Illinois Books

Beginning in the 1980's and througout the 90's, an avalanche of new Civil War books were published. Generally speaking, that's a good thing: there were many, many excellent books written and contributed during that period. One thing that I think it did, though, was cause many people to overlook older CW histories in favor of newer ones. Often there was good reason for this, new primary source material discovered, older antiquated writing styles far less enjoyable to read, etc. But as any avid Civil War buff knows, there are exceptions to this. Though written in the 1950's, Brown's Grierson's Raid is likely to remain the definitive work on this exciting and fascinating episode of real life daring. It is difficult to imagine anyone, ever, wringing more detail out of the known primary sources than Mr. Brown so beautifully did. This book is as fresh and exciting today as any Civil War book ever written. The reader becomes caught up in the excitement of the raid, the chase, and the drama. Mr. Brown brings the historical characters to life, and pulls the reader in until you feel as if you're riding alongside Grierson's men. The anticipation of finding out what happens next to the raiders makes this one of the most exciting history books that I've ever read. The level of detail is amazing, and the writing is a model of the craft. This book should be on every CW history enthusiast's shelf. It's a "must have" that you will enjoy reading, probably several times. Don't skip this one.

I am actually a student in a class taught by this author. Reading his book has helped me for obvious reasons, but I also think that it is on-point in its analysis, and it is cogently written. In any case, his lectures are actually far more engaging than this text, he actually has a very witty sense of humor. The book, however, is still very good and has a more serious tone.

This wonderful little book is part of Arcadia Publishing's Postcard History series, and focuses on Grundy County, Illinois. It is chock full of black-and-white postcard shots from just about everywhere around the county - from Morris to Coal City to Channahon and beyond. Each postcard has an interesting and highly informative caption. The postcards themselves are organized by type, which pretty much organizes them by era - Early Private Mailing Cares (1880-1901), Undivided-Back Postcards (1901-1907), Divided-Back Postcards (1907-1914), White-Border and Divided-Back Postcards (1915-1930) and Linen and Photochrome Postcards (1993-2007).

Overall, I found this to be a wonderful book, and like all of the books in this series, it is a great resource for any genealogist looking to capture information on the Grundy County of yesteryear. My one and only complaint against this wonderful book is that it would have been nice if the published has included an index of the postcards by town.

But, that one small complaint aside, I do consider this to be a great book, one that is sure to interest anyone interested in Grundy County.

Black history pre-depression from an upper middle class view The author gives a detailed account of her life as the child of a successful African-American entrepreneur, with many stories of her father's activities in business, banking and politics. An excellent account of upper middle class African-American life before the depression.

The author gives a detailed account of her life as the child of a successful African-American entrepreneur, with many stories of her father's activities in business, banking and politics. An excellent account of upper middle class African-American life before the depression.

This book kicks serious literary butt. This collection is so good I've been enjoying it all year, and I hightly recommended for everyone interested in good poetry. Suarez has been making a loud impact with his work for several years now. High energy stuff. The last section of this book is my favorite because you can feel the departure from the personal toward the universal. It is myth-making at its best. Wonderful memorable poems. 100% magical and superb.

Great book packed full of interesting informationa and facts about the university of Illinis football team. Great photographs and text by linda young. Its one of my favorite books about college football history and one of the most interesting.

When is somebody going to reprint this gripping book. It is elegaic and full of glistening cracks in the bedrock. And yet the lines range wildly back and forth, effervescent with flight, leaving the reader dazzled with a sense of life.

Leslie A. Schwalm's text revolves around enslaved African American women on South Carolina low country rice plantations. Her focus is their transition from slavery to freedom, their push to hasten the demise of slavery, their struggle to achieve and maintain autonomy over their labor, their resistance, and their plight for dignity while they battled for respect in their own households. Schwalm contends that enslaved African American women slowed plantation production and took advantage of every opportunity presented by the Civil War to secure their freedom. Enslaved African American women were expected to be productive field laborers', in fact, they lay at the very heart of South Carolina low country rice plantation labor. With the Civil War approaching, rice agriculture in the South Carolina low country depended primarily on the hands and backs of slave women. Field labor was not the only responsibility these slave women had to keep in mind, they also had to perform motherly and household duties. Domestic production and field labor, Schwalm contends, were central to a slave women's experience. The Civil War presented enslaved African American women with opportunitites to ease the grips of slavery while they contested the terrible conditions on South Carolina low country plantations. This form of resistance eventually became more aggressive. In the early months of freedom, freed women attacked overseers, looted planters houses, destroyed planters property, and draped themselves and their children in their former masters clothing as a sign of protest and changing times. With their freedom seemingly secure, former slave women turned their attention to the control of their labor. They demanded the ability to live and work as they saw fit and seperate from white supervision. They had their own concepts of freedom and were determined to labor as free people and not as slaves. The slave womens family depended upon her work as much as the rice field did. The task system of labor afforded slave! women the opportunity to devote daylight hours to domestic production. This was crucial to family development. Slave women used their "after task time" to hire themselves out, grow their own crop, fish, and make family utensils. Slaves viewed production, independent from plantation production, as a way to elevate their standard of living and exercise control over their daily life. Slave women applied these same principles in a free labor work force after emancipation. The military experience had a dramatic impact on the relationships between freedmen and women. People believed that the military experience equated to manhood. Proving their manhood through military experience was a goal for black soldiers, their advocates and and white officers. This sentiment carried over to post was relationships between free black men and women. Leslie A. Schwalm's " A Hard Fight For We" is critical for painting a more complete picture of rice plantation labor in South Carolina's low country. We see that enslaved women were depended upon heavily and they fought for their recognition.