| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Searching for the Bright Path: The Mississippi Choctaws from Prehistory to Removal. By James Taylor Carson. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999. xvi, 183 pp. $40.00, ISBN 0-8032-1503-7.)

James Taylor Carson's book shows many interesting aspects, but we must point out a few facts that may be considered details but do influence the reading. First, the practical facts, such as the lack of a bibliography. Its absence is most annoying for the reader, who is obliged to go fishing for the information in the notes and cannot get a global view of the sources. The index is a bit too short and cannot make up for the lack of a bibliography. 1

The other fault one could hold against the writer is the imprecision of the vocabulary and also of the dates, which is very important, for it casts a shadow on his methodology. Why does he write, so many times it becomes a writing tic, "one scholar," "one English traveler"? It is the duty of the historian toward the sources, whatever they are, to identify and quote them precisely. Are those people not worth mentioning? It would also help fellow historians looking for sources for events; it is hard to find one's way through the notes, one note often referring to several issues. . . .

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