INTRODUCTION
Roots by Alex Haley
The Saga of an American Family (1976) is an historical novel that purports to trace the African American ancestry of its author,Alex Haley,back to a tiny village in Gambia,West Africa.Within two years of its publication,more than eight million copies of the book had been printed in twenty-six languages,and Roots had won 271 awards,including the Pulitzer Prize.Published in 1976,the volume also inspired a generation of ancestor-seeking Americans and led to one of the most ambitious and most-watched television productions ever undertaken.