Abstract
In A Power Stronger Than Itself, George Lewis undertakes the arduous task of “writing back in” to history a story that had, for the most part, been excluded. The resulting narrative casts new light on heretofore marginalized modes of African–American creativity, altering our conception of not only the jazz canon, but the entirety of (at least) the American musical tradition. In doing so, Lewis forces us to ask one of the most difficult questions: What else have we missed?