Review of "Bunion Derby: The 1928 Footrace Across America" by Charles B. Kastner

The year was 1928 when a group of nearly 200 men lined up in Los Angeles to begin a race to New York City. Those were the days of testing limits of social norms as well as science, but this was a true test of men. The course would take them through the Mojave Desert, over the Rockies, across California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas before turning northward toward their final destination. Created by a showman named Charles C. Pyle, the Bunion Derby was a spectacle of the era before The Great Depression. There were blacks who endured death threats, Native Americans, and poor farmers, all competing in this two-month footrace for a bit of fame and fortune.