Greene County, Georgia (Black America Series) Book

A very interesting collection of interviews. With the exception of the last chapter, it tends to target very successful black people, which is I feel a different approach than many otherwise-similar surveys take. What I found most compelling was the repetition. At first, the fact that a lot of the interviewees said very similar things about black empowerment, about the middle/low class black divide, and other issues annoyed me. But after a while I realized that this was combating the little doubt I'd had from the beginning in putting much stock in individual perceptions of grand societal theories. It could be cherrypicking in the process of Gates' narrative reconstructions of the interviews, but given his academic background I doubt it. Definitely worth a read.