- Paperback: 280 pages
- Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press (May 1993)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0870238590
- ISBN-13: 978-0870238598
- Product Dimensions: 2.3 x 1.5 x 0.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 449 g
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Intriguing and challenging, this multidisciplinary study argues for more recognition of the African influence on the culture of the United States and the rest of the Americas. Historian Piersen ( Black Yankees ) first compares African and African American folk myths in which blacks attempted to understand the reasons for their enslavement; he finds in the tales hints of a "common pan-African world view." Many African slaves had royal blood, he notes, and their leadership qualities were honored in New World black communities. Piersen also presents evidence that Africans brought skillful holistic medical techniques, including a form of inoculation against smallpox, as well as a great concern with personal cleanliness. While Piersen argues cogently for greater recognition of the black influence on New Orleans' Mardi Gras, his suggestion that the Ku Klux Klan borrowed its masked style from African secret societies is admittedly speculative. He also finds African influence in Southern manners, cooking and preaching. This study, Piersen writes, makes a strong argument that a melting pot existed.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In this strong argument for taking America's African heritage seriously, historian Piersen has followed his award-winning Black Yankees ( LJ 2/1/88) with a remarkable study of how a coherent African cosmology has shaped and shared U.S. culture from earliest times. Ranging from subjects as diverse as moral truth to holistic medicine and cooking, he shows African hands fashioning the American soul, mind, and body. From architectural styles to habits of work, modes of speech, musical traditions, and celebrations, African peoples have configured American culture. Piersen's deeply instructive analysis supplements Melville Herskovits's classic The Myth of the Negro Past (1941) and joins recent works such as Leland Ferguson's Uncommon Ground ( LJ 1/91) and William L. Van Deburg's New Day in Babylon ( LJ 8/92) in weaving the intricate African American elements into the fabric of U.S. culture. Recommended for U.S. history and African American collections.
- Thomas J. Davis, Univ. at Buffalo, N.Y.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Thomas J. Davis, Univ. at Buffalo, N.Y.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, Except For A Myth!, Oct 16 2009
By Big Sistah Patty - Published on Amazon.com
I enjoyed this book. I thought it was a good book. I gave it a 4 because of his comment about Elvis Presley that made blood boil. He tells the truth about Elvis imitating Black men' music and style. Then he comes along and spoils it by perpetuating a lie that Elvis invented Rock n Roll. I just want to slap somebody!The following comment made me think though:
A generation later, J. Kennard commented in Knickerbocker Magazine on the manner in which the musical culture of the slaves was conquering that of their so-called masters:
"Who are the true rulers? The Negro poets to be sure. Do they not set the fashion, and give laws to the public taste? Let one of them in the Swamps of Carolina, compose a new song, and it no sooner reaches the ear of a white amateur, than it is written down, amended (that is almost spoilt), printed and then put upon a course of rapid dissemination, to cease only with the utmost bounds of Anglo-Saxondom, perhaps with the world. Meanwhile, the poor author digs away with his hoe, utterly ignorant of his greatness."
Kennard was describing the origins of the blackface minstrelsy, the most popular entertainment form of the nineteenth century. Blackface minstrelsy was a clear example of white performers taking over black southern music and black style of performance.
I highly recommend this book.
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