About the Author

JOHN MICHAEL VLACH is a professor of American studies and anthropology and director of the Folklife Program at the George Washington University. He is the author of Charleston Blacksmith: The work of Philip Simmons (Georgia, 1981) and coeditor (with Dell Upton) of Common Places: Readings in American Vernacular Architecture (Georgia, 1986).

Reviews

Exceeds previous literature in world art history because it places the Afro-American tradition within a multicultural, world context as well as preserving the attributes of specialized research.
*Choice*

Vlach's vision of black culture as a living, dynamic, and often subtle fusion of African and European ingredients enriched the decorative arts field's superficial understanding of tradition and reinforced the views of other current scholars of ethnicity who reject static models of culture and tradition.
*American Culture*