North America Books

This is the most complete Book on this Subject, I have ever found. Mr. Harris did extensive research to compile such an informative and educational Book. I comand him, for his ideals, and even in a few areas, imagnation into reality.

Reliable and exact, are the only words I can use to refer to the excellance of the research that went into this work of Art. Every page has information described to perfection, the areas, locations, times, dates, descriptions of everything are so real, I felt I was there. I learned more, about Alabama than I will ever know, about my own Home State.

Thank YOU Mr. Harris; I spent hours re-reading your excellent work. Please, inform me of any future Publications by you. ( The Author )

Being an Alabama native, I found this book fascinating! I learned about towns, villages, and communities that I never knew existed. Some of them were very near my hometown. The book contained several types of dead town information. It told of former Indian villages, Spanish, French, British, and American settlements. The earliest date was an Indian village which began around 1200 and died about 1500. When the Spanish explorer and Conqueror, Desoto, came to Alabama, many of his findings were written down. Desoto found Alabama as it existed when the Indians were it's only residents. Harris gives many details of these early events. He also shares later stories of conflict between Indians and early settlers. When people think of Indian/American conflict, they usually think of the Wild West. There are great stories from Deep South too! He also shares stories and events from more modern towns that have failed to last. Some of them existed during the Civil War and some even existed into the twentieth century. Many of these are very interesting as well. If you do not live in Alabama, you might find the book boring. If you live here, you may find there is a Dead town very near you, waiting for you to explore.

While this is an excellent study of Alabama's lost towns of old, I recommend it only for the most die-hard Alabama student/historian. The listings are well-presented and there is much esoteric historical information contained within the covers, but the average seeker of Alabama history tidbits should look for a more general reference.

A decent general and relatively recent Alabama history book is "Alabama The History of a Deep South State" (currently available from Amazon & other sources). Although I don't completely agree with a few of the subjective opinions/views expressed in this publication, I certainly consider it the best history of Alabama to have been published in the last 50 years and do indeed recommend it!

This is the most complete Book on this Subject, I have ever found. Mr. Harris did extensive research to compile such an informative and educational Book. I comand him, for his ideals, and even in a few areas, imagnation into reality.

Reliable and exact, are the only words I can use to refer to the excellance of the research that went into this work of Art. Every page has information described to perfection, the areas, locations, times, dates, descriptions of everything are so real, I felt I was there. I learned more, about Alabama than I will ever know, about my own Home State.

Thank YOU Mr. Harris; I spent hours re-reading your excellent work. Please, inform me of any future Publications by you. ( The Author )

A very good book to read. Not too much information on the author but the story itself is a very good science fiction story. I would recommend this story to people who like science fiction.

"The December Rose" is a thrilling tale set in the streets of London in the past, comprising espionage, treachery and brutal murder. Barnacle(a master sweep's boy), is suddenly thrust into a terrifying mystery, with many after his life and a golden locket in his possession. Barnacle meets Mister Gosling and others who give him protection and and a sense of belonging and his life on the run is changed temporarily. Barnacle's life is threatened by the presence of Inspector Creaker and the men under his charge. There are many twists and turns in this tale and there is an unexpected twist in the story right at the end. I really found this book to be extremely interesting and it became increasingly hard to put down as the plot and the storyline developed. I especially enjoyed the ending which I thought made this book very complete. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants a great adventure...

I am person who looks into different things like this book

"The December Rose" is a thrilling tale set in the streets of London in the past, comprising espionage, treachery and brutal murder. Barnacle(a master sweep's boy), is suddenly thrust into a terrifying mystery, with many after his life and a golden locket in his possession. Barnacle meets Mister Gosling and others who give him protection and and a sense of belonging and his life on the run is changed temporarily. Barnacle's life is threatened by the presence of Inspector Creaker and the men under his charge. There are many twists and turns in this tale and there is an unexpected twist in the story right at the end. I really found this book to be extremely interesting and it became increasingly hard to put down as the plot and the storyline developed. I especially enjoyed the ending which I thought made this book very complete. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants a great adventure...

This is a book that is easy to read. It beautifully explains many of the Navajo stories of their creation. There is humor, pathos and much wisdom.
If you read it, you will see parallels to other stories of creation.
A lovely book to read any time, but especially if you are planning to visit the American southwest. You will appreciate New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado in a heightened way, seeing sacred spots to the Navajo and understanding why they are to be respected.

This book is about the creation of life. How human beings evolved in a world that had kaos. This tale includes many different worlds, in which life was discovered. Many gods have created human life to bring forth to what we arrived to today, but the only thing to destroy us is kaos. Hatred among both sexes causes the seperation which leads to longing for one another. Among the humans, anxiety was brought to the world and the gods who created the world, got angey. So the gods took action and destroyed the world by pushing all forms of life out almost killing everyone, but the humans were the smartest and emerged into the next world which is known today

There are several versions of the Navajo Creation Story known but Paul Zolbrod has captured the most plausible and accepted rendition in print. Most Navajos that I know accept this text as adequate and feel that the author's treatment of the subject matter is fair and sensitive to a very vital element of Dine' culture. Many Navajos, especially elders will say that the material printed in this book used to be reserved for the sweat hooghan and special times between family members but understand that now things have changed and accept the publication of very special and sensitive aspects of a great peoples' religion, as long as it is done under the auspices of the Navajo Nation. Perhaps in time others will publish material more to the needs of Navajo scholars but to this day this book is the literary standard of the creation stories.

Paul Zolbrod does a fine job of collating his own transcriptions of Navajo oral traditions with the records of other scholars from decades past to create a seamless narration of the Navajo story of creation. This is a valuable contribution to a deeper understanding of a specific native American culture.

I liked Dog Friday alot. It was very interesting but sad too. It would definetly be in my top ten book list!

Do you have to read for school? Are all the books boring to you? Then this book is for you! Drama and humor makes the book even more exicting.

This was a great book for readers in the grades 6-8. I read it for a summer packet report and i really hate to read. This book is one of my fav. books because it has some drama and stuff like that! It left you on the edge at some points of the book and the end was like a cliff hanger. But it was a great book and it all came to a great finish like all of her other books. If you want a good book that doesnt take long to read and is easy to read choose dog friday

The book was very very very very very very very very great and funny

Hodagneu-Sotelo's poignant look at the lives of Latina immigrants in Domestica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadows of Affluence, can be a source of enlightenment as well as a sort of "how-to" manual for any employer or employee in the nanny/housekeeper and house cleaning fields. The author argues that the women in these types of work continually battle for basic employee rights: adequate pay and set hours free from discrimination, harassment, and substandard working conditions. She addresses issues of long hours, unreasonable demands, alienation, and the reasons that the workers stay in these situations; fear of retaliation from employers and deportation.
Although a bit verbose, this book is packed with valuable information and resources that the reader is sure to use or be able to pass along to someone else. It is a meritable attempt at expressing the angst felt by Latina immigrants and the unresponsive attitude of the employer. It does tend to come across as a bit one-sided, due partly because not many employers or employees were willing to participate in her research efforts, but is still a great and easy read.

In Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo's Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadow of Affluence, readers explore, along with the researcher, an oft overlooked element of domestic labour in America. In examining this particular manifestation between the haves and have little, Hondagneu-Sotelo has provided a "scholarly" treatment where Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed fell short. This is by no means an indictment of Ehrenreich's work, quite the contrary. Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed is approachable by the many levels of readers that seek to understand the phenomenon of the working poor and their interaction with affluent Americans (here, I speak specifically of Ehrenreich's chapter two titled "Scrubbing in Maine"). However, in Doméstica, Hondagneu-Sotelo has opted to focus her research on immigrant domestic workers, specifically Mexican and Central American women in Los Angeles. In so doing, her research provides insight into the minds and worlds of both parties who engage in what can easily be termed a "love hate" relationship; one where, out of necessity, both the employer and employees are in need of one another. In addition, Doméstica serves to highlight some of the struggles of members of America's largest "minority" population (be they documented or otherwise). While Hondagneu-Sotelo relegates her analysis and interviews to women in the Los Angeles area, this reviewer is of the opinion that her research may well be duplicated in other cities with similar populations and yield like outcomes.

Reading this work, I began pondering the future of work and workers and four questions came to mind: (1) As America becomes more diverse, will the question of immigrants holding less than desirable positions along the socio-economic margins become of increasing interest to researchers and politicians such that worker-friendly policies emerge? (2) If so, what forms will later policy manifestations assume? (3) What will such a shift mean for the future of economic relations between these two disparate groups? (4) Also, will America continue to marginalize employees that hold the critical job of caring for our young such that we ensure a future of troubled youth due to attachments to caregivers and the familial realities of economic and social stratification? History has shown if we ignore questions not unlike these, problems are sure to result.

Historically, "love labor" had been performed, initially, by captive African American women and later those under strict laws (Jim Crow) of mobility, both physical and social. With the relative ascension of African Americans into the socio-economic sphere of marginal acceptance in America, certain forms of work are left to the cheaper, and sometimes unpaid, labor force of immigrant women. Increasingly, such workers are admitted into affluent homes in America through informal networks. For this brief iteration, we consider Hondagneu-Sotelo's Part Two titled "Finding Hard Work Isn't Easy." Here, Hondagneu-Sotelo discusses the other worldly process where women in need of domestic workers and the women in need of domestic work come in contact with one another.

This "whole other world" is highlighted when Hondagneu-Sotelo writes, "most prospective employers looking for paid domestic workers in Los Angeles bypass employment agencies, newspaper ads, or other formal job announcements, which they find expensive, slow, and unreliable. Instead the majority rely on their co-workers, neighbors, friends, and relatives when they seek domestic help" (63). This in itself is telling in that it pulls from Granovetter's theory of the strength of weak ties as mentioned in Deirdre Royster's Race and the Invisible Hand. Applied to Hondagneu-Sotelo's work, there exist, in the domestic worker community, ties that allow for a potential employer in need of workers to gain access to a network of domestic workers with the ability to refer friends and/or family members to employers in need of domestic assistance. Additionally, such a process not only allows for a socially and economically unequal relationship to ensue and continue for years in some cases, it also provides the foundation for further entrenchment of unequal employee and employer relations rooted in economic exploitation.

Whereas many of these workers are not earning a living wage, some employers exercise great pains not to flaunt their affluence. In one telling moment, Hondagneu-Sotelo writes, "some employers try to snip off the price tags on new clothing and home furnishings before the Latina domestic workers read them because they fear the women will compare the prices of those items with their wages - which they invariably do. While some employers often feel guilty about 'having so much' around someone who 'has so little,' the women who do the work resent not their affluence but the job arrangements, which generally afford the workers little in the way of respect and living wages" (xi-xii). In this instance, we witness the uneasy but, to the employer, necessary relationship between the affluent employer and the unaffluent worker. Additionally, we note how workers, through Hondagneu-Sotelo's in-depth interviews, indicate that they would rather that requests come not "as a symbol of servitude and a humiliating affront" to one's dignity, but that their work is seen for what it is, essential to the functioning of the household in which they are employed (145).

In producing a work with statistical data on domestic labor in Los Angeles, coupled with the voices of women on both sides of the issue, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo has done an admirable job of broaching the subject of the uneasy relationship between affluent women who require domestic assistance and unaffluent immigrant employees that work and, in some cases, live among them. Of the many good points in this work, her in-depth interviews with employees and employers are most revealing. Not unlike the work of Ehrenreich in Nickel and Dimed and Katherine S. Newman in No Shame in My Game, Hondagneu-Sotelo allows readers to, as Newman suggested, gain a clearer understanding of the interconnections between people and networks that a purely quantitative work would not permit. That being said, this reviewer applauds Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and her effort to provide a clearer understanding of the women we see on train platforms and in bus terminals that dot American cities and suburbs of affluence.

First let me begin by saying that this is an interesting read. You basically learn about domestic workers (live in nannies, home cleaners). The author gives you alot of information, in fact I would say that she gives you a plethora of information. As such it took me over a month to finish this book, and the fact.

Basically, the two problems I have with this book are 1. The author's monolithically leftist viewpoint (which seems to be common in books like this), 2. The hard time she has getting to the point. In particular comments like "Some feminist theorists, especially those influenced by Marxist thought, have used the term "social reproduction" or "reproductive labor"..." (Page 23) or "The United States has a long history of incorporating people of color through coercive systems of labor...slavery and contract labor systems...today, international labor migration and the job characteristics of paid domestic work" (Page 51)

Again the biggest problem I have with this book/writer is the use of a marxist/conflict theory filter in regards to analyzing domestic worker (as in us [domestic workers and their allies] vs them [middle class homeowners who employ domestic workers]). When if you actually take a moment, breath and impartially assess the facts the relationship is more of a symbiotic/functionalist/"we need each other" type deal in which two autonomous human beings are simply trying to work out a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Now what I do like... There is some great information presented in this book. 1. Domestic workers are entitled to minimum wage like normal employees and can sue for backwages. 2 Live-in housekeeper is a common first job of immigrants to the United States and as such is very important to economic integration of immigrants (legal and illegal alike).

Basically, you learn all about domestic work in all it's most interesting facets. An example being spoiled children who are hell for their domestic workers, and the situation is compounded because consciquences for bad behavior are underminded by the parents. Or usage of prozac and ritalin by parents for behavior modification of children and the avoidance of direct confrontation between domestic workers and their employees and many other interesting facts concerning the profession.

Because of how interesting this book is I'm giving it 4/5 stars (although I'm tempted to give it 3/5 because of the marxist rhetoric).

Dr. Hondagneu-Sotelo's beautifully written work takes the reader into the world of Latina nannies and housekeepers, showcasing the women's own voices and perspectives while maintaining an academic's sharp-eyed analysis. She chronicles the difficulties of domestic workers while still acknowledging their ability to impact their own work environments. One of the strengths of Hondagneu-Sotelo's book is the analysis of class inequality, particularly the ways that employers awkwardly handle their own discomfort with their priviledge. Her conclusions, rather than knee-jerk dismissals of domestic labor, suggest ways that domestic employment can be viewed as the job it is. The author's thoughts on her own position to her research subject in the preface is worth the price of the book. This book recently won five awards from different sociological organizations, and deservedly so.

this is a great book, it is very interesting and seems to be fairly accurate to what might have happened in the life just after the land run.

This story is sooo close to fact one feels like they are part of the land run.

Hard to believe the same guy who wrote "Empire" wrote "Dreams to Dust" what a vast improvement on story telling. Dreams to Dust is a great historical fiction that centers around the founding of Guthrie Station, OK. The characters are diverse and well developed. This was a fun book to read.

DREAMS TO DUST
A tale of the Oklahoma Land Rush
By Sheldon Russell
University of Oklahoma Press: Norman
ISBN 0-8061-3721-5
Copyright 2006 by University of Oklahoma Press

BOOK REVIEW BY CAROLYN BRANCH LEONARD 2/10/2006

Standing at the foot of Mavis's grave, Jerome held his hat in his hands.
"You danced your dance," he whispered, "and left your memory burned in my soul. Now, I will dance mine, and leave my mark upon this land."

This quote from Dreams to Dust, by Sheldon Russell, represents the author's profound understanding of the birth of Oklahoma by land run in 1889, and his brilliant gift for capturing the dramatic events and violent conflict that shaped the legends of our epic West. Dreams to Dust is a rip-roaring tale of the history, land and people of a city born grown in one day - a day of chaos, unique adventure, risk and total confusion. The author knows his subject well, researched it thoroughly and told his story faithfully in a writing style unique to him ...and what an exciting story he has to tell. Dreams to Dust presents many facts revealed in fictional format, such as the station that becomes Guthrie - the first state capitol, abandoned as result of one frontier newspaperman's greed, with the capitol seal stolen away in the dark of night.

Not since James Michener's Centennial has history been told in such a spellbinding way. From the opening line when Creed McReynolds locks his legs against the inside of a rail car, I felt relentlessly carried along on his journey and unable to get off the train until turning the final pages in the wee small hours of morning.

McReynolds, half-breed son of a U.S. Cavalry doctor, becomes just one of an assortment of powerful, unforgettable characters; like the girl with sapphire eyes, or the French architect who designed beautiful buildings of stone, the dog they called Flea Bag, hard-scrabble entrepreneurs who became tycoons, and an orphan boy forced to grow up too soon.

The author speaks in language of the time, through the voices of homesteaders, sooners, cowboys, claim jumpers, soldiers, railroad bulls, mail-order wives, opportunists and common thieves, steadfast men, women and children who come to build their homes and seek their fortunes on former Indian lands. The three million acres of the `89ers are outside the authority of Indian government, and without civil law. Nothing is spared: danger, brutality, hunger, sudden death, the loss of youth and innocence, prejudice, natural disasters, promiscuous women, even the unselfish friendship and love that McReynolds unexpectedly finds in this barren land.

But what comes through strongest is the idea that each man and woman has an innate dream to possess land and prosper on it; a compulsion capable of redeeming a soul or destroying a life. We are subtly reminded that this land - which McReynolds fights so hard to claim - originally was given in peace treaties to his mother's people by the US government.

Even the closing graphs present a ripping good read with a hint of Hemingway:
"As he climbed from the meadow, the air smelled scrubbed and clean, and a soft breeze blew through the trees. At the dugout he stopped, laying his hand on the door, listening to the sounds of the mountain. It was here that he and Alida had been the happiest, had built traps and laughed about hoopers, had made love and planned their future."

.....But no matter what the future held, this much he knew: this land was where he belonged; this land was where he'd stay.

The title tells it all. This is a fun book to read and it got my wife and me all excited about our trip way before we even packed our bags. All the suggestions were very good.

Living in Chicago, I'm always longing for summer. Now I'm also longing to go to the Cape area. Enchanted Summer paints a great picture of what should be a great summer vacation. The book is well written, well organized and well..enchanting. Can't wait to check out the recommendations.

This book is what travel guides are supposed to be: informative, interesting, and most of all--fun. Great research and the author's warm writing style make planning a leisurely holiday a pleasant experience. Great suggestions for romantic getaways, but there's plenty here for the whole family, if you really want to bring the kids.

The author captures the very essence of the Cape Cod shores and the Vineyard and Nantucket. And the charming illustrations add to the call of life at another pace and that life can truly be enjoyed, one B & B at a time.

This book is an excellent resource for any who are studying the American frontier. I am currently using this book as a resource for my Master's thesis.

I found the narrative of this book very enlightening. The mind's eye could
see the descriptions of land and waterway problems of our ancestors. I recommend it for the historical value and the referenced materials. Enjoyed the comments made by the travellers on the roads and the inns in which they stopped.
Sadly, the maps were not of a very good quality. Too small and required a magnifying glass to read the numbers along the trails pictures.
Hopefully the next edition of the book will have enhanced maps of the roads and perhaps also an added overlay map with the counties through which the road ran for a better perspective of the route the roads took.

Enlarged beyond its earlier incarnation as an article in "The Alabama Review", this work has emerged as a highly valuable resource for readers and researchers of early Alabama history. Utilizing maps and exhaustive primary and secondary sources, the authors present evidence of the profound impact of the Federal Road upon the Alabama in its formative years. Here, the reader will learn that antebellum Alabama was far from a unified state, but rather a politically polarized collection of sectional counties, interspersed with tribal lands of the Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw. North Alabama, with a citizenry constituted largely of emigres of Tennessee, Kentucky and North Carolina, held political power from Alabama's Territorial period (1817-1818) and through early statehood (1819-1840). Entering Alabama at a point roughly near present-day Columbus, Georgia/Phenix City, Alabama, and proceeding southwesterly to New Orleans, the Federal Road accomodated the massive influx of settlers emanating from Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia. This book reveals how the surge in America's westward expansion affected the present-day formation of Alabama. With pent-up demand for land, and a sympathetic Andrew Jackson in the White House, the Federal Road became the venue through which the white combatants prevailed in the Creek War of 1836-37. The resultant final removal of Creek and Cherokee tribes to Oklahoma, caused such a rush of new settlers into South and Central Alabama that Alabama's political structure underwent a drastic and lasting transformation. The shift in legislative power to South Alabama and, particularly, the Black Belt of Central Alabama, resulted in the 1846 removal of the state capitol from Tuscaloosa to Montgomery. The rise of the "Bourbon Democrats" of this region was to shape the landscape of Alabama politics for over 140 years thereafter. The authors, through scholarly, annotated research, offer the reader an opportunity to attain a thorough understanding of the significance of the Federal Road as the single most important element in the formation of Alabama's geography, government, economy and sociology. This reviewer highly recommends this book as not only valuable, but essential for anyone seeking to attain a thorough understanding of Alabama history.

Most enlightening. I was able to track my ancestors as they traveled thru Georgia and Alabama. With the aid of a good map, one can pinpoint their exact route. Highly recommend for anyone doing research on their family that settled in Georgia or Alabama.

Painstakingly compiled and with an expert, knowledgeable commentary by Shelby J. Tisdale, Fine Indian Jewelry Of The Southwest: The Millicent Rogers Museum Collection offers an impressively informative history and survey of the southwestern Native American jewelry that is represented in the collection of the Millicent Rogers Museum as the result of art patron and passionate collector Millicent Rogers who assembled a spectacular collection of Navajo and Zuni silver and turquoise, Hopi silverwork, and Pueblo stone and shell jewelry during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Of special interest is the chapter devoted to "The Origins of Indian Jewelry in the Southwest". Profusely illustrated and a very strongly recommended addition to personal, academic, and community library Native American Studies reference collections, Fine Indian Jewelry Of The Southwest is enhanced for scholars and non-specialist general readers alike with the inclusion of a glossary, references, and an index.

I HAVE ORDERED SEVERAL BOOKS FROM AMAZON AND THEY ARE EXPEDIENT AND HAVE A GOOD BOOKS AT A GREAT PRICE. AVAILABILITY GREAT. I WILL CONTINUE TO DO BUSINESS WITH AMAZON AND THEIR SERVICE. THANK YOU, BECKY DYER

This is a glorious book of Southwest Indian Jewelry with interesting info on Millicent Rogers, who herself was a work of art.

A must-have for collectors of Southwest Indian Jewelry.

If you like Indian Jewelry but can't get to the museum in Taos this is a great first book on the subject. If you do go to the Millicent Rodgers Museum, this is the book to help you savor that grand experience for many years to come. And it's a great reference work if you are contemplating investing in Zuni or Navajo jewelry.

Wilford's Trading Post
Gallup, New Mexico

Although this study is situated within some african american communities in the Carolinas, it - rather than reading gospel as a "folk expression" - takes into account gospels deep involvement in the devotional life and christian experience of its "audiences" and "artists" (each concept here inapropriate within a more christian frame of referance). To acheive this the author Glenn Hinson (who's a folklorist/anthropologist) approaches christian onthology and epistemology in a more respectful way than what has been common in the social sciences. At least in order to understand the believers point of view (concerning gospel) one has to pay closer attention to their stories. Much space is therefore left to (nonreduced) extended citations from various interviews, live testemonies, prayers, sermons, songs, private conversaution and other sources. Hinson also deliberately shares with the readers from his own process of trying to understand, his own failures and ethical problems in the dual role as seeker/researcher. A very sympathetic book indeed, and a human achievement I hold in high regard.

Fire in My Bones is an examination of Afro-American gospel surveying the gospel music program as a whole, considering how it works to join performer and audience, prayer and singing into part of the worship service and how Afro-American Christians have made gospel an integral part of their world. Fire in My Bones is a fine in-depth examination of devotions and devotional services.

This book is an excellent study of religious expression and gospel music in African-American congregations. Hinson takes his readers through an anniversary service for a gospel group while providing thorough and insightful descriptions of salient aspects of the context for the religious expression that he presents in this sensitive and articulate study. Although Hinson allows for a range of interpretations about what the participants are experiencing in religious devotion, he makes a strong argument that is too easily dismissed in academic research. Namely, rather than explaining away encounters with the supernatural as physical or psychological phenomena, the researcher will gain a different understanding of culture if he or she takes the claims of a believer as a valid starting point for ethnographic inquiry. Hinson suggests that experiencing divine presence provides a new way for readers to truly "understand" what he writes of in this book. I have attended countless gospel services, and Hinson's book provides an excellent resource for gaining a greater awareness of what I have seen as believers "have church." Hinson's methods, theories, and insights as a folklorist provides an incredibly rich and accurate way to complete ethnographic study. This book is also beautifully illustrated with the superb photography of Roland Freeman.

This examination of Afro-American gospel examines the gospel music program as a whole, considering how it works to join performer and audience, prayer and singing into part of the worship service and how Afro-American Christians have made gospel an integral part of their world. A fine in-depth examination of devotions and devotional services.