The Greatest of All Time

Zev Eleff is President and Professor of American Jewish History at Gratz College. He is the author, most recently, of Dyed in Crimson: Football, Faith, and Remaking Harvard's America.

'This book offers a fascinating tour of Americans' changing ideas about what constitutes greatness and, in particular, who warrants the designation 'greatest of all time.' Our culture continually promotes, idolizes, and eventually discounts and devalues accomplishments, as once-celebrated reputations confront shifts in what we value - and who and what we think should be honored. Arguments about who deserves to be considered the greatest will never be the same.' Joel Best, Emeritus Professor at the University of Delaware, and author of Everyone's a Winner: Life in Our Congratulatory Culture

• Introduction; 1. The economics of American greatness; 2. The problem of the great all-knowing answer man; 3. The rise and fall of the great changemakers; 4. How the Babe became the greatest (and the Roosevelts, too); 5. The great counterculture conundrum; Conclusion: Michael Jordan in the 'age of lists'; Index.