These books cover the history of African-American dancing, mostly from 1860s to the 1960s. Volumes 1 o 5 describe the emergence of ragtime, blues, and jazz dances until he early 1920s, ending with the popular show Shuffle Along and the booming recording industry. The study demonstrate the wide variety of dances that existed, their connexion, and the density of interconnected performers that helped spread the dances around the United States.