Louis Moore's I Fight for a Living: Boxing and the Battle for Black Manhood, 1880–1915 contrasts well with recent work on boxing and race in the United States, particularly Theresa Runstedtler's Jack Johnson, Rebel, Sojourner: Boxing in the Shadow of the Global Color Line (2012). On their face, both books examine the careers of black pugilists in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth. However, Moore's book makes a very different case about black fighters, using their experiences to write about concepts of manhood in the period. I Fight for a Living's conclusions are very different to those of Runstedtler's biography of Jack Johnson. While Moore agrees with Runstedtler's contention that boxing's colour bar hardened at the turn of the twentieth century, rather than seeing black fighters as rebellious or challenging to existing notions of masculinity, he suggests convincingly that these men used boxing to present a very middle-class patriarchal image of themselves. I Fight for a Living also charts the lives and records of boxers in the period, but the book says more about the politics of the sport and the way fighters sold themselves than concentrating on specific bouts. The book is an excellent portrayal of the way that a certain group of fighters created and sold their manly image in the turn-of-the-century United States.

I Fight for a Living includes detailed accounts of the careers of several fighters, particularly George Godfrey, Jack Johnson, Peter Jackson, and Sam Langford. The book's discussion of the actual sport looks at boxing's hardening racial restrictions between the 1880s and the 1920s. Moore presents the first decades of the period as relatively racially open. In the 1890s black Canadian fighter George Godfrey fought white boxers Jake Kilrain and Joe Choynski, and black Australian Peter Jackson squared off with future heavyweight champion Jim Corbett – resulting in a no-contest. However, after Jack Johnson took the heavyweight title from Tommy Burns in 1908, black fighters appeared in the boxing press as more of a threat to white masculinity. Johnson's two most likely challengers – Joe Jannette and Sam Langford – were both black, and it seemed unlikely that a white man would reclaim the title. After Jess Willard defeated Johnson in 1915 he quickly drew the colour line and refused to fight black fighters in future for fear the white race would lose the heavyweight title.

Moore's description of boxing's racial politics around the turn of the twentieth century is told particularly well. Both black and white fighters found themselves in an incredible bind. White boxing audiences demanded interracial contests to prove the superiority of the race; however, should the white fighter lose they could be ostracized from the pugilistic community. White fighters used a number of strategies to duck black challengers while appearing open and willing to fight. When Jim Corbett feared losing his heavyweight title to Peter Jackson he declared he would only fight the challenger in the South, where, should the Australian have won, the threat of lynching was very real. By the end of the period, many states made interracial bouts illegal, citing concerns about rioting that often accompanied black victories. While the legislation generally blamed violence on the celebrations of black fighters’ supporters, white defeat was often accompanied by racist antiblack rioting.

Boxing is not the sole focus of I Fight for a Living, as much of the book deals with the images black fighters presented of themselves and, as the word “living” in the title suggests, the business of fighting. Moore argues that black fighters presented themselves as patriarchal figures, often photographed with their wives and children. Black fighters emphasized their roles as businessmen and investors. Many fighters used their winnings to invest in property. Moore connects these images to popular ideas of middle-class black masculinity, and suggests that these boxers used their fame not to defy society, but rather to conform to preexisting understandings of manhood.

Equally interesting is Moore's description of black promotion and boxing clubs. Many cities in the United States featured black-owned boxing clubs, and for a brief window in the first years of the twentieth century these establishments dominated the fighting scene in Los Angeles. However, these clubs were ultimately eclipsed, by the end of the decade, by wealthier white-owned clubs. I Fight for a Living ends with a discussion of the failure of many black boxers to truly make it into the middle class, and live up to the image they presented as wealthy patriarchs. Promoters and agents were for the most part white, and were able to control the funds and careers of many fighters. As states regulated interracial fights, black boxers struggled to make any real money, and were mostly relegated to contests with cheap cash purses. Many successful black fighters died in poverty and obscurity after their careers came to an end. While boxers aspired to a certain vision of manhood they often, according to Moore, failed, under the yoke of American racism, to attain such heights.