While Eric Lott’s important book Love and Theft (1995) was central to the discussion, I was surprised that Dale Cockrell’s book on minstrelsy, Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and Their World (1997), went unmentioned. This was indicative of a deeper lack of engagement with musicological scholarship on minstrelsy from the past few decades. Discussion of the music of ragtime and songs such as “The Bully” were minimal. As a theater historian, Ammen should not be expected to analyze the music in detail. Yet, since coon songs were a popular music phenomenon, more engagement with the existing musicological literature on minstrelsy, parlor songs, and ragtime would perhaps have strengthened her arguments and extended their reach. May Irwin did not want to be remembered only as “the woman who sang coon songs,” yet her success is inextricably linked to the genre (p. 68). Ammen has produced a critical and balanced portrait of Irwin that is sure to inform future research on this period of American history, both in methodology and in her approach to the offensive nature of the coon song. This makes May Irwin a timely and important work of scholarship.

中文翻译：

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大哥谭市：1898 年至 1919 年纽约市的历史

虽然 Eric Lott 的重要著作 Love and Theft (1995) 是讨论的核心，但令我惊讶的是，Dale Cockrell 的关于吟游诗人的书《混乱的恶魔：早期的黑脸吟游诗人及其世界》(1997) 却没有被提及。这表明在过去的几十年里，人们更缺乏对吟游诗人音乐学学术的参与。对 ragtime 音乐和诸如“The Bully”之类的歌曲的讨论很少。作为一名戏剧历史学家，不应期望阿门详细分析音乐。然而，由于浣熊歌曲是一种流行的音乐现象，更多地参与现有的关于吟游诗人、客厅歌曲和拉格泰姆的音乐学文献可能会加强她的论点并扩大其影响范围。梅·欧文不想只被人们记住为“唱浣熊歌曲的女人，”然而，她的成功与这一流派密不可分（第 68 页）。Ammen 对欧文进行了批判性和平衡的描绘，这肯定会为未来对这段美国历史的研究提供信息，无论是在方法论上还是在她对浣熊歌曲的攻击性本质的处理上。这使得 May Irwin 成为一项及时而重要的学术工作。