A new look at banjo history

Thanks to Bluegrass Today for this feature on a book published this month by Harvard University Press: The banjo: America's African instrument (ISBN 9780674047846).

The author, Laurent Dubois, is a professor at Duke University, NC; a banjo-player; and an authority on the history of the Caribbean region. The book comprises eight chapters; the first four cover the period before the minstrel shows - the point at which, for many people, banjo history begins.

Topics include the significance of the banjo in slave society, and the fact that it seems to have developed only in areas of British and French colonisation. The price is $29.95/ £22.95/ €27.00 - not excessive for a 384-page hardback with twenty half-tone plates.