What is the author's tone in The Amateurs by David Halberstam?

The tone of the book is informative. It does not assume pre-existing knowledge of the subject nor of any of the people in it. There is not enough information to serve as a primer for the sport, but the whole presentation works like an introduction to the sport. The author is telling readers all about the sport, the rowers, how the trials lead up to sorting out who is on the Olympic Team of 1984 and then what happens to those people.