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The African-American Years: Chronologies of American History and Experience — Print

"Stepto recognizes that African American history covers a great enough span of time to need this chronological treatment. The need of today's students for such a framework is often disregarded; many lack working knowledge of a subject's order. The history of Africans in the new world predates the traditional date of 1619 given for the arrival of slaves in Jamestown, so students must contend with a 500-year period. Since the work illustrates that African Americans have affected all aspects of American culture, no period goes ignored. At first blush, section titles may seem inadequate, but they follow standard divisions of American history--"The Colonial Period and The Revolutionary War" and "The Civil War." The various main entries include primary source documents accompanied by sidebars that provide an overview of the primary document and supply its historical context. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All libraries."
-- Choice (July/August 2003)

"Gr 10 Up — This companion to Ernie Gross's The American Years opens with a detailed chronology tracing the history of African American¿s from 1444 to 2002. Cross-references in the chronology lead to more detailed chapters that cover the Colonial period through the Civil War and Reconstruction to the modern era. This work employs wide-ranging sources such as essays, journal entries, poems, and sidebars along with numerous black-and-white reproductions and photographs and bibliographies. ... This resource will be useful for those researching black heritage and who are interested in lesser-known primary sources."
-- School Library Journal (June 2003)

"This provides a panoramic view of the African American experience from the European slave trade through 2002. A detailed chronology is followed by historical sections and African Americans Coming to the Fore of American Identity. Each section in turn divides into chapters on specific subjects (e.g., religion), with a concluding general index and a primary source document index. More than 250 black-and-white illustrations and numerous cross-references supplement the text. The highlight here is the predominance of primary documents, some lengthy, which support the chapter essays. Some documents are commonplace (e.g., the Fourteenth Amendment), yet many are obscure but interesting. ... This resource is recommended for public library and undergraduate history collections."
-- ARBA (2003)

"The first part is a timeline covering the sweep of African American history, pinpointing key years and recording significant events within them. The second contains essays, excerpts of primary documents, and sidebars to provide context as a background for understanding the significance of events and relating them to the larger story of African American history."
-- Reference and Research Book News (May 2002)