edited by Nelson George and Alan Leeds Talk about contrasts!  Henry David Thoreau and James Brown may very well be the alpha and omega of American culture -- everything else will fit in between these two giants.  Here's your first chance to follow the life and career of James Brown as it happened.  This entire volume is all from original source material penned as history was made, beginning with an unsigned Variety review of a 1959 show at the Apollo through to a lengthy 2006 appreciation of his life by Jonathan Lethem for Rolling Stone, The James Brown Reader presents the most multi-faceted single-volume view of its subject yet.  And, co-editor Alan Leeds is a Pittsburgh homie.  A must!