Richards (English, Colgate U.) conducts a significant critique of African American literature and literary studies at the opening of the twenty-first century though a number of essays, basically coming to the conclusion that the unique perspective of such literature has become eroded as its moral imperative is worn away. He analyzes Gates, Brown, and middle-class African American taste, the work of Dyson as it meets the reality of the readership, Morrison and white patronage, the work of Mays, Hayden, Hughes and Chesnutt and the effects of integration, and finally at Davis and Reed in terms of Marxist humanism and literacy. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)