May 23, 2011 – What a wonderful book! I love Eugene Robinson’s columns in the Washington Post and I have heard him speak in person. He’s a remarkable man who brings a lifetime of thought and experience to a subject few people talk about openly. I was truly fascinated by his segmentation of Black America into 4 distinct categories: the Transcendent, the Mainstream, the Emergent, and the Abandoned. His research is well done, the writing is engaging and his stories are memorable. For those living in the Washington, DC, area, his descriptions of the history and culture of the various neighborhood will bring a new perspective on how the city has evolved in the last 40 years. I would highly recommend to anyone. It serves to enrich our understanding of our fellow Americans in a way they didn’t teach us in school.