From Publishers Weekly
This substantial compilation offers thorough, accessible biographies of 611 African-Americans over more than four centuries, beginning with Esteban, the first African known to have set foot in North America, up through writers, academics, artists, activists and more of today. A few of these profiles have been written by notable namesâ€"Gerald Early on Muhammad Ali, Clayborne Carson on Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, John Szwed on Miles Davisâ€"though most are by lesser-known contributors. Usefully, the biographies contain multiple cross-references to others in the book and list sources at the end. The 1,000â€"3,000-word entries are generally well-written, even lyrical, and balanced, for example assessing controversies regarding O.J. Simpson or preacher Daddy Grace. This achievement has flaws. Some biographies include unnecessary lists of awards and cheerleading: why tell us of Condoleezza Rice being honored by the NAACP but not of her role in the Iraq war? Wasn't Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. a tyrant as well as a genius? Former energy secretary Hazel O'Leary is described as "strikingly attractive and warm" while academic Cornel West embodies a "profound love for and faith in humanity." Some 257 of the entries have been reprinted from
American National Biography (Oxford, 1999); Gates and Higginbotham's volume is part of the African-American National Biography project, which will include 6,000 profiles. While this book has resurrected numerous figuresâ€"Onesimus, slave and medical pioneer; Daniel Coker, a founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; etc.â€"it undoubtedly will inspire debate about more contemporary choices. Why Tupac Shakur but not Russell Simmons (or anyone else from the rap world)? Why Suzan-Lori Parks but not George C. Wolfe? Why Sharon Pratt Kelly, the first African-American female mayor of a major city, but not her more controversial predecessor, Marion Barry? Oh, and if his former colleague West is included, where's editor Gates himself? Despite such quibbles, this documenting of major power and achievement will undoubtedly be a standard reference work.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
Grade 6 Up–Published two years in advance of the 10-times-more-massive
African American National Biography (Oxford, scheduled for 2006), this sampler profiles more than 600 men and women, from Esteban to Tupac Shakur. The signed entries, about 250 of which are reprinted from
The American National Biography (Oxford, 1999), are ordered alphabetically; range from one to five triple-columned pages in length; include cross-references as well as, when feasible, small, muddy black-and-white portraits; and close with short but rich reading lists, heavy on primary sources. Back matter includes a list by general category or occupation (e.g., "Science," "Slaves," "Sports"), complete lists of prize winners (with entrants in this volume indicated in boldface), and an admirably detailed index. As relatively few of the subjects here are still living, this resource has a distinctly historical bent–but the scholarship is current, the approach is incisively analytical, and the writing is anything but dry: the entry on expatriate pygmy Otabenga, for instance, opens by describing him as an "elephant hunter, Bronx Zoo exhibit, and tobacco worker." World-class collections that already own this volume's monumental predecessor should be able to hold out for its full version. For the rest of us, though (despite editorial assertions to the contrary), there are alternatives, such as R. Kent Rasmussen's
African American Encyclopedia (Marshall Cavendish, 2001) or, at least for the women's side of the story, Darlene Clark Hine's
Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia (Carlson, 1993; o.p.). Still, it's an exciting, and affordable, new resource.
–John Peters, New York Public Library Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
