Champions, Cheaters, and Childhood Dreams: Memories of the Soap Box Derby

The All-American Soap Box Derbies of 1934 to the 1970s pushed thousands of youth possessing curiosity, ingenuity, and determination, to become the most famous kid in America. Champions, Cheaters, and Childhood Dreams chronicles, through first-person accounts, a history of the race, from a hillside in Dayton, to the corporate-sponsored star-studded event it became in the 1950s and 1960s. Influences of the Great Depression, World War II, the Civil Rights and feminist movements, Vietnam and Watergate are revealed, which helped to shape and transform the race from a simple amateur event into an American icon. The revised edition has been updated to include race histories through 2010."Punches are not pulled, praise is given when praise is due, criticism is leveled when called for." -totalbike.com