Black Pioneers : An Untold Story

Rating:
Summary: Eye opener
Review: Although Black Pioneers, The Untold Story, was written with young readers in mind, even those of us who are not so young can benefit from this work. I am afraid that most white folks are pretty ignorant of American history regarding African-American people. This is a sad thing because their history, like the rest of the American story, is important when attempting to get the big picture of the country's early days. Regardless of a person's color, history remains precious. This book by Katz provides an opportunity to appreciate the many struggles black folks had in those days, struggles which seem to continue even to this day. It was amazing to learn of the many measures instituted to limit the rights of other human beings and because of this there is a heavy burden of shame hanging over our history. We can't go back but we can learn from the past and seek to improve things in the future. This work is a welcome addition to American history shelves.

Rating:
Summary: Too much info for a book divided by chapters
Review: This book covers a little researched area in literature and will find some use because of that. However, it appears to be the result of an enormous amount of research but little written preparation. The text, though full of interesting information, is disjointed, confusing, and awkward. The book's organization is lacking, beginning with an introduction that fails to introduce the text, followed by several chapters regardig pioneers in the Ohio area, and ending with seven or so chapters that mostly deal with one geographical area at a time. Ideally this format would work, except that the bulk of the information presented is centered on the individuals, and not the geography. Individual people tend to move from one area to another, resulting in confusing chapters. Transitions between discussions of these pioneers are largely left out. The black and white pictures scattered throughout are unrelated to the text half of the time, contributing to the bad organization and general confusion. The large index will help users find the exact information they are researching, so it will be somewhat useful. However, it is doubtful that anyone but a college grad student would attempt to read the book from beginning to end.