Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619–1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass. Edited by Paul Finkelman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. xvi + 1522 pp. Maps, tables, charts, photos, illustrations, bibliographies, appendix, and index. 3 vol. set $375.00 (cloth).

Violet M. Showers Johnson
Agnes Scott College

The three-volume Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619–1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass is the first of two encyclopedias developed by Oxford University Press to offer a comprehensive window into "the two African American histories." According to Editor-in-Chief Paul Finkelman, these histories are an internal history showing how black communities developed over time and an external history demonstrating the interaction of blacks and whites and the impact of this co-existence upon African American history and the national history of the United States (p. xii). Chronologically, as the title clearly indicates, this work covers the period since the first recorded arrival of blacks in Virginia to the death of Frederick Douglass, who is described as the most important African American of his age. His passing in 1895 coincided with the end of some significant historical trends and the beginning of others, making that point a "natural" watershed for ending the first set of the encyclopedias.