Thank you for drawing this book to our attention - even though some of your comments make it sound like very uncomfortable reading.   

When I was a very young child I heard a programme on the radio – it must have been the BBC Home Service, now Radio 4. Lomax was introducing some music from his field recordings and I recall most vividly a version of "The Golden Vanitee". In the middle of the song the singer paused, coughed and spit/spat. I was amazed and delighted. I don't think I had realized until that moment that human beings sang songs on the radio.

I could go on at some length about how much I have learned from and enjoyed his work. And this is from someone thousands of miles away from the USA. The people of America have reason to be grateful to him but so do the people in the rest of the world. Whatever failings he may have had is greatly outweighed by the great work he did.