Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The book, Hidden in Plain View, is based on the oral testimony of Ozella McDaniel Williams shared with one of the co-authors, Jacqueline Tobin, shortly before Mrs. Williams died of cancer. When first published, this book was immediately seized upon by the popular press and apparently, embraced by many people as the "Gospel Truth". Page 33 of the book shares the author Raymond Dobard's own statement that the book is conjecture on his part. No collaborative evidence was provided nor sought by the books' authors, and since neither of them are quilt historians, they surely did not realize the inanity of what they proposed. In my opinion, this book is a major insult to intelligent people everywhere yet it has been picked up to be shared as "fact" in Social Studies classes across America, instead of the "fiction" that it is. The book does not jibe with what we (quilt historians and Underground Railroad historians) know about African American history. Most certainly, the depiction of quilt blocks is not in tandem with known and documented quilts and/or quilt block history. Members of the American Quilt Study Group, a group that is comprised of university professors, professional writers/book authors, appraisers, publishers, and many others associated with the quilt world, have privately and publicly condemned this book. For interesting reading, you may like to read the introductory remarks that Marsha MacDowell shared in the year 2000. Marsha is a researcher and faculty member of Michigan State University, and her thoughts are available to read in Vol. 21 of the Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group "Uncoverings 2000." From a quiltmaker's point of view and also that of a quilt historian, several of my articles about Hidden in Plain View have been published by major magazines. This book, HIdden in Plain View, is scholarship at its worst.