Stuart Cosgrove: The Soul Of Muhammad Ali (2020 Event)

Following on from his acclaimed trilogy about the American soul
music scene in the 1960s, much-loved Scottish broadcaster and
writer Stuart Cosgrove returns to the American post-war era with
his highly topical new book.


In Cassius X: Six Months That Shaped The Sixties, Cosgrove charts
the journey of a young Kentucky boxer named Cassius Clay.
Alongside his rise as a fighter, Clay begins to embrace the ideas
of the Black Power movement and the teachings of Malcolm X. Thus,
Clay changes his name to Cassius X, before eventually changing it
again to his Islamic name: Muhammad Ali.


As well as documenting the meteoric rise of one of the all-time
sporting greats, Cosgrove shows how soul music formed a
soundtrack to an era of social and political turmoil. Join him in
this event recorded for the 2020 Book Festival as he talks to
Scottish author Val
McDermid about this landmark moment for
American culture, and its parallels with the USA today.