aimiller's Reviews (689)

This book was okay--I'm not convinced necessarily that Little really gets into the 'borderlands' parts of her claims that she makes, and boy could her readings of Wabenaki culture really benefit from some indigenous studies--but not terrible? The Wabenaki chapter was probably the weakest, which isn't hugely surprising, and the connections she makes between the three cultures Esther Wheelwright went through were sometimes tenuous at best. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of Betsy Ross and the Making of America--lots about the material culture surrounding them, lots of meandering sort of side information that may be useful to some people but felt extraneous to me at times. If you liked that book though, you'll probably really like this one!

A very interesting study. Baraka makes some fascinating points, and other, more troubling points, about the connection between blues and African American culture. Some of it feels oversimpified, some of his points contradict, but it all provides an immense jumping-off point for the rest of jazz historiography.