Munich 1972

Set against the backdrop of the turbulent late 1960s and early 1970s, this compelling book offers the first comprehensive narrative history of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, notorious for the hostage taking by Palestinian terrorists of Jewish athletes and their tragic deaths after a botched rescue mission by German police. Drawing on a wealth of contemporaneous sources, including recently opened files in the German and Olympic archives, eminent historian David Clay Large offers a comprehensive exploration of the 1972 festival. He interweaves the political drama surrounding the Games with the athletic spectacle in the arena of play, itself hardly free of political controversy. Writing with flair and an eye for telling detail, Large brings to life the stories of the indelible characters who epitomized the Games, ranging from the city itself to the visionaries who brought the Games to Munich against all odds to the athletes, obscure and famous alike. With the Olympic movement in constant danger of terrorist disruption, and with the fortieth anniversary of the 1972 tragedy upon us in 2012, the Munich story is more timely than ever.