McBride, David, Leroy Hopkins, and C. Aisha Blackshire-Belay, eds. Crosscurrents: Americans, Aft/ca, and Germany in Modern World. Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1998. xv + 260 pp. $75.00 hardcover. Following intent of a 1994 Penn State symposium, editors of present collection want to go beyond previous research relationship between Africans and (ix), which has been limited in exclusive focus on the perception of blacks or cultural 'others' in various periods of German history(ix). This book, by contrast, focuses on specific social contacts and concrete experiences (ix) and captures and AfricanAmerican perceptions of Germans as well. Naturally, it is difficult to cover such a wide range of cross-cultural issues; task becomes even more intricate if one appreciates their highly complex nature. Though preface suggests awareness of this complexity, not all essays collected here take this premise to heart. Without doubt, triangular approach to studying multifaceted relationship between Germans and blacks is inspiring-as is assembling of a wealth of materials, much of it rather instructive and invigorating for most Germanists. Nevertheless, treatment of this material is uneven at best; rationale for organizing essays (chronologically and geographically) is hard to make out within three parts: Tracing European and American Links, confronts German Imperialism, African Americans, Afro-Germans, and Germany: From World Wars to Reunification. A few essays stand out as isolated and unconnected (Debrunner Africa, Europe, and America: The Modern Roots from a European Perspective in section 1, Blackshire-Belay In search for Africa in German world: Transcultural Migrations in section 11). A rather bothersome mistake (On July 1, 1990, Wall between East and West Germany came down [ ... ] 125), was neither caught by its author, Blackshire-Belay, nor by other two editors. And a few contributors lost me completely: Ali Mazrui, for example, who compares Bismarck's Germany to Reagan's United States and concludes with a competition-style comparison of ways in which Germany and United States regard their black citizens today (The German Factor in Global Black Experience: From Berlin Conference to Berlin Wall). This criticism notwithstanding, a few fine essays address cross-cultural relations among Germans, Africans and African-Americans in complex manner that subject deserves and requires. …