Rich anthology of African-American folklore offers scores of humorous and harrowing stories. Collected during the mid-20th century, the tales tell of talking animals, ghosts, devils, and saints.

Urban ethnography is the firsthand study of city life by investigators who immerse themselves in the worlds of the people about whom they write. Since its inception in the early twentieth century, this great tradition has helped define how we think about cities and city dwellers. The past few decades have seen an extraordinary revival in the field, as scholars and the public at large grapple with the increasingly complex and pressing issues that affect the ever-changing American city-from poverty to the immigrant experience, the changing nature of social bonds to mass incarceration, hyper-segregation to gentrification. As both a method of research and a form of literature, urban ethnography has seen a notable and important resurgence. This renewed interest demands a clear and comprehensive understanding of the history and development of the field to which this volume contributes by presenting a selection of past and present contributions to American urban ethnographic writing. Beginning with an original introduction highlighting the origins, practices, and significance of the field, editors Mitchell Duneier, Philip Kasinitz, and Alexandra Murphy guide the reader through the major and fascinating topics on which it has focused -- from the community, public spaces, family, education, work, and recreation, to social policy, and the relationship between ethnographers and their subjects. An indispensable guide, The Urban Ethnography Reader provides an overview of how the discipline has grown and developed while offering students and scholars a selection of some of the finest social scientific writing on the life of the modern city.

Nineteen stories focus on the magical lore and wondrous imaginings of African American women.

Describes the characteristics of folk cultures and discusses the procedures used by social scientists to study folklife.

This volume represents a good cross section of the folktales of Alabama, of all citizens from all parts of the state.

This is an introduction to the most important recent court decisions affecting women in the United States. Abortion, sexual harrassment, pornography, surrogate motherhood, rape, custody rights - the legal and social questions surrounding these issues are brought to life in this casebook.

Collects Southern legends and folk tales about haunted houses, supernatural events, and the appearances of ghosts

Collecting her family's own stories and photographs, Kathryn Morgan has brought to life the attempts of five generations of black women to cope with the fears, angers, and anxieties of life in a hostile white society. Compiled in three parts-the Caddy Legends, childhood reminiscences, and Maggie's memories of "color" and "race"-these tales are written in the southern, black oral tradition, and were told and re-told as emotional buffers against an inherently inhuman situation. According to the author, "family folklore was the antidote used by our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents to help us counteract the poison of self-hate engendered by racism." The two principal "warriors" in these stories are Caddy, the author's great-grandmother, slave-born fountainhead of the family's oral tradition, and Maggie, the author's mother, who could often "pass" because her skin was so light. Through their recollections we receive an intense portrayal of everyday black life in a variety of settings and periods as well as characters and personalities. From Caddy's home in Lynchburg, Virginia, to the successive generations that settled in North Philadelphia, the psychological effects of emotional and physical segregation are recounted in many telling and ironic episodes. Stories such as "How Caddy Found Her Mother," "The Whipping and the Promise," and "God and Lice" are profound in the truths they reveal. Attempting to make the family's past applicable to the present, the stories invariably had the function of bolstering the individual's self-esteem. The fifteen photographs included in the book help introduce the reader to the Morgan family. Too often traditional scholarship has presented black family life only in statistical aggregates or as a social problem.Children of Strangersis a new kind of evidence about black urban and ethnic life; it provides striking insights into the successful strategies used by black families to raise their children in a white-dominated world. Author note: Kathryn L. Morganteaches History at Swarthmore College.