Historian Walter LaFeber goes one-on-one with Michael Jordan and Nike

By Franklin Crawford

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When Walter LaFeber learned that his latest manuscript was going to be published as a trade book, he braced for a fusillade of predictable criticism. After all, Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism (Norton, 1999) was not only a departure from LaFeber's respected niche in the stacks of history, the book was intended for classroom use.

But LaFeber's open-ended discourse proved to be compelling grist for the public mill, and the surprisingly popular book is doing for a much larger audience what LaFeber had fashioned for the lecture hall: stimulating thought on some controversial current events.

"I left a lot of loose ends which are good for discussion but not good for reviews," said LaFeber, Cornell's Marie Underhill Noll Professor of American History. "But I guess if Amazon.com makes you the most recommended book for a day, it takes some of the sting out of the reviews. During a call-in show at WNYC, they had to shut down the phone lines so many people were calling in. People have very strong feelings about Jordan, his relationship with Nike's factories in Southeast Asia and the issue of culture versus capitalism."

As stated on the book's dust jacket, Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism "is a primer on one of the most important issues currently under debate: how the devices of triumphant capitalism, coupled with hi-tech telecommunications, are conquering the world, one mind -- one pair of feet -- at a time."

The book includes a mini-biography of retired basketball superstar Jordan, then slashes and dashes through social history and turns, spins and fires long-range economic critiques in the face of transnational mega-bucks transnational enterprises like sports outfitter Nike.

In the '80s and '90s, Nike capitalized on the Jordan mystique and, with "His Airness" as its front man, led the charge of transnationals into the global marketplace. Today Jordan is as familiar a figure to Buddhist monks on the Tibetan Plateau as to street children in Brazil and is almost universally idolized. But Jordan is more than a sports figure. His ubiquity symbolizes the successful infiltration of American culture into nations and societies that are only beginning to realize that American power is as much about sportswear, hamburgers and soft drinks as it is about military might.

But the real issue, LaFeber says, isn't about America vs. the world but capitalism vs. culture.

"No one is forcing anybody to eat hamburgers or wear Nikes. A lot of people in France and China want to become American. They want Nike, McDonalds and Coca Cola; they want to see American television. The authorities want to filter this information, and it has stirred a lot of interesting debate within these countries about the influence of American culture," said LaFeber. "There are meetings now in the United Nations about how to exclude American culture without excluding the normal flow of trade, which is a very delicate situation."

LaFeber suggests that Jordan also symbolizes a rupture in the tradition of socially responsible public sports figures, and this new persona parallels the emergence of global high-tech communications and megabucks transnational interests. While he's not the first American athlete to enjoy global citizenship, Jordan, unlike Muhammed Ali or Kareem Abdul Jabbar, for instance, has remained a purely commercial force, almost blatantly apolitical. LaFeber writes that Jordan's career "helps us to understand something about the nature of U.S. power in the post-Cold War era."

The author explores what he calls Jordan's "Faustian bargain," how Jordan sold himself to the media, suffered its glaring scrutiny (remember his gambling, his father's death) and, when asked to take a stand on charges that Nike subcontractors in Southeast Asia exploited workers, declined to comment. Jordan traded on his fame, and the toll has yet to be exacted. LaFeber implies that nations buying into the American way of life also enter into a Faustian contract. For better or worse, the impact of American culture on smaller nations signals profound changes; the slogan "Just Do It" is anathema to many societies.

LaFeber raises the issue of taking political responsibility for commercial actions. He quotes George Soros, who states that "you can have a market economy, but not a market society." But weighing the evidence, LaFeber concludes that capitalism is going to win out over culture.

There is some irony in an economic critique of the new global capitalism that features, on its cover, a sports photo of Michael Jordan, the world's most famous endorser, in full Chicago Bulls regalia, surging upcourt. But LaFeber says it makes sense because "Jordan personifies the success of the whole (transnational) operation" and is an exemplar of the Faustian bargain. Not to mention, of course, it helps Norton sell books.

LaFeber readily concedes that he's a "sportswriter wannabe" and that describing Jordan's career and the history of basketball was a rare pleasure. Those who say his Jordan bio is just a rehash miss an important point. LaFeber is not looking back, he's looking ahead.

"In two years or more my students won't know Michael Jordan as a basketball player but as a commercial celebrity, a product," LaFeber said. "So I felt I had to put information in there to show why he was an exceptional athlete."

Were he to do it over, he says he'd speak with representatives from Nike and use post-Cold War Russia to exemplify the cultural and economic upheaval of adapting to American-style capitalism. For the sin of these omissions, he's taken a couple hits, particular from the New York Times and the Washington Post.

"If I'd known it was going to be a trade publication, I would have added 40 or 50 more pages, made my position more explicit and saved myself some grief," said LaFeber. Regardless of reviews, favorable or otherwise, LaFeber says he's not about to write a correction. What he will do instead is write another book, about something else.

LaFeber has written and co-authored nearly 20 books, dozens of articles, as well as op-ed pieces in the New York Times, the Boston Globe and Newsday, among others.

He has been a Guggenheim Fellow, is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has lectured at dozens of universities and has appeared widely on television and radio, including on Walter Cronkite's "American Presidencies," PBS's "American Century" and the BBC's "End of the Cold War?"