Roots quests: an introduction -- A genealogy of American genealogy -- Roots work: genealogy across cultures -- Memory work in the age of quantum genealogy -- The new blood quantum: genetic genealogy and the creation of kinship -- Who do we think we are? Televised roots quests -- In search of the "living dead": ancestors, zombies, and American roots quests -- Imagined homes: roots tourism and the quest for self -- Our ancestors, ourselves: roots and identity in an age of rootlessness

"In Roots Quest, sociologist Jackie Hogan digs into our current genealogy boom to ask why we are so interested in our family history. She shows how the surging popularity of genealogy is a response to large-scale social changes, and she explores the way our increasingly rootless society fuels the quest for an elemental sense of belonging--for roots."--Provided by publisher