Description
Book SynopsisFocusing on ""Amos 'n' Andy"", a nightly American radio comedy in the 1930s, this text unveils a tale of America's shifting colour line, in which two professional directors of blackface minstrel shows produced a series so complex that it won admirers ranging from ultra-racists to racial egalitarians.
Trade ReviewCompelling... a stunningly objective look at the history of the program and how it affected, and was affected by, the culture at large....Remarkable. - Boston Globe; ""Amos 'n' Andy was an instant success, and went on to become both a national institution and a subject of racial controversy; Mr. Ely's sensitive and scholarly work shows us why."" - New Yorker; ""An engrossing, perhaps definitive, account of one of the most fascinating episodes in popular entertainment."" - Henry Louis Gates Jr.; ""Engaging....[Ely] does a brilliant job of sorting out what is in many ways a hellishly complex story....With exemplary scholarship and well-reasoned eloquence, he advances us a long way toward understanding, while also vividly revealing some unsettling aspects of our culture that shouldn't be forgotten."" - San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle; ""Painfully funny... ironic."" - Maureen Corrigan, ""Fresh Air,"" National Public Radio
