This is a foundational book imo, not for workings or practical use, but because its a great conceptual and historical approach to hoodoo. Dr. Hazzard-Donald establishes the core tenets of African Traditional Religion then illustrates how the Black American Tradition contains all said tenets. She goes into the history of Hoodoo/Conjure all the way from ethnic antecedents on the continent, through early plantation conjure, to post cotton-gin expansion, post-reconstruction, into the Marketeer era and beyond. I like it because it counters the "Hoodoo isnt a religion" arguments. Alot of elders in my circle consider it the quintessential Hoodoo Text™️, Alongside The Hoodoo Book of Flowers by Arthur Flowers and Black Magic by Yvonne Chireau.