tter illustrate what role these songs played in the black community. Another convincing tool Cone uses throughout are responses from musical experts of different races to these rich, creative songs somehow discovered by "these half-barbarous people". Although many whites recognized the musical creativity of these songs, their own cultural experience often precluded their encounters with these deeper levels of human experience reflected in the spirituals and the blues. James H. Cones explanation of how these types of music were accepted by different races, use of excerpts, and conveyance of the different foundations upon which these types of music were built help to illustrate both similarities and differences which can be found between the spirituals and the blues.The Spirituals and the Blues is a very well-written book, but as is the case with most books, does have its weaknesses. One weakness I observed is that the section of the book which talks about the blues is very small in proportion to that which talks about the spirituals. The spirituals do have a longer, more extensive history, but it does not seem that this should reflect such a large proportion of the book. The only other weakness which I found the book to have is that the author somewhat contradicted himself, in my view, when it comes to defining the blues. In his "Concluding Reflection", Cone tries to unite the spirituals and the blues and states that the two types of music should not be regarded as one being sacred "and the other secular". Earlier, however, Cone explained how blacks held God in such high esteem and this was the foundation upon which the spirituals were built and also talks about how blues could be classified as "a secular spiritual". His points can still be easily understood by the reader, but I feel that he nontheless contradicts himself while making these statements.Overall, I thought the book was very enlightening when it came to the point of...
