One assumes that Goff intended this travesty of a book to provide a history of white gospel singing. But, while constantly referring to white and black gospel as distinctive forms, he never establishes exactly what the differences are. He instead pelts readers with a flurry of boring mini-biographies and social-conservative propaganda. The reader gets a strong sense that Goff disapproves of atheists, homosexuality and abortion, but if the book was supposed to give a definitive account of a musical tradition, it fails.