Beast. Monster. Savage. Psycho. The glowering menace of Mike Tyson has spooked us for almost two decades. & still we remain fascinated. Why? Ellis Cashmorea s answer is disturbing: white society has created Tyson as vengeance for the loss of privilege produced by civil rights. Cashmorea s eviscerating analysis of Tysona s life & the culture in which he grew up rose to prominence & descended into disgrace provokes the reader into re--thinking the role of one of the most controversial & infamous figures of recent history. Told as an odyssey--style homeward journey to Tysona s multi--pathological origins in the racially--explosive ghettos of the 1960s Tysona s story is part biography part tragedy & part exposition. His associations with people like Al Sharpton Don King & Tupac Shakur shaped his life; & events such as the O J Simpson trial & the Rodney King riots formed a turbulent background for the Tyson psychodrama. Over the course of an epic boxing career Tyson was transformed from the most celebrated athlete on earth to a primal malevolent hate--figure. Yet even after being condemned as a brute Tyson retained a power -- a power to captivate. Cashmore reveals that the sources of that power lie as much in us as in Tyson himself.