Throughout Marqusee’s narrative, we see Ali cross paths with, and learn from, characters as diverse as Malcolm X, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Sam Cooke. He grows from the clever, brash boxer that Remnick so compellingly focuses on, into an international symbol of resistance, a spokesperson for oppressed peoples everywhere.

"Unfortunately," writes Marqusee, "in the historiography of the American sixties, American exceptionalism has prevailed, and as a result the causes, content and consequences of the social movements of the era have been misrepresented. Once liberated from its parochial prison, the sixties seem a lot less about ‘permissiveness’ or ‘self-indulgence’ and a lot more about the growth of a global consciousness from below. For people all over the world, Ali embodied that consciousness. And he in turn was profoundly shaped by his growing awareness of the representative role in which he had been cast."

here were many and conflicting Ali's – he was at once a prankster, a devout Muslim, a womanizer, and a world-class athlete. But it is Ali, the suddenly self-aware global icon, that Marqusee zeroes in on. For refusing induction, Ali faced five years in jail and a $10,000 fine, not to mention the widespread animosity of white America. The New York Times, still rejecting Ali’s right to change his name (which he did four years earlier), editorialized in favor of incarcerating "Cassius Clay."

Ali didn’t back down in the face of the establishment’s disapproval. Instead, he angered The Powers That Be even more, arguing in federal appeals court that, in the two states dealing with his case, Kentucky and Texas, only 0.2 and 1.1 percent of draft board members were black, though blacks comprised 7.1 and 12.4 percent of those states’ respective populations.

That appeal was rejected, but Ali continued to make his case on college campuses. At Howard University, he spoke from the steps of Frederick Douglass Hall (university officials prohibited his presence inside): "We have been brainwashed," Ali told the throng. "Even Tarzan, king of the jungle in black Africa, is white!"

When a heckler offered to take his place in the army for $1,000, Ali responded, "Your life is worth more than a thousand dollars, brother." Days later, he told students at the University of Chicago, "I have lost nothing. I have gained the respect of thousands worldwide. I have gained peace of mind."

Next came an anti-war rally in Los Angeles, where Ali told over 20,000 protesters: "Anything designed for peace and to stop the killing I’m for one hundred percent. I’m not a leader. I’m not here to advise you. But I encourage you to express yourself." The Los Angeles Times reported that the crowd replied "with Clay’s Black Muslim name."

"In the colleges, the draft issue struck close to home," Marqusee writes, "and Ali’s defiance was inspirational, all the more so since he had never able to shelter under a student deferment." He quotes from another of Ali’s college lectures: "Damn the money. Damn the heavyweight championship. I will die before I sell out my people for the white man’s money. The wealth of America and the friendship of all the people who support the war would be nothing if I’m not content internally and if I’m not in accord with the will of Allah."

arqusee’s meticulously researched book is dominated by countless other examples of Ali’s daring outspokenness, of his courage, of his penchant (as he put it) for "speaking truth to power." Sadly, there are just as many stark examples of the widespread vitriol Ali inspired among the supposed intelligentsia.