I read it three or four years ago Rick, and to me it was like going back in time. Lomax has been derided by critics, but he wrote just exactly what was happening out there in the late fifties and early sixties.
That book made as big of an impression on me as nearly all the blues I'd ever listened to. It's THE Book of Blues and I think it illustrates the conditions that made the music happen.

Another one, if you haven't read it yet, is Robert Palmer's "Deep Blues".

Yerz,
Tweed