In the interests of full disclosure, I received this book for review purposes
Title: Striking Distance: Bruce Lee & The Dawn of Martial Arts in America
Author: Charles Russo
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 232
Price: $18.68
There’s a lot of Bruce Lee books out there. I’ve reviewed Bruce Lee: A Life by Matthew Polly not that long ago and it was so good that I was hesitant to get into another Bruce Lee book right away. I’ve read a bunch of Bruce Lee books. Some haven’t been that good, or they simply repeated a lot of known information. They have added little, except maybe conspiracy theory, to the story, history, or image of Bruce Lee. I’m glad I did pick us Striking Distance, as it adds a unique perspective onto his story.
Content
Striking Distance: Bruce Lee & the Dawn of Martial Arts in America concentrates not only on Bruce Lee, but on the martial arts history of the United States, specifically San Francisco, and how Bruce Lee interacted with it. He starts with the history of San Francisco as it relates to the Chinese immigrants. Mr. Russo tells the story of the building of Chinatown, and the good and bad parts of having an isolated immigrant center in the new burgeoning city. He includes the people that had an impact on the martial arts history of not only San Francisco, but overall the United States. The story from the founding of the city, all the way to the 1960’s with the arrival, and eventual departure of Bruce Lee.
Pros
What I really liked about this book was its ability to put Bruce Lee in a historical perspective. History isn’t (or at least shouldn’t be ) about memorizing dates and names. History is about telling stories about people and events. That’s what this book does. Using the martial arts scene of San Francisco, Mr. Russo describes the people, mood, and attitude that were prevalent leading up to Bruce Lee’s literal arrival on the scene. He also gives the historical context to why these people were here, and why they held their views. It also means so much more that Bruce does show up and challenge their ideals.
Cons
Bruce Lee has been covered to death… uh… no pun intended. There really isn’t any new information in this book. It also only really looks at one small part of his life. So if you’re looking for an all-inclusive biography, or an “Intro to Bruce Lee” book, this probably isn’t the book for you.
Conclusion
It can be hard to go back into history and look at the impact some events had. Especially if their impact has 
become common ideas or inventions that today are essentially taken for granted. The United States Declaration of Independence or Constitution, though borrowing heavily from some of the leading philosophy of the day, were setting up a form of government, yet unheard of.
Similarly, we take a lot of the ideas in martial arts that Bruce Lee coined to be commonplace today. It takes some deep thought to remember that there was a time when the ideas of breaking away from classic martial arts were near-heresy. It’s easy to look back and think that people before were “stupid” or “limited” because they didn’t think in our modern way. It’s also limiting to underrate the effect that Bruce Lee had. It may have seemed almost inevitable that the classic ways of martial arts were going to change, but it always takes the right person, at the right point in history to make the change.
Bruce Lee was the right man in the right place (San Francisco) to do that. This book’s look at the time and place for the background of the Bruce Lee story does an amazing job of showing just that. It’s for that reason that I’m going to give this book four out of five Ninja Stars. I did enjoy reading it. The author did a great job of setting the scene, and giving the historical background for what Bruce Lee did. However, this book is obviously for someone that has knowledge of the Bruce Lee story already so it may not be the best book for everyone.
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