Finding Your Roots, Season 2

440 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, index

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-2618-5
Published: March 2016
E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-1-4696-2619-2
Published: January 2016
E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-5154-3
Published: January 2016

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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 scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. clearly demonstrates, the tools of cutting-edge genomics and deep genealogical research now allow us to learn more about our roots and look further back in time than ever before.

In the second season, Gates's investigation takes on the personal and genealogical histories of more than twenty luminaries, including Ken Burns, Stephen King, Derek Jeter, Governor Deval Patrick, Valerie Jarrett, and Sally Field. As Gates interlaces these moving stories of immigration, assimilation, strife, and success, he provides practical information for amateur genealogists just beginning archival research on their own families' roots and 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 the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University.
For more information about Henry Louis Gates Jr., visit the Author Page.

Reviews

“Gates succeeds in bringing previously forgotten ancestors back into the lives of the guests. This is the type of book I might buy for light reading or to give as a gift” – National Genealogical Society Quarterly

Praise for Finding Your Roots, Season 1:

"A painstakingly researched genealogical tapestry weaving a wonderful tribute to America as a very culturally rich melting pot."--Kam Williams

“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.”--Cal Thomas, Washington Examiner

"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, made more so by the fact that Gates himself enters the stories, changing places with the interviewees to reveal something of his own personal experience. 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