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Rating: 
Summary: A sophisticated and scholarly analysis
Review: As a psychologist I have been studying the tension between the African American and Jewish community for a number of years. Jeffry Melnick's book clearly adds significantly new perspectives and much interesting information to the field. His work expanded my understanding of the historical issues, particularly with regard to the development of Jazz in America. A major addition to the literature on "Black/Jewish relations."
Rating:
Summary: A sophisticated and scholarly analysis
Review: As a psychologist I have been studying the tension between the African American and Jewish community for a number of years. Jeffry Melnick's book clearly adds significantly new perspectives and much interesting information to the field. His work expanded my understanding of the historical issues, particularly with regard to the development of Jazz in America. A major addition to the literature on "Black/Jewish relations."
Rating: 
Summary: Semi-excruciating
Review: I give this book two stars instead of one only because I'm assuming there is a significant amount of fact--dry fact. If this book is to be used as a reference for research it would best be utilized in combination with other books dealing with the same subject. It shouldn't be relied upon by itself.In addition to the Jew-bashing noted by another reviewer, I found the book to be boring. Although I purchased it over a year ago, I have been uninspired to complete more than half the book. I suppose I'll get around to it at some point, but I'm in no hurry.
Rating:
Summary: Semi-excruciating
Review: I give this book two stars instead of one only because I'm assuming there is a significant amount of fact--dry fact. If this book is to be used as a reference for research it would best be utilized in combination with other books dealing with the same subject. It shouldn't be relied upon by itself. In addition to the Jew-bashing noted by another reviewer, I found the book to be boring. Although I purchased it over a year ago, I have been uninspired to complete more than half the book. I suppose I'll get around to it at some point, but I'm in no hurry.
Rating: 
Summary: If I Had a Hammer
Review: When you're holding a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. Jeffrey Melnick has a theory -- actually more a gripe -- and, by God, any piece of evidence, no matter how flimsy, no matter how anecdotal, is going to prove his theory. "A Right to Sing the Blues" might have been far more compelling or provocative if it had been a magazine article, or a piece for the New York Review of Books. It really doesn't stand up as a scholarly monograph -- the "research" consists largely of fairly wide reading in secondary sources, coupled with a number of anecdotes that get repeated and repeated and repeated until you get the feeling that what you're reading is not a "book" at all, but rather discarded paragraphs from Melnick's dissertation. This is probably the kind of trendy, jargon-filled claptrap that gets tenure at less-than-front-rank colleges; but, as scholarship it degenerates into a kind of poorly expressed ideological horse-beating for the easily impressed. No one, for example, not even George Gershwin has a "career" -- everyone has a "project." You get the idea. Melnick does not seem to understand, or care very much about, the art forms or the artists he's writing about, but he's damn-sure going to indict every Jew in show business who ever dared to write a pop song or appear onstage. I thought we were over Jewish self-loathing. Well, maybe most Jews are, but Jeffrey Melnick defintely ain't one of them. I was prepared to like this book; and I have to say there are moments of genuine insight. However, you have to slog through more than 200 pages of vacuous "argument" to find them. Not a very good deal.
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