[Book review] Gypsies. A multidisciplinary annotated bibliography

Abstract

Gypsies have long been cast as both the quintessential outsiders, resistors to state power and its ‘civilizing mission’ on the one hand, and the objects of extreme romanticism and vilification, on the other. They thus challenge us both as academics and as human beings. This book is more than an annotated bibliography. It is a guide through the archaeology of perception of gypsies, showing that scholarly interest and Gypsies has not been immune for the prejudices of the wider society. As the author points out the field of Gy psy studies is hardly a hot bed of radicalism. She rightly challenges the notion that there is a single authentic way of being a gypsy, but also states that the obverse - that heterogeneity does not preclude solidarity. I found this book valuable because it is both scholarly, but also critical of the various perspectives brought to bar on the subject by different disciplines.