Foreman when they rumbled in the jungle.

It is a great book

Thanks everyone.

Both 'The Fight' and Hauser's book are excellent, and I do think that Hauser's biography is the best of them all, but I can also recommend very highly, as it puts Ali's story in the context of the civil rights movement and the different ways that the black boxing champions were treated by the media and the people.

Another vote for Hauser's book however if it's the civil rights or his stance against Vietnam you are after in particular then try Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight by Howard L Bingham & Max Wallace.