Customer Reviews

A History of the Minstrel Show

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This book is self published, but its presentation and content put MANY slicker publications to shame. The professionalism and artistry that Frank Sweet brings to this subject will make you want to read more of his works. It might just make you want to send him money.

Sweet traces the influences on blackface back to late medieval Europe - and also to traditional Africa. He covers the troubled relationships in ante-bellum America between immigrant Europeans and blacks (slave and free) and brings his history of pre-electric pop culture up into the twentieth century.

You may well be left wanting more, but you may well also be hard pressed to find a more deft and gracious handling of the topic in the raft of academic research that has emerged around it in the past twenty or so years.

Sweet's booklet is a very quick read, but it incorporates a lot of fascinating tidbits and is well worth the price.

Sweet draws parallels between the disdained ranks of the Irish and African Americans during the Industrial Revolution; showing how they bickered, yet merged in a "musical osmosis"(6) that influenced many genres.

He provides insightful origins to a slew of things- ranging from the banjo to "Jim Crow," black face make-up, and even the moonwalk.

He evaluates the socioeconomic climate of mid to late 1800's, as well as the conflicting receptions minstrel shows received from the north and south.

In the final section, he lists dozens of ways minstrel shows have effected today's entertainment- from the circus, to Monty Python, to dance choreography.

I recommend this booklet as a great historical intro. It provides basic understanding and is a short read, appropriate for anyone with a busy schedule or surfacing interest in the minstrel show. Sweet gives just enough details to educate his audience, while perhaps inspiring further research.

A very good book on black face minstrel and how consides the banjo. Anyone interested in the minstrel shows should read this book.