Questioning Gypsy Identity: Ethnic Narratives in Britain and America

Brian Belton's powerfully original book examines Gypsy lives against the framework of social theories that illustrate how identity arises out of the cultural complexity of individual biographies, families, and communities. Addressing the lack of contextual and social perspectives in the existing literature and the underlying assumption of a consistent Gypsy lineage, he explores the subject of identity to include the broader social context in which the population exists. He argues that Gypsy identity is created and maintained not only by tradition and heredity, but also by social and ideological factors that give rise to the 'ethnic narrative' of Gypsy identity. Growing up in an English Gypsy family, Belton offers a unique 'outsider-insider' perspective to Questioning Gypsy Identity, writing what are essentially stories of people_how they are made, their social force, and what they collectively create.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction: A Gypsy Lineage Chapter 2 The Ethnic Gypsy Chapter 3 Defining American Gypsies Chapter 4 Historical Genesis of American Gypsies Chapter 5 Gypsies in Social Bondage Chapter 6 Ethnicity as Narrative Chapter 7 Colonialism and the Gypsies Chapter 8 Defining Legislation Chapter 9 Towards a New Paradigm of Gypsy Identity Chapter 10 Appendix: The Gypsy Lore Society (GLS) Chapter 11 Bibliography Chapter 12 Index Chapter 13 About the Author

About the Author :
A renowned scholar and community leader, Brian A. Belton's career is a product of his Gypsy and working class background, and his experiences of growing up in the youth gang culture of London's East End in the 1970s. Notorious for his innovative, inspirational, and challengingly radical lectures, he advances a message of equality that resonates with scholars as well as the public at large. A prolific writer for both the academic and popular audiences, he is the author of a number of oral and sporting histories, including The First and Last Englishmen,Hammering 'Round, Founded on Iron, and Johnnie the One as well as scholarly works, including Gypsy and Traveller Ethnicity, forthcoming from Routledge. He is senior lecturer at the YMCA George Williams College in Canning Town, East London.

Review :
Questioning Gypsy Identity is an extraordinary achievement and a supremely important contribution to our understanding of the construction of ethnic identities. Brian Belton writes with the authority of an insider yet at the same time challenges racial exoticism and cultural cliches that so often define Gypsies. After reading this book, no one will be able to use the word 'gypsy' without careful and reflective thinking. Fascinating about this book is the eloquent way with which Brian Belton combines family history with academic reflection. By reading his work, one is able to discard old-fashioned ideas about the Rom or Gypsies. The book shatters myths that cloud our view on the lives of Travelers. The author offers an inclusive approach, and does not set Gypsies apart by means of exoticism, giving way to a new vision on their history and position in European and American societies. This is a fascinating book...offering an in-depth analysis of narrative as a useful method in social science for obtaining and understanding the self-identification of people, how others identify them, and how individuals and the 'generalized other' are mutually influenced. Questioning Gypsy Identity rejects romantic stereotypes of Gypsies, and demonstrates that group identities are social constructions. Brian Belton is a good storyteller, a graceful writer, and a scholar who has prepared a well-documented book. This is an exciting and overdue book. The theme of ethnic identity is one which has permeated much academic writing over recent years and has been the source of endless theorising and conjecture. Yet too often, debates about Gypsy ethnicity have crudely adopted existing models and theories, without adequately acknowledging the complexity of Gypsy identity. This is where the value of this book lies. Belton systematically reviews existing work in this area and questions the notion of Gypsies as a homogenous group, critically challenging many of the existing theories of Gypsy identity. In particular, he emphasises that ethnicity is primarily a social construct, and one which has important wider implications for Gypsy communities. Belton's focus upon both Britain and America—coupled with a unique insider-outsider perspective—makes this book essential reading for anyone interested in Gypsy ethnicity, or ethnic identity more generally. This volume focuses on a group woefully underrepresented in the race and ethnicity literature to ask broader questions about how academics have misused the concept of ethnicity by imposing their own caricatures on entire groups of people, resulting in research that is too often misrepresentative. Readers will delight in Brian Belton's seamless shifting between theory, observation, and personal experiences, which give this book the feel of narrative, rather than sterile discourse. It is evident that the questions in Questioning Gypsy Identity come not only from intellectual inquiry, but, perhaps more importantly, from the heart.