Finding Your Roots Lib/E: The Official Companion to the PBS Series

Who are we, and where do we come from? The fundamental drive to answer these questions is at the heart of Finding Your Roots, the companion book to the hit PBS documentary series. As Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. shows us, the tools of cutting-edge genomics and deep genealogical research now allow us to learn more about our roots, looking further back in time than ever before. Gates' investigations take on the personal and genealogical histories of more than twenty luminaries, including Congressman John Lewis, actor Robert Downey Jr., CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, former secretary of labor Linda Chavez, and comedian Margaret Cho. Interwoven with their moving stories of immigration, assimilation, strife, and success is practical information for amateur genealogists just beginning archival research on their own families' roots. Gates also details the advances in genetic research now available to the public. The result is an illuminating exploration of who we are, how we lost track of our roots, and how we can find them again.

About the Author :
Henry Louis Gates Jr. is an award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder. He has authored or coauthored more than twenty books, including Stony the Road, The Black Church, and The Black Box, and created more than twenty documentary films, including his groundbreaking genealogy series Finding Your Roots. His six-part PBS documentary, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, earned an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, and an NAACP Image Award. This series and his PBS documentary series Reconstruction: America after the Civil War were both honored with the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award. His most recent PBS documentary is Gospel. He is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Bill Andrew Quinn is a veteran in the voice-over world. In addition to hundreds of commercials and audiobooks, his many credits include work on The Sopranos, The Montel Williams Show, and Showtime at the Apollo, as well as characters for Grand Theft Auto IV and other video games. Totinos, Corona, Lincoln-Mercury, and McDonald's are among his many television campaign clients.

Review :
"An accessible and engaging book, Finding Your Roots is a veritable how-to guide for readers to explore their own past. Henry Louis Gates Jr. brings a wealth of genealogical research expertise to his interviews, which are witty, knowledgeable, and touching...Throughout, Gates imbues the stories with a kind of intimacy that speaks to all of us in our personal journeys searching for our own histories. There's nothing else quite like it." -- "Ira Berlin, University of Maryland" "Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I headed? These are all fundamental questions to which every human being, regardless of race, gender, or background, wants answers. Professor Gates provides these answers to the people he profiles, but [Finding Your Roots] also encourage[s] viewers to explore their own family histories so they can know more about themselves." -- "Washington Examiner"