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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
INFORMATIVE BUT CONFUSING, November 15, 2002
By A Customer
While this book is filled with tons of interesting historical tidbits about the Eastern United States from pre-Columbian times to now, I felt it often failed to get to the heart of the matter. I had a difficult time wading through all the extraneous detail looking for information that actually seems to pertain to the topic. I also often found it challenging to follow the author's logic and sometimes plain disagreed with it. While, for the most part, the author seems rigid about stating only what can be *proven* and encourages the reader not to make assumptions or believe certain traditions and legends, she conversely sometimes makes assumptions herself that don't always hold water for me (either that, or she sometimes fails to state why she believes something is true, despite the copious footnotes included.) And from time to time, she seems to contradict herself. For those who don't know, there seem to be two very distinct camps regarding Melungeon research - those who think a very small number of people comprised the group and that if you can't trace your roots back to one of these family names that you are not a Melungeon descendant, and those who feel the group is more widespread. The author belongs to the first camp, one who's arguments I personally think seem narrow-minded. I'm not an expert on the subject, but from the reading I've done, I find this first camp's logic simply doesn't work for me, in ways too numerous to mention here, and that might account in part for my disappointment in the book. I had also hoped to learn more about the lifestyle and culture of the Melungeons, or at least as much as is known or believed to be true, and very little was included. Clearly, the author has done an enormous amount of research on her subject and it is very near and dear to her heart, and overall, I think this book provides much food for thought regarding the origin of the Melungeons. But I wish the reading had not been so laborious and confusing.
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