In this gripping profile of a pioneer, John R.M. Wilson illustrates how Jackie Robinson’s life transcended his baseball career to illuminate the racial struggles of the nation. By breaking the color barrier in baseball, Jackie Robinson (1919—1973) brought the American public face-to-face with a dilemma that has plagued the nation throughout its history: the disjuncture between the American ideals of liberty and equality and the realities of racial prejudice, segregation, and discrimination. Paperback, brief, and inexpensive, each of the titles in the “Library of American Biography” series focuses on a figure whose actions and ideas significantly influenced the course of American history and national life. In addition, each biography relates the life of its subject to the broader themes and developments of the times.