Gone Home: Race and Roots through Appalachia by Karida L. Brown.

This compelling and captivating book is based on the often overlooked but crucial insight that the African-American Great Migration [from South to North] of 1910-1970 frequently happened in steps and stages, rather than in one fell swoop. That’s where the key preposition in the title of this book comes from – through - Appalachia. Karida Leigh Brown’s own family experienced this. Her grandparents migrated – or, as Brown corrects, escaped - from Alabama to Harlan County, Kentucky. Her parents, born in Kentucky, migrated from Harlan County on to Long Island. She and her brother, born in Kentucky, were raised in New York state. Clearly this book is a kind of corrective and deeper dive into the Great Migration, a matter of great national interest and concern. It is also a key corrective and deeper dive into Appalachian Studies as it highlights Black Appalachia.  And it is an innovative inter-disciplinary exploration of the boundaries between the field of sociology – she is an Associate Pro