Mississippi Books

One of the best Civil War photographic histories I've seen. Contains hundreds of rare VERY rare Arkansas Civil War era photographs. The photos are explained in detail, not just captions. The quality of the books is excellent with thick glossy paper, clear photos, and well written text

A simply pleasant book of a time past along the Upper Mississippi River system all spelled out in the printed postcard! A "must" for every river buff to have in their collection!

This is one of the best of these collections of the WPA slave narratives for laymen. The ex-slaves form Mississippi offer a lot of folk wisdom regarding "way it was" and Andrew Waters correctly connects their stories to the lyrics of Mississippi's legendary blues artists.

We also get some interesting and important information of the little known uprising of Mississippi Whites to end Reconstruction in the 1870s, as well of some memories of the Black major players of that period. That makes it a historians' delight.

This makes your mouth water for the unedited versions of the Mississippi narratives which are available along with the complete colelction on the WPA Slave Narratives website. Look and learn.

A wealth of genealogical and family history of Prentiss County. Great for tracing relatives from North to deep South. Family surnames include: Chase, McCoy Robinson, Wilson, Howell among others.

These nine essays take a close look at how various editors in Mississippi and the South covered the desegregation crisis of the 60s. The courage displayed by them in reporting the news accurately when the majority of their neighbors and customers felt the opposite way makes for very interesting reading. One is struck by the bravery of these editors in sticking to their sense of fair play, justice and accuracy. They played an important, and little known, role in how desegregation was finally accomplished. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand the South and the events of the 60s there.

You can't own too many projectile point guides because they are all different and vary so much in the information they present. This one has a lot of information (good information) and should be on the desk or shelf of anyone in the Upper Midwest who has to identify projectile points.

Charity Lynch is my greatgrand mother and I am happy to see this rare book reprinted. It gives the true story of a brave woman who persisted in raising a family in very difficult times. All the information came from letters and diaries found in an old family trunk.

Charles Edward Russell's time on the river occurred decades after the four short years when Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) was in the pilothouse. Like Twain (and like George B. Merrick, too), Russell began working for a newspaper in a river town, later went on the river as a steamboatman, and finally settled on a career as a writer.

Amazon has already provided a professional review that highlights other aspects of Russell's activist career. But two of his books stand separately from his political and muckraking writings. One, "Theodore Thomas and the American Orchestra," a biography of the great conductor and founder of orchestras, won the Pulitzer Prize.

The other is "A-Rafting on the Mississip." Here, Russell brings to life the era when great lumber and log rafts, acres in size, came down out of the Great North Woods of Minnesota and Wisconsin, to build the towns and cities along the Mississippi. From the early days when rafts of cut lumber floated with the current, through the decades when steam towboats pushed and maneuvered even larger rafts of logs, Russell describes the industry and the men who made it, some of whom were personal acquaintances and others of whom were on the boats with him.

And on top of all this thoroughly researched and well-written history, Russell's powers of description rival and at times exceed those of Mark Twain. Twain could describe a sunrise or sunset on the river such that the reader's eye pictures it easily. Russell's powers go beyond the visual to capture the rivermen's reverence, respect and devotion to the great and mysterious Mississippi, constantly flowing (in his words), "out of the mystery above the point, into the mystery below the bend."

If you're a devotee of river history and steamboats, you must have this book.

I have not finished this book, but I feel it is so important that I want to review it now and not wait. Most people who think they know about the history of Black and general popular music, jazz, blues, and old time music do not know anything about the material that is covered in this book. Without this knowledge, we are all wrong, mistaken and confused.

An important thread central to musical culture in this country was commercial and professional African American musicians and other entertainers who were centered in traveling companies of various kinds including circuses, minstrel shows, and traveling theatar companies during the years covered. Here we have gathered in minstrel shows the great women singers who helped make the blues nationaly known and recorded like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. Here you have musicians who became masters of Jazz playing and composition. Here you had comedians whose routines became part of the standard discourse in this country far from the stages they performed on. Here you have the dancers who ignited the great African American dance crazes of the 20th century.

Seroff and Abbot cover the information about this slowly, thoroughly and with abundant illustrations and documentation. Their sources are the coverage of Black entertainment in columns and entire newspapers that were published during the era on this in African American newspapers. The documentation they use should be a guide for further research into specific aspects of the music.

The prices on this book is quite steep. One hopes that libraries make a special push to acquire this book. Ask your library to do so, even if you have the money,or like myself, the urgency, to buy it.

I gave this present to my aunt and uncle for Christmas as they have recently purchased new bikes and begun riding trails in our area. They have planned a trip to Florida next month and told me this book has been a great source of information in planning their trip. They really enjoyed this gift.