Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery:
Secondary school, public, and academic libraries will welcome this excellent one-volume encyclopedia. The 300 or so articles, which focus on places, persons, or themes, are frequently several pages long; the more than 200 authors are truly experts in their respective subjects, and several are well known. A brief bibliography follows every article; the citations, ranging from primary sources to recent scholarship, are limited to what the authors and editors consider the best of relevant writings. Reference librarians will applaud the knowledge and judgment reflected in the bibliographies, though a more rigorous check for post-1984 items would have strengthened this feature. Scholars seeking facts outside their specialty as well as generalists investigating aspects of American slavery can benefit from the Dictionary. A good subject index and cross-references facilitate access. Though some of the information can be found elsewhere, the focus here is unique, the articles combine substance with fluent style, and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.- Sally Linden, Wellesley Coll. Lib., Mass.Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.