History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Adam of the Road (Newbery Library, Puffin)

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Adam of the Road
adam of the road
adam of the road
assignment
Lost and Found on the Road of Life

Adam of the Road (Newbery Library, Puffin)
Elizabeth Janet Gray
Manufacturer: Puffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 014032464X

Book Description

Eleven-year-old Adam loved to travel throughout thirteenthcentury England with his father, a wandering minstrel, and his dog, Nick. But when Nick is stolen and his father disappears, Adam suddenly finds himself alone. He searches the same roads he traveled with his father, meeting various people along the way. But will Adam ever find his father and dog and end his desperate search?

Customer Reviews:

Adam of the Road.......2007-05-18

Good book for a middle school reader about a young, would be joker in medieval timess.

adam of the road.......2007-03-21

There's was a eleven year old boy named Adam. Adam and his father loved to travel the thirteenth century of England. Adam also brong a spaiel. Nick,Adam brother was stolen and Adam father suddenly look at. The roads was filled up with rich merchants, pilgrims. The road also filled up with thieves and sanits and priest's. Adam also had a dog.their were horse's that made Adam scream off the road again to hide behind a broken down rock. Adam was looking around after getting scared of the horse's and saw a couple of people stealing form a rich merchant. Adam said stop but then saw sheriff along the road and the sheriff stop them.
I like how his father got lost because, Adam to meet new people and Adam had a adventure. I didnt like how Adam brother got stolen because who would steal a kid and it would be dum t have a adventure by your self.

adam of the road.......2007-03-21

assignment.......2007-03-21

I did not like the book Adam of the road because it tells you a whole bunch of stuff about the characters before it gets to the story and by the time you get to the story you forget about the characters. I also did not like the fact that the book talks weird and it says like thou father I shall bla bla bla.

Lost and Found on the Road of Life.......2006-04-30

Set during the reign of King Edward "Longshanks" this story describes the life of a minstrel's son. Adam adores his pet spaniel, Nick, and pals around with a boy named Perkin, who is a fellow student at the Abbey School. But the youth yearns for his father's return, so that they may travel the glorious Road together: singing, harping, reciting tales (called Lays), spreading news and performing acrobatics-anything to entertain a crowd and therefore earn food and lodging.

Overjoyed when Roger returns to claim him astride a huge warhorse, Adam sets out wearing his new French minstrel togs. During the course of the next six months, however, the boy will come of age as he struggles to survive on his own-using his skills and his wits. First Roger looses the horse in a game of dice; then Nick is stolen by an unscrupulous minstrel named Jankin. Finally the boy becomes separated from his father and is obliged to travel the lonely Road utterly alone.
Despite the well-meaning intentions and sincere advice of various adults who help him during this difficult time, Adam clings to one dream only: to find Roger and return to the life he truly loves-that of a minstrel. No clerk's robes or scholar's quill can lure him; no plow or ferry does he care to
handle for life. His fingers long to pluck the strings of his little harp. Can a mere boy wander the highways of Southern England seeking his father and lost dog; can he survive cold, hunger, false accusation, devious plots for his future, and criminal intent successfully? This 1942 Newbery award winner mentions so many terms and customs of the Middle Ages that it could serve as an introduction to Medieval Studies. Historical references include Runnymede and the king's first convocation of the People's Parliament. An entertaining, light read enhanced by interesting black and white illustrations.

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14 Year Later, Still A Great Tale
Fantastic Story!
Goblins in the Castle
The Goblins in the Castle
Goblins in the Castle

Goblins in the Castle (Minstrel Book)
Bruce Coville
Manufacturer: Aladdin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0671727117

Book Description

What moans at midnight in Toad-in-a-Cage Castle?

Toad-in-a-Cage Castle was filled with secrets -- secrets such as the hidden passages that led to every room, the long stairway that wound down to the dungeon, and the weird creature named Igor who lived there. But it was the mysterious night noises that bothered William the most -- the strange moans that drifted through the halls of the castle where he was raised.

He wanted to know what caused them.

Then one night he found out....

Customer Reviews:

14 Year Later, Still A Great Tale.......2007-01-31

I first purchased this book when I was seven years old at a school book fair because I was raised by my father on The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings and the cover, title and description looked cool.

I remember vividly being in second grade and being absolutely tantalized by the day or two it took for me to finish it. It was just a wonderful tale of charming adventure that immediately struck the right chord with me. I'm 21 years old now and I still find myself taking time every year or so to pick up the very copy of the book I purchased when I was 7 to re-aquaint myself with the characters and the adventure and the feeling of being so completely absorbed with a story that can't really be captured beyond grammar school levels that the rest of the world doesn't matter.

This book has stood the test of time for me. It served as a fantastical escape when I was a wee lad and can still provide that exact same charm now as I finish college that I don't believe I'll ever be able to find anywhere else.

Stellar book that will do nothing but encourage young people to read; it's something that's really needed today.

Fantastic Story!.......2007-01-10

I read this book to my fourth grade students every year. The storyline is exciting and enjoyable for students of all backgrounds. Bruce Coville writes this novel in a way that keeps the children engaged and always wanting more. Each chapter ends with a "cliffhanger", leading to choruses of "Read more! Read more!" The characters in this story are well-loved by myself, and my current and former students. They are all able to sing Igor's bear bopping song long after the last word is read. This is an absolutely fantastic book~one of Bruce Coville's best!

Goblins in the Castle.......2006-12-20

Goblins In the Castle

What would you do if you found a secret passage in your room that led down to a dungeon filled with evil marauding goblins?

Goblins in the Castle is about a boy who does just that. He opens a door he shouldn't, letting out the spirits of a Goblin army. Now he needs to leave the castle and take down the goblins for good. During his adventure he meets people and asks if they will join in his great adventure to defeat the goblins. Oh, did I mention his best friend is a hunchback who whacks people with his teddy bear?

Goblins in the Castle was written by Bruce Coville and illustrated by Katherine Coville. Bruce has written many books you might know like: "Space Brat" and "My Teacher is An Alien."

The Goblins in the Castle.......2004-11-22

THE GOBLINS IN THE CASTLE

By: Bruce Coville
The book I'm doing this report on is The Goblins in the Castle. It's about a boy named William, a girl named Fuana, and a thing named Igor. In the book William lived in a castle and finds a hidden passage and meets Igor. On Halloween he accidentally let the goblins out of the north tower. Igor said they needed to see Granny Pinch Bottoms. They go and on the way Igor was stolen by goblins and William falls in a pit and meets Fuana, then goes to Granny Pinch Bottom, she gives him items to save the goblin's land. He went and did what she told him and saves goblin land.
I think William is the kind of kid that just wants some attention. He is brave to do what he's told. He's friendly to his friends. He's kind of crazy.
The problem was William opened the north tower door and let the goblins out. Another one is that he doesn't know what to do. The most important one is trying to find the courage to save the goblins.
The solution was the goblins roamed free because William made them good. He finds out what to do from Granny Pinch Bottom. He finds the courage by figuring out what at stake.
I would recommend this book to people that likes a good mystery. I would rate it at a five star book and because it's cool.

Goblins in the Castle.......2004-01-08

This is a great book. I have read it to my 4th and 5th grade students and to my own children and they have all loved it. It has just the right mix of "scary" and funny to keep the reader's (or listener's!) interest. This book is not one of Bruce Coville's best known stories, but once you read it, it WILL be one of your favorites!

The Secret of the Minstrel's Guitar (The Dana Girls, 5)

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Contents:

The Secret of the Minstrel's Guitar (The Dana Girls, 5)
Carolyn Keene
Manufacturer: Grosset & Dunlap
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Secret of the Silver Dolphin (Dana Girls Mystery Series, 3)

ASIN: 0448090856

Customer Reviews:

Contents:.......2006-03-14

The Dana girls take time off from Starhurst School to accompany their Portuguese-American friend Isabel Sarmento and her father to Lisbon, Portugal. Senhor Sarmento has enlisted the assistance of the teen-age sister detectives in solving the baffling thefts of cork products from his Lisbon warehouse. But even before the ship leaves the harbor in New York, the girls find themselves in a mystery on board the ocean liner.

Way Up North in Dixie: A Black Family's Claim to the Confederate Anthem

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Way Up North in Dixie: A Black Family's Claim to the Confederate Anthem
Howard L. Sacks , and Judith Rose Sacks
Manufacturer: Smithsonian Inst Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1560982586

Book Description

This book traces the lives of the Snowdens, an African American family of musicians and farmers living in rural Knox County, Ohio. Howard L. Sacks and Judith Rose Sacks examine the Snowdens' musical and social exchanges with rural whites from the 1850s through the early 1920s and provide a detailed exploration of the claim that the Snowden family taught the song "Dixie" to Dan Emmett--the white musician and blackface minstrel credited with writing the song. This edition features a new introduction in which the authors discuss the public response to this controversial claim, and present new information on the Snowdens' musical and social experiences.

Commodore Perry's Minstrel Show (James A. Michener Fiction Series)

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A Strange and Wonderful Delight
Clear sailing with Commodore Perry

Commodore Perry's Minstrel Show (James A. Michener Fiction Series)
Richard Wiley
Manufacturer: University of Texas Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 029271470X

Book Description

" Commodore Perry's Minstrel Show is world-class historical fiction. It takes us to a place, mid-nineteenth-century Japan, that's long ago and far away, and makes it contemporary and intimately familiar. It's a wryly told tale, full of wonders and surprises, written with grace and authority. Richard Wiley is one of the few American novelists with the will and the ability to penetrate a culture not his own with the requisite alacrity and intelligent respect. If there is such a thing as global fiction, Richard Wiley is writing it."

—Russell Banks

In 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry steamed into Edo Bay and "opened" Japan to trade with America. As entertainment for the treaty-signing ceremony, Perry brought a white-men-in-black-face minstrel show—and thereby confirmed the widely whispered Japanese belief that trade with the American "barbarians" could only lead to cultural ruin. Yet the pawns in this clash of cultures—the minstrels, Ace Bledsoe and Ned Clark, and the Japanese interpreter, Manjiro Okubo—are just slightly more curious than cautious. Within the minstrels Manjiro sensed "the subtleties of spirit that reside in all good men." When Ace and Ned are unwittingly made part of a Japanese plot to undermine the American presence, Manjiro helps them escape into the countryside. Pursued by samurai, torn between treachery and loyalty, Manjiro and the minstrels (along with family, friends, and lovers) make their way across Japan, fleeing a showdown with the samurai that gradually becomes inevitable.

Commodore Perry's Minstrel Show is the long-awaited prequel—more than a decade in the making—to Richard Wiley's PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novel, Soldiers in Hiding. A sword-swinging page-turner infused with a heady mix of Japanese etiquette, American ideals, and Machiavellian philosophy, Wiley's latest novel sparkles as it shapes history into an enlightened drama of the earliest moments of globalization.

Customer Reviews:

A Strange and Wonderful Delight.......2007-04-21

I've read all of Richard Wiley's books, and like anyone else, I have my favorites. Soldiers in Hiding is, of course, a fine book. Fool's Gold is a beauty, and Festival for 3,000 Maidens is a great little Peace Corps Novel. I have to ask myself whether Commodore Perry's Minstrel Show is now my favorite because I've just finished it, but it's a strange and wonderful delight.

Who else would write about such an unusual subject? And what makes the book such a pleasure? It has to do with the beauty of the characters and the language, both light as a feather and yet capable of great and sudden strength. I've rarely seen a book with such a texture, bright and dark, comic and serious, distant and close, ridiculous and urgent.

At times I found myself wondering why I became so involved with this odd bunch of characters from the mid 1800's Japan, but generally I was too involved to ask the question. Of course, it's no wonder, since Richard Wiley has lived in, visited, and obviously loved Japan over the years. But what surprised me the most was the book's ability to make me gasp now and again. And to curse the writer for having received, worked for, and developed such a gift.

Clear sailing with Commodore Perry.......2007-04-02

The novelist Richard Bausch once remarked that a reader is always guaranteed to learn something new in any novel written by Richard Wiley. Wiley shepherds us into a foreign landscape and introduces us to a culture that is strikingly remote from our own yet is so intimately and recognizably human that we close the book with the realization that not only are we more savvy about the workings of the world at large, but we have a rich new insight into ourselves as well. These two feats can be achieved only by a literary master capable of topnotch entertainment who also has his thumb firmly on the pulse of humanity. In Commodore Perry's Minstrel Show, Richard Wiley outdoes himself. The novel abounds in characters who will live in the reader's mind long after finishing that last page; a plot that is riveting in terms of tragedy, comedy, and samurai action; if that's not enough, this novel is one of the most poetically rendered achievements I've read in the past year. Each sentence is carefully crafted and is in full service to a compelling story about the cultural clashes, tribal rivalries, and familial conflicts that occur when Commodore Perry and his unlikely crew sail into Japan's Edo Bay in 1854 to open trade with the United States. Along the way we are treated to sex, romance, swordplay, deapitation, high and low comedy, and a sense of history whose heartbeat resounds through the ages to make it all feel insistently modern. I recommend this book without reservation to anyone who cares about excellent storytelling.

The Birth of the Banjo: Joel Walker Sweeney and Early Minstrelsy

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Sweeney restored to his proper place, good serious work!

The Birth of the Banjo: Joel Walker Sweeney and Early Minstrelsy
Bob Carlin
Manufacturer: McFarland & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0786428740
Release Date: 2007-02-21

Product Description

Joel Walker Sweeney was, in essence, the Elvis Presley of the 1840s. A professional banjo player, Sweeney introduced mainstream America to a music (and musical instrument) which had its roots in the transplanted black culture of the southern slave. Sweeney, an Irish-American born midway between Richmond and Lynchburg, Virginia, sampled African American music at a young age. He then added more traditional southern sounds to the music he heard, in essence creating a new musical form. The only avenue available to a professional banjo player was that of traveling minstrelsy shows and it was this route which Sweeney used to bring his music to the attention of the public. Beginning with the banjo's introduction to America and Great Britain, the book provides an overview of early banjo music. The volume then discusses the evolution of American minstrelsy (i.e., black face) and the opportunities it provided for artists such as Sweeney. Correcting previous fallacies and misconceptions (such as Sweeney's supposed development of the five-string banjo), the work discusses Sweeney's roots, his music and his contribution to the physical development of the instrument. An appendix contains a performance chronology. The work is also indexed.

Customer Reviews:

Sweeney restored to his proper place, good serious work!.......2007-05-20

Bob Carlin spent years and years researching, consulting, studying, documenting, and otherwise working on this book. To some of us who joked about how this book might never appear, Bob always responded, I've got to get everything right.

Bob did get everything right, at least as far as I know, here. In doing so he provides a strong practical basis not just for the life of Sweeney but for the nature of early Minstrelsy, the roots of the five string banjo, the spread of banjo playing and minstrelsy to Britain, and much about the nature of the entertainment business in the 1830s through the 1850s.

No one who wants to know about the five-string banjo, American cultural and musical history should be without this book, No one.

This book has the same strengths that Carlin's earlier book on Piedmont Carolina String Bands has. Bob's interest is not to create, validate, or invalidate this or that academic theory. Bob isn't an academic. He is one of the best banjo players, banjo item collectors, and instructors and students of the history of the old time banjo. He was one of the pioneers of the rediscovery of minstrel banjo playing, and accompanied old time music and bluegrass legend John Hartford as well as Joe Thompson, the last remaining traditional African American fiddler.

In this book, Bob Carlin has gathered a wealth of information which he presents clearly and in an orderly manner. He completely disposes of the legend that Sweeney invented the banjo or invented the fifth string of the banjo. Sweeney never claimed that, but claims of that nature were made about him after his death. Carlin tracts down the origins of those claims in a detailed and documented way.

This does not mean that this is a book of Sweeney bashing. Carlin's approach is respect for the great musical capacities this entertainer had and how as he says like Elvis, he energized the whole music world by combining African American and white musics in a new form of entertainment. We do get the sense of how Sweeney's banjo playing and his real background in African American music and his own skills made him widely popular in Britain and America. Yet, the book also showed how age and changing fashions in minstrelsy and entertainment in general meant that Sweeney's star eventually fell.

This book is good, hard, serious work, put forward in a clear manner and will be one of the bedrocks of study of the banjo, minstrelsy, and American popular culture.

Inside the Minstrel Mask: Readings in Nineteenth-Century Blackface Minstrelsy

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History of Minstrelsy with Commentary

Inside the Minstrel Mask: Readings in Nineteenth-Century Blackface Minstrelsy
Mel Watkins
Manufacturer: Wesleyan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0819563005

Book Description

As the blackface minstrel show evolved from its beginnings in the American Revolution to its peak during the late 1800s, its frenetic dances, low-brow humor, and lively music provided more than mere entertainment. Indeed, these imitations and parodies shaped society's perceptions of African Americans-and of women-as well as made their mark on national identity, policymaking decisions, and other entertainment forms such as vaudeville, burlesque, the revue, and, eventually, film, radio, and television. Gathered here are rare primary materials-including firsthand accounts of minstrel shows, minstrelsy guides, jokes, sketches, and sheet music-and the best of contemporary scholarship on minstrelsy.

Customer Reviews:

History of Minstrelsy with Commentary.......2007-01-11

I reccommend Inside the Minstrel Mask. A fascinating survey of the minstrel show, including some of the songs and skits that were popular.
Also includes some astute analysis.

Gary Winter
Playwright

Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, Coon Songs, And the Dark Pathway to Blues And Jazz (American Made Music Series)

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10 stars, a necessary book covering important stuff

Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, Coon Songs, And the Dark Pathway to Blues And Jazz (American Made Music Series)
Lynn Abbott , and Doug Seroff
Manufacturer: University Press of Mississippi
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1578069017

Book Description

The commercial explosion of ragtime in the early twentieth century created previously unimagined opportunities for black performers. However, every prospect was mitigated by systemic racism. The biggest hits of the ragtime era weren't Scott Joplin's stately piano rags. "Coon songs," with their ugly name, defined ragtime for the masses. Though the name itself is offensive to modern ears, it is impossible to investigate black popular entertainment of the ragtime era without directly confronting the "coon songs" which cleared the way for the "original blues."

In Ragged but Right Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff investigate musical comedy productions, sideshow bands, and itinerant tented minstrel shows. Ragtime history is crowned by the "big shows," the stunning musical comedy successes of blackface performers Williams and Walker, Bob Cole, and Ernest Hogan. Under the big tent of Tolliver's Smart Set, Ma Rainey, Clara Smith, and others were converted from "coon shouters" to "blues singers." Throughout the ragtime era, circuses and Wild West shows exploited the popular demand for black musicians and performers yet segregated and subordinated them to the sideshow tent. Minstrel shows have long been marginalized in discussions of the history of blues and jazz. Yet this overlooked black entertainment industry helped to move blues and jazz into the mainstream.

Drawing from careful reading of the Indianapolis Freeman, Chicago Defender, and other black newspapers and mainstream entertainment trade papers, the authors reveal a torrent of creativity that swept thousands of black writers, performers, musicians, and entrepreneurs into the professional ranks despite the overt racism of the times.

Customer Reviews:

10 stars, a necessary book covering important stuff.......2007-05-24

I have not finished this book, but I feel it is so important that I want to review it now and not wait. Most people who think they know about the history of Black and general popular music, jazz, blues, and old time music do not know anything about the material that is covered in this book. Without this knowledge, we are all wrong, mistaken and confused.

An important thread central to musical culture in this country was commercial and professional African American musicians and other entertainers who were centered in traveling companies of various kinds including circuses, minstrel shows, and traveling theatar companies during the years covered. Here we have gathered in minstrel shows the great women singers who helped make the blues nationaly known and recorded like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. Here you have musicians who became masters of Jazz playing and composition. Here you had comedians whose routines became part of the standard discourse in this country far from the stages they performed on. Here you have the dancers who ignited the great African American dance crazes of the 20th century.

Seroff and Abbot cover the information about this slowly, thoroughly and with abundant illustrations and documentation. Their sources are the coverage of Black entertainment in columns and entire newspapers that were published during the era on this in African American newspapers. The documentation they use should be a guide for further research into specific aspects of the music.

The prices on this book is quite steep. One hopes that libraries make a special push to acquire this book. Ask your library to do so, even if you have the money,or like myself, the urgency, to buy it.

Minstrels in the Gallery: History of Jethro Tull (Music)

Average customer rating:

The Tale of the One-Legged Flute Player
Reviewer Joseph Kimsey should have written this book!
A Somewhat Superficial Read
A chronological history of a band, but not much more.
Very informative; raises questions.

Minstrels in the Gallery: History of Jethro Tull (Music)
David Rees
Manufacturer: Firefly Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0946719225

Book Description

"Rees has interviewed all the key players and told the Tull tale with zest and candor. A fine read for Tull fansand non-believers alike."-Mojo "The author manages to maintain both his enthusiasm and enough perspective to make his narrative believable, and his chronicling of the band 's sometimes turbulent history is gripping without slipping into sensationalism. Essential reading for Tull's vast fanbase, of course."-Record Collector

Customer Reviews:

The Tale of the One-Legged Flute Player.......2004-04-10

David Rees has done what no one had previously; which was write a credible book on the band known as Jethro Tull. I like the warm, laid back style of the narrative. Also, another bonus is that Rees is impartial for the most part in relation to the songs and the band's history. However, Rees could have provided more insight into the songwriting and the nasty fallout that led to the dismissal of the classic lineup that lasted from 1972-1979. Overall a good read and a must for anyone wanting to know more about the genius of Tull

Reviewer Joseph Kimsey should have written this book!.......2000-05-11

I used to a mad Tull fan thirty years ago. TAAB was my favourite album. Tastes change. I bought this out of interest and for old time's sake. I couldn't believe just how superficial it is! David Rees runs a Tull fan club. Maybe he just hasn't had the time to do this bio justice. Ian Anderson may not be Bob Dylan, but Tull's body of work surely deserves at least SOME analysis! I read it in one sitting and doubt that I'll ever have a reason to go back to it (although a current Tull fanatic may get more out of it!). Now, back to Rogan's Byrds biography!

A Somewhat Superficial Read.......2000-01-12

I'm grateful to Dave Rees for writing the first real bio of Jethro Tull; at first I was exhilarated that there was finally (!) a book on Tull, and I read it in one sitting. But, not to be unkind, it could have been better. David, in my opinion, could have made it more interesting and insightful by choosing many of the songs and explaining what makes them so fascinating (for me at any rate)to people who may have picked up the book but are not familiar with Tull. For example: One Brown Mouse was inspired, according to Ian, by Robert Burns. The song North Sea Oil was written about the touch and go oil economy in Aberdeen in the late 70's, Farm on the Freeway about the financial problems of the American farmers, Moths: the clever metaphor of the lovers being consumed by the flame, Fylingdale Flyer: about an incoming nuclear missle,and the multitude of songs based on Anglo-Scots-Celtic subject matter: Kelpie, Pibroch, Solstice Bells, Jack In The Green, Beltane, etc. And also describe the instrumentation of the songs. Unfortunately, most people seem to know Jethro Tull only by their few radio hits Bungle In The Jungle, Aqualung, & Living In The Past. While these songs are great(except for Bungle), they certainly are not the limit of what Tull are capable of. Perhaps by describing the different changes and nuances of the music, for example: the twists and turns of Thick As A Brick, the unexpected dynamics changes in Minstrel In The Gallery and Baker Street Muse, the charm of Moths and One Brown Mouse, would perk up the interest of people reading the book but are not very familiar with the band. Tull has put out a much greater variety of music than just Bungle In The Jungle. It would have been great to read why Ian is particuarly interested in Celtic subjects (I know he's Scottish, but maybe there are more reasons), what spurs his different interests, what are his favorite books, his political opinions, his views on his music. Also, I would love to know more of Martin Barre's background. Why, exactly, is he attracted to Ian's music? Which guitarists influenced him? Has he ever contemplated leaving Tull? Has he and Ian ever disagreed on the direction of the music? His favorite Tull music? In short, stuff that Tull fanatics (such as I) don't already know and that would intrigue budding Tull neophytes. And not to be ultra-cranky, but I disagreed with a lot of David's opinions on Tull's work. Contrary to David's views, I think Heavy Horses is awesome: JT's best, better than anything I've ever heard from them or anyone else; Stormwatch is excellent, certainly not mediocre; Broadsword is overpraised, Tull sounds dated on it; Too Old Too Rock N' Roll, while not their best, isn't, in my opinion, their least creative album, and most of Under Wraps is dire indeed. I hope people don't think that I disliked the book, I just think it could have been a little better. David's writing style is great: it's very laid-back and familiar, and I love his use of British slang; after all, you can't get much more British than Jethro Tull, can you? All in all, a good book that is certainly worth reading.

A chronological history of a band, but not much more........1999-09-19

Rees has written mostly information that has already been written about Tull. There is little emphasis on the formative years and how this band grew from being a group of teenage friends who played in a garage in Blackpool to major rock stars in the Seventies. In short, the later years are over-empasized. Also, the philisophical nature of the music and the philosophies of the musicians themselves seem to be missing, or at least secondary. I would like to know more about why the music came out the way it did than when and where.

Very informative; raises questions........1999-06-03

Congratulations to Dave Rees on putting out very good history of a very good and enigmatic band. This chatty book fills in many details that true Tull fans will have been wondering about. However, it also raises questions. For example, WHY was (is) the management of Chrysalis so inept at marketing Tull? HOW has Martin Barre managed to stay so long? WHY does Ian have to be such a prick? -- All in all this is a very good book. Nobody but Rees could've written such an objective and appreciative history without fawning over the band. Way to go Dave.

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