This is one of the best of these collections of the WPA slave narratives for laymen. The ex-slaves form Mississippi offer a lot of folk wisdom regarding "way it was" and Andrew Waters correctly connects their stories to the lyrics of Mississippi's legendary blues artists.

We also get some interesting and important information of the little known uprising of Mississippi Whites to end Reconstruction in the 1870s, as well of some memories of the Black major players of that period. That makes it a historians' delight.

This makes your mouth water for the unedited versions of the Mississippi narratives which are available along with the complete colelction on the WPA Slave Narratives website. Look and learn.

This is one of the few books I have read, then reread portions of several times. O'Brien and Wood have done more than justice to their subject; they have created a new direction through their serious consideration of archaeological systemics. I especially appreciate the strong thread of honesty and humility that runs through the entire text. This is particularly evident in the introductory chapter, "Time, Space, and Form in Americanist Archaeology" and the final chapter, "A Further Consideration..." I have long suspected that we know a whole lot less about prehistory in general than the public imagines or scholars would like to believe, and I am frustrated by the plethora of virtually meaningless labels and conjectures in other works. In between the first and last chapters,is the mass of knowledge these gentlemen share. Their story of the peopling of America is fresh and open with consideration for truly iconclastic possibilities. They view the Dalton tradition probably the immediate successor of the Clovis tradition in mid-America, and the discussion is well thought out, but leaves open minds for so much more to be discovered and understood in the future. They bring the reader through the ages in the pivotal state of Missouri by clearly and objectively looking at the evidence. This book is well worth your examination whether you reside in Missouri or elsewhere.

These nine essays take a close look at how various editors in Mississippi and the South covered the desegregation crisis of the 60s. The courage displayed by them in reporting the news accurately when the majority of their neighbors and customers felt the opposite way makes for very interesting reading. One is struck by the bravery of these editors in sticking to their sense of fair play, justice and accuracy. They played an important, and little known, role in how desegregation was finally accomplished. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand the South and the events of the 60s there.

Redgunk Tales is quickly becoming one of my favorite short story collections. The stories combine the best of fantasy and horror writing with a humorous, philosophical style. I've only had the book for two weeks but I'm already enjoying some of the stories a second time.

At the end of "The River Road: A Story of Abraham Lincoln," Meridel Le Sueur tells us: "So this is the story of a few months in the life of a boy in the middle country becoming a man--when the sapwood of youth darkened, toughened, under strain and pressure, was fired, made stout and hickory-yielding. Men and nations are made by the firing of such days in their lives."

In 1828 Abraham Lincoln took a flatboat from Indiana, down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. La Sueur takes that journey and makes it a crucible in Lincoln's life. The boy in this story is seventeen years old, chaffing at having to live in a crowded cabin, eager to find out what there is to learn in books and from talking to other men, and eager to get out into the word and make something of himself. This is also the Lincoln coming to terms with deep thoughts on the subject of slavery.

"The River Road" is told in a style that can only be characterized as poetic prose, which rings true even more than Sandberg's celebrated biography. The effect is a portrait of the raw Lincoln who has more in common with the trees he chops down with his ax than with the eloquent orator of Gettysburg. "Much of his history you know," La Sueur tells us, "but you can always as you grow have more knowing, see this great live oak of our history more clearly." I have read dozens of books about Lincoln, and he has never felt more real to me than he does in this compelling wilderness tale. "River Road" was originally published in 1954 and was reprinted by Holy Cow! Press with 1991 woodcuts by Susan Kiefer Hughes.

Knox did an outstanding job of presenting this vignette about life on the Cumberland in another era. The story is simply fantastic. The writing is wonderful.

For it's few number of pages, I treasure it as one of my favorite books of all time, sutiable for all ages.

This book is wonderful for any age of reader. It describes events in his family's life that shaped him into the person that he is today. He is a person of great character and this book gives you a taste of his character. It tells how he remembers the unjustices of his life growing up in Mississippi. It gives you a plain view of what it was like to grow up that way, in the Jim Crow era. He has gone through many experiences, but still managed to come out on top regardless of the adversity that faced him.

Robert Johnson might be the most famous of all country bluesman. But we actually know very little about the man himself and what we think we know (the selling his soul at the crossroads story and forever being demon haunted)was a late addition to the legend. Pearson and McCulloch peel back the layers of what commentators have said about Johnson to reveal what we can really know about him--and it is not very much. They then tackle the literature on Johnson and show how a legend is created through wishful thinking, academic desire, and faulty deconstruction of lyrics. This is a wonderfully written, intelligent book that exposes the flaws of some methods of interpreting entertainers and the danger of interpreting them outside of the artist's culture. Johnson emerges as a human not such much chased by demons, but who chases women and whiskey too much. A fantastic study that should serve as both a model and a warning for all who write about entertainers.

Silver Right is a moving and telling story of my family struggle to achieve equality in America. This book does a very good job of relating the feeling, fear and turmoil that I felt during those four long years of being the only black family at an all white school in the Mississippi Delta in the sixites. Silver Rights goes beyond the actions of people during that time. It looks at the cilvil right movement on a personal level. This book will make you laugh, and it will also make your cry

We often hear the past does not equal our future. But Joyce shows us how EVERYTHING that happens in our lives works together for our good. That having mastered the joys and sorrows of the past can be an impetus for a rewarding future. Such wonderful storytelling prose with extra doses of inspiration--we couldnt put this down! Thanks for reminding us that we each have a special voice and giving us the inspiration to use it!