Reviews
A Full Cup: Sir Thomas Lipton's Extraordinary Life and His Quest for the America's Cup
From the Wall Street Journal
“Captivating” declares G. Bruce Knecht. “Lipton made all the right moves and there are few flaws in Mr. D’Antonio’s nicely crafted volume…”
From The Washington Times
“It is clear from this account that there never was a more passionate competitor, but equally never a more gracious loser. And his failed quest drew great admiration and sympathy… A Full Cup celebrates a remarkable man: a great philanthropist and entrepreneurial tradesman, blessed with style, flair and, most of all, great spirit.”
From The Connecticut Post
“Just as Seabiscuit captured the imaginations of many readers who didn't really care about horseracing, Michael D'Antonio's new book, A Full Cup turns the life of grocer and tea entrepreneur Thomas Lipton into a thrilling story you won't be able to put down.”
From DailyFinance.com at AOL
An Excellent New Biography
“..stimulating and informative…” writes Hardy Green. “In contrast to such Robber Barons as John D. Rockefeller, Sr. Lipton was “the good millionaire,” in D'Antonio's words – a paragon who'd risen from Glaswegian poverty to riches via his exemplary personal attributes. And anticipating such figures as Noel Coward and Alistair Cooke, the much feted and congratulated Lipton became America's professional Englishman -- a worthy candidate for a special relationship. Lipton was treated like royalty during trips to the United States. A 1931 visit, though, was special, as Lipton was presented with a “loser's cup” fashioned by Tiffany. Given a police escort to New York's City Hall, cheered by thousands outside and inside the building, he was praised by Mayor Jimmy Walker as “the greatest sportsman of our time.”
Forever Blue
Hardball Times Book Review: Forever Blue
by Brian Borawski
May 13, 2009
Few teams have as rich of a history as the Dodgers, whether in Brooklyn or in Los Angeles. From 1947 through 1966, the Dodgers won 10 pennants and four World Series and they did both on the east coast and the west coast. The Dodgers are the team that finally broke the color barrier when Jackie Robinson made his debut in 1947, and the Dodgers joined the San Francisco Giants to introduce major league baseball to the state of California. All of these things, and more, happened on Walter O’Malley’s watch and are documented in Forever Blue
An established author, D’Antonio’s work prior to Forever Blue includes a biography of Milton S. Hershey (think chocolate) as well as the State Boys Rebellion, a documentary on a 1957 incident that took place at a state institution for mentally handicapped children. This is his first foray into baseball, but he has a Pulitzer Prize on his resume and that’s where D’Antonio stands out. While he may have had to do his homework in researching O’Malley, his writing style is excellent. In order to write the book, he talked to a number of people affiliated with the Dodgers, including former Dodgers general manager Buzzie Bavasi, who he said always wore a suit to their interviews, and former Dodger pitcher Johnny Podres. He was also given access to the family archives by Walter O’Malley’s children, Peter O’Malley and Terry Seidler.
Entire Review: http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/bob-book-review-forever-blue/
Praise and a Starred Review from Booklist for Forever Blue:
"...a wonderfully readable, insightful and -- for anyone
interested in baseball history -- important biography..."
New York writer Jack Newfield called Walter O'Malley one of the three worst people who ever lived. The others were Hitler and Stalin. O'Malley's transgression? He moved Brooklyn's beloved Dodgers across the country to Los Angeles after the 1957 season.
D'Antonio was accorded unprecedented access to more than 30,000 documents previously unreleased by O'Malley's heirs. Additionally he conducted hundreds of interviews with O'Malley's family and associates, many who spoke about O'Malley for the first time. The O'Malley he reveals here is neither hero not villain -- sorry Mr. Newfield -- but rather an extraordinarily astute businessman and baseball visionary. After working for the Dodgers for years O'Mallley was able to buy the team but at unfavorable terms due to a struggle for control with another potential owner. He had no animus toward Brooklyn: the move to Los Angeles was his best business option. He also opened the door to baseball's expansion from the strictly east-of-the-Mississippi endeavor to a coast-to-coast enterprise. There are also revealing personal insights. For example, O'Malley's wife essentially lost her ability to speak during their courtship. He never wavered in his devotion, and she communicated for the rest of her life through notes, facial expressions and slight whispers.
This is a wonderfully readable, insightful and -- for anyone interested in baseball history -- important biography of the man who forever changed the course of the game in America. -- Wes Lukowsky
Praise for Forever Blue from Library Journal:
This detailed analysis of Walter O'Malley and his financial affairs, based on newly available documentation, does much to dispel myths about the man who moved the Dodgers. D'Antonio provides objective context for O'Malley's era-transforming decision to move the Bums to California, situating the story within that of broader trends in American migrations west. A splendid account enriched with anecdotes; recommended for all public libraries, especially those near any past or present Dodger dugout.
Forever Blue is "first rate cultural history" according to Kirkus.
From Kirkus Reviews 12/17/2008:
In this revisionist version of the Dodgers’ exodus from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, viewed by many as a journey from Eden to Sodom, the Prime Mover emerges as less like Satan and more like Moses—visionary, flawed and ultimately justified. D’Antonio, who has written on aspects of cultural history from chocolate bars (Hershey, 2006) to spirituality (Heaven on Earth, 1992), enjoyed unlimited access to the huge archive of Walter O’Malley’s papers and has extracted numerous goodies. None, however, is more revealing then what must now be considered unquestionable fact. O’Malley (1903–79) labored assiduously to keep the Dodgers in Brooklyn, but was stymied at every juncture by Robert Moses, New York’s de facto czar of construction.
D’Antonio interviewed myriad surviving participants in the story, players included, to uncover other uncomfortable facts. Even during the Dodgers’ late-40s/early-50s glory years, attendance at Ebbets Field was declining for many reasons: lack of parking, white flight to the suburbs, the rise of television. Meanwhile, large cities across the country craved major-league baseball franchises. Los Angeles and San Francisco were respectively courting the Dodgers and Giants, though Milwaukee scooped them both by acquiring the Braves from Boston. When O’Malley saw LA’s offer, and realized that there was slim hope for help in Brooklyn, he decamped and transferred the franchise to the West Coast. There, as the author notes, it has flourished spectacularly in one of baseball’s greatest stadiums.
D’Antonio spices his forays into baseball business with plenty of baseball folklore. There are several pages on Bobby Thompson’s mythic home run, many on the advent and reign of Jackie Robinson. He sometimes has difficulty with balance, offering only a few swift sentences on Roy Campanella’s career-ending accident, for example. Readers may also wish for more about O’Malley’s private life. We see the franchise owner as a consummate politician, a true mover-and-shaker, but we get few glimpses of his Dodger-blue soul. First-rate cultural history from a writer who touches almost all the bases.
Publisher's Weekly says Forever Blue is: "...a well-rounded portrayal of one of the most polarizing figures in baseball history."
From the Dec. 22, 2008 edition:
Although Walter O'Malley has been dead for nearly 30 years, D'Antonio's latest work is perhaps the most meticulously detailed and comprehensive account to date of the former owner of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers. Through research in O'Malley's letters, documents and myriad interviews with those close to him, D'Antonio (Tin Cup Dreams) presents a well-rounded portrayal of one of the most polarizing figures in baseball history: one New York writer referred to O'Malley as “one of the three worst human beings who ever lived,” while a Los Angeles journalist described O'Malley as a man who “did more for baseball than any commissioner.” D'Antonio paints the whole picture, starting with O'Malley's early days as a lawyer who originally began working with the club in a “troubleshooting” capacity, to taking total control of ownership in 1950. During O'Malley's tenure with the Dodgers, the team had some of its most famous moments in history—the debut of Jackie Robinson, the club's first World Series title in 1955 and, of course, the team's infamous move to Los Angeles. D'Antonio explores everything—O'Malley's business dealings, his personal relationships with Robinson and Branch Rickey, the on-the-field fortunes of the Dodgers. With D'Antonio's access to O'Malley's most personal documents, even baseball historians will find something to learn.
Forever Blue: The True Story of Walter O'Malley, Baseball's Most Controversial Owner, and the Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles Michael D'Antonio. Riverhead, $25.95 (368p) ISBN 978-1-59448-856-6
A Ball a Dog and a Monkey
NPR’s Science Friday
“Best Science Book of 2007”
USAToday.com
“Amazing we had to wait ‘til the 50th anniversary of that year’s tumultuous events to get the popular history they deserved.”
The Christian Science Monitor
“D’Antonio skillfully captures both the energy and the urgency of the U.S. drive toward space. His narrative is further enlivened by firsthand accounts from U.S. citizens recalling their excitement during those heady days.”
Tucson Citizen
“Michael D’Antonio tells the story of the first year of the space race, sparing none of its panic, scientific fervor and zaniness…D’Antonio’s narrative is brilliant and, best of all, extremely entertaining.”
Booklist
“An entertaining writer, D'Antonio delivers the technological heroics on which spaceflight fans are keen.”
Rocky Mountain News
“If you remember going out into the backyard on nights and craning your neck to see that pinpoint of light that was Sputnik, you owe it to yourself to read this book “
Hershey:
The New York Times, Benjamin Cheever
“Thorough and highly readable…it is the great charm of D’Antonio’s book that he will not plunk down entirely for one judgment or the other. It’s the man he’s after, not the god.”
The Washington Post, Jonathan Yardley
“Thorough and fair…Hershey is a valuable addition to the literature of American business and philanthropy.”
BusinessWeek
“A richly detailed biography of the founder and an absorbing history of the Hershey company.”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Captivating...unfolds much like a good novel.”
The Los Angeles Times
“A charming and absorbing account of one of American capitalism's eccentric visionaries.”
The State Boys Rebellion
The Boston Globe
"Stunning...a vivid, careful, and ultimately momentous piece of journalism."
The Christian Science Monitor and Chicago Tribune
"One of the best books of 2004."
Chicago Tribune
"D'Antonio...is an exceedingly able storyteller....A gripping story."
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"D’Antonio deftly combines detailed archival research and extensive personal interviews to paint a richly nuanced picture of a horrifying and shamefully underexposed part of our country’s recent history."
The Hartford Courant
"This chilling account leaves you with a sense of wonder…Heartbreaking."
Mosquito
Washington Post
"Thoroughly engrossing."
Salon
"Mosquito is a must read."
Businessweek
"A wise and lively account."
The Economist
"If you have never read a book on entomology, be sure to start with this one."
The Daily Telegraph
"The combination of Spielman’s expertise and D’Antonio’s narrative gift makes this a thrilling tale. By the end, the reader – baffled, mesmerized, appalled – can’t help conceding more power to the mosquito’s elbow."
Atomic Harvest
Businessweek
“Michael D’Antonio’s Atomic Harvest is an engrossing, novelistic account of Hanford’s reluctant effort to come to grips with its relationship with the bomb. In the former Newsday reporter’s telling, Hanford becomes a place where officials and contractors lied about their activities and workers and outsider alike learned not to question what went on behind the barbed wire.”
The New Yorker
“This book tells the harrowing story behind the recent revelations about Hanford the most radioactively and chemically contaminated site in the western world…Atomic Harvest is a compelling analysis of this country’s tragic Cold War with itself.”
Publishers Weekly
“Built in WWII to supply plutonium for the Manhattan Project, the federal nuclear installation in rural Hanford, Washington is now undergoing a cleanup of more than 440 billion gallons of chemical and radioactive waste that is expected to cost some $1 billion a year for the indefinite future. No less staggering is Pulitzer Prize-winning Newsday reporter D'Antonio's sobering report on the `four decades of pollution, secrecy and deceit’ at the nine-reactor, 570-square-mile site, whose officials allegedly put production needs over the safety of local populations.”
Journal of the American Medical Association
“…a most readable and engaging book, clearly written. It is all done with grace and without demonizing any of the characters in the story, friend or foe.”
Heaven on Earth
The Washington Post
“A sort of Paul Theroux of the spiritual world…he’s a game guy and an engaging spiritual travel-writer, and we’re glad to stick with him though his year-long pilgrimage.”
New Age Journal
“If Charles Kuralt were a new age guy he might have written Heaven on Earth.”
The Los Angeles Times, Marilyn Ferguson
“D’Antonio brings suberb writing talents to bear on extravagant adventures…we come to see him less as a journalist and more as a journeyer.”
Publishers Weekly
“D’Antonio weaves his thoughts and opinions into the text and also documents his interchanges – not all of them neutral – with the believers and the nonbelievers alike. The book is not only a superb chronicle of American society today, it is highly entertaining as well”.
Buffalo News
“In Heaven on Earth Michael D’Antonio walks that fine line of reporting in fine style...The tension and the author’s smooth, lucid writing make D’Antonio’s year-long tour of the New Age thought-provoking reading.”
Deacons for Defense
The Boston Herald
“This superb Showtime original docudrama is based on a little-told story of the civil rights movement: a group of churchgoing black men in Bogalusa, LA in the 1960s who stood up to the Ku Klux Klan by taking the nonviolent resistance movement of Martin Luther King Jr. and standing it on its ear…Deacons deserves credit not only for resurrecting unjustly buried history but also for presenting it maturely rather than as some overheated action apocalypse.”
The Palm Beach Post
“That Deacons for Defense tells a story few people know - many real-life Deacons in fact have never publicly admitted to being members - makes Showtime's film worth your time.”
Crown Heights
The New York Times
“…does not turn the story into an easy feel-good morality tale like ''Brian's Song'' or the hokey hockey movie ''Miracle.'' By resisting the made-for-television temptation to sweeten the truth artificially, Jeremy Kagan, the director, gives resentment and disillusionment their due, providing a nuanced and affecting look at race relations as they were then and as they are still lived today.”
MoviesUnlimited
“Based on a true story, this thought-provoking drama details the relationship between an African-American youth leader and a Hasidic rabbi as they attempt to heal their wounded Brooklyn community, Crown Heights, following the 1991 riots. Through their efforts, the pair helps a young black man and a Jewish teen forge a friendship based on a mutual love of rap music and dancing.”
