Biography
"The Night the Referee Hit Back: Memorable Moments From the World of Boxing" will be available June 2020. The publisher is Rowman & Littlefield. The book is a collection of the author's best articles from the past 40 years.
Mike Silver is an internationally respected historian and author. His first book "The Arc of Boxing: The Rise and Decline of the Sweet Science" (McFarland Publishers, 2008) won two awards for boxing journalism from the American Association for the Improvement of Boxing and the Boston Veteran Boxers' Association. His second book, "Stars in the Ring: Jewish Champions in the Golden Age of Boxing-A Photographic History" (Lyons Press, 2016) was called "an achievement unlikely to be equalled" by Publisher's Weekly.
Mike has been a historical consultant and on-air commentator for 19 televised boxing documentaries; curator of the "Sting Like A Maccabee: The Golden Age of the American Jewish-Boxer" exhibit at The National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia (2004); and a co-curator of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival's centerpiece program, "Jews, Boxing & Hollywood" (2007). Mike has written extensively about the sport for The Ring Magazine, The New York Times, Boxing Monthly and various boxing web sites. He is a former Inspector with the New York State Athletic Commission, and a member of the International Boxing Research Organization.
The author's critically acclaimed first book "The Arc of Boxing: The Rise and Decline of the Sweet Science" (McFarland Publishing, 2009) described the socio-economic, demographic and environmental changes that have affected the quality, performance, training methods and psychology of professional boxers over the past 100 years. A panel of world renowned trainers and historians compared the strengths and weaknesses of today's superstar boxers to their counterparts of decades past. As Mike Silver says, "I did not write this book to add fuel to the 'old school' vs. 'new school' boxing debate. I wrote it to end the debate." Critics have praised "The Arc of Boxing" as a seminal work of extraordinary depth and intelligence.