RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewDeeply researched, crisply written ... Williams makes a compelling case that Close Ranks was the product of both calculation and opportunism ... By rendering this story in such rich archival detail, Williams’s book is a fitting coda to Du Bois’s unfinished history of Black Americans and the First World War.
Henry Louis Gates Jr.
PositiveThe Boston GlobeHenry Louis Gates Jr.’s 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro, draws its inspiration and title from these popular takes on African-American history ...like taking a tour of black history with a very erudite and accessible guide ...is organized as a series of short (two-to-four page) essays, in which Gates answers questions... The chapters are not organized thematically or chronologically, so readers go from learning about Basil Biggs, who buried war dead at Gettysburg in 1863, to Malcolm X’s debate at Oxford University a century later ...more playful than ironic. He has long been interested in black language rituals and verbal play, and the entries here are meant to be talked about and shared not just via social media, but the old fashioned way...offers seeds that may grow among readers into a deeper appreciation of African-American history, one that may render another homage to Rogers unnecessary.
Patrick Phillips
RaveThe Boston GlobeDeeply researched and crisply written, Blood at the Root is an impressive and timely case study of the racial violence and historical amnesia that characterize much of American history. Phillips, a poet and professor, is a gifted storyteller, and it is the accumulation of details that make this story so powerful and disturbing ... By recalling the events in Georgia, Blood at the Root contributes to the urgent national task of reckoning with histories that too many would prefer to forget.
