The African American National Biography: 8-Volume Set | 
| Creators: Henry Louis Gates, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $995.00
Buy New: $699.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 552102
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 8
Pages: 5568
Shipping Weight (lbs): 26.3
Dimensions (in): 18 x 10 x 8.7
ISBN: 0195160193
Dewey Decimal Number: 920.009296073
EAN: 9780195160192
ASIN: 0195160193
Publication Date: February 18, 2008
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Product Description
The African American National Biography presents history through a mosaic of the lives of thousands of individuals, illuminating the abiding influence of persons of African descent on the life of this nation from the arrival of Esteban in Spanish Florida in 1529 through to notable black citizens of the present day.
Available initially as a handsome 8-volume set containing over 4,000 entries written and signed by distinguished scholars, the AANB continues to grow along with the field of African American biographical research, and continuous updates to the online edition will bring the total number of lives profiled to more than 5,000. This is a remarkable achievement, an eightfold increase over the number of biographies contained in 2004's award-winning and substantial African American Lives.
In addition to Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois and Martin Luther King Jr., the AANB includes a wide range of African Americans from all time periods and all walks of life, both famous and nearly-forgotten. In the words of AANB editor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., "These stories, long buried in the dusty archives of history, will never be lost again. And that is what scholarship in the field of African American Studies should be all about."
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| Customer Reviews:
The definitive African American biographical dictionary April 21, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The African American National Biography comes close to its promise - a single, definitive source for biographical information about every significant African American. Each of more than 4,000 entries include citations for further reading and obituaries, where available. Many also include photographs. The entries themselves are well written, and long enough to explore the lives in detail.
There are two significant problems, however.
Many entries have already become dated, and in the process, lack critical biographical information. For instance, the entry on Sam Gilliam fails to mention his 2005 retrospective at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the massive accompanying catalogue. That catalogue is the most detailed look at his life and work. This may be related to the considerable amount of time it has taken for this work to be published.
The binding of this set is glued, not sewn. For a title that retails for $100 a volume, and that will be heavily used in public libraries for the next couple decades, this is simply unacceptable. I'm sure that I'll be sending my library's copy off to the bindery in five or ten years at the most.
If not for the above issues, I'd give this title five stars. I just hope that the second edition, these issues are resolved.
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