Salem Press

Milestone Documents in African American History

		This resource is essential for high-school, public, and undergraduate libraries.

Booklist - American Library Association - Booklist is ALA's official review source for current materials worthy of consideration for purchase by small and medium-sized public and school libraries. The full text of Booklist's starred review of Milestone Documents in African American History is reproduced below.

October 15, 2010

Finkelman, Paul (Editor) May 2010. 2,100 p. Schlager, hardcover, $395.00. (9781935306054). 305.896.

The latest installment in the award-winning Milestone Documents series lives up to the excellence of previous sets (Milestone Documents in American History [2008], Milestone Documents of American Leaders [2009], Milestone Documents in World History [2010]). Here, the chronologically-arranged documents portray the story of African Americans from the introduction of slavery in the 1600s to the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

The 125 signed entries, which have been prepared by experts in history and law, include correspondence, essays, reports, tracts, manifestos, petitions, proclamations, legal opinions, legislation, military orders, narratives, presidential/executive documents, speeches/addresses, and testimony. In addition to document text, each entry includes context, a time line, a biographical profile, explanation and analysis, intended audience, impact. quotes, and more. This content scaffolds readers’ understanding of each document’s role in shaping African American history. The inclusion of 223 photographs and illustrations in the entries helps engage reader interest. Following each entry are citations containing both general and academic sources. For example, the entry on Shirley Chisholm’s 1974 keynote speech for a national conference of black women at the University of Missouri is followed by citations that include Chisholm’s books, an entry in African American National Biography (2008), a scholarly journal article, a bibliography of Chisholm’s writings and life, and two Web sites.

The documents and analyses will be useful to students and researchers of differing abilities and experience. Researchers of history will be interested in the quality of the documents, which contain all original spelling and syntax. Novice history readers will appreciate the glossaries of terms that appear after documents using specialized language. High-school teachers will want to utilize the Teacher’s Activity Guides in volume 4, which provide focus questions connecting the primary documents in the collection to the National History Standards established by the National Center for History in the Schools. Undergraduate and high-school students looking for paper topics will appreciate the “Questions for Further Study” provided for each document.

Purchase of the print books also includes access to the online content at www.history.salempress.com. This resource is essential for high-school, public, and undergraduate libraries.

Cynthia Crosser