Mississippi Books

The Facts of Reconstruction was written by Lynch in 1913 and contradicts a lot of the standard ideas about Reconstruction from the time period. Lynch was a self educated African American who wrote article for The Journal of Negro History in the early 1900's. He was a contemporary of W.E.DuBois. This book is an interesting alternate view, and may create a more balanced view of the post-war South.

For the lover of American song and its interpreters, this superb volume is well worth hunting out. Balliett writes in a wonderfully poetic style that fully encapsulates the style and sound of each artist. The range of singers he explores is superb - those who love the art of cabaret will relish his stunning chapters on Mabel Mercer, Bobby Short, Julie Wilson; he also devotes space to such fine interpreters as Carol Sloane, Teddi King and Margaret Whiting. Balliett includes conversations with the singers alongside his own unique analysis and commentary. All in all, a completely indispensable book, the finest exploration of the art of singer popular song available.

And now we know the rest of the story. . .

Thesaurus, unabridged, one each, in hand, I embarked on a most unusual but enjoyable trek into this autobiographical masterpiece confidant that I could master whatever the illustrious Potentate and his faithful scribe, Maxwell, could muster. It did not occur to me until midway thru the body of the book that the 'wortebuch' was useless since the protagonist, when in need of a word, just made one up. I do not recall that option in plebe English.

I am writing this review while on a most deserved, self-induced sabbatical after reading the main body of the book. My cursory review of the appendices indicated that they contained much unedited prose and poetry written by the subject which would go much slower than what I had already read since they had been written without the adult supervision of a mere mortal. It is no wonder that WD has not embraced the computer age. The cost involved to completely populate the spellcheck database might break him. I now know one of the reasons he proffered, Peggy Mize -his secretary for 40 years, to sainthood.

Almost immediately, the reader is impressed with the style and demeanor of the author in his ability to, among other things, choose adjectives that pale their respective nouns in size, difficulty, and majesty. Additionally, his many herculean accomplishments in the fields of life, faith, business, the arts, and politics were underscored by his adamance that the story be told as it happened and not as it might later be spun. He told his story "with the bark on" as LBJ would say and maintained throughout that the truth is an absolute defense. His unabashed pronouncement of West Point would stiffen the spine of even the grayest of hogs and render a severe chastisement to the rest of those who know their debt to that great institution has not been paid.

Duty, Honor, Country - the ancient motto of the Academy - often quoted but seldom toted, did not come from a Madison Avenue public relations firm. It came from the heart and guts of the Billy Moungers of the world who live those words and curmudgeoningly admonish those who don't. I am convinced that his cadet experience snuffed out whatever libertarian proclivities he may have possessed and am equally convinced that his decision to commit himself to conservativism, a most natural mate for such a motto, while imposing this most elegant, simple, and straightforward of protocols upon those who rode with him, will gain him great favor with the Master of All and supernumery merit by doing it in the field of politics, the most noble of callings but one of the lowest denominators of deportment on earth. The yearling who quite properly pronounced our dear `Curly' a carnivore could not possibly appreciate his pregnant prescience of so long ago. Illegitimus non carborundum!

This book is not for the faint of heart or those who believe as Henry Ford that "history is bunk." On the literary scale of magnificence, I place AMONGST THE FRAY solidly among those classics such as CAESAR'S COMMENTARIES and DUCROT PEYPS.

Awesome tool for the required text, especially if you haven't taken detailed notes while reading. I'd recommend for two reasons: 1) easy to purchase/receive, 2) easy read.

Creek Indian History is one of the best books we have read. It is very informative. We have learned more from this book about our heritage and traditions than we thought possible. Just learning that the dead were buried under the floor of the home was fasinating. It's a book everyone wanting to know about the Creek Indians should read.

This book tells the now-forgotten story of how Americans acquired the territories between the Appalachian Mountains and the Missisippi River during 1784 to 1803.

We are rarely taught in school how to envision the United States as it existed immediately after the winning of our independence in 1783. The "national" government was an impotent confederation. The British were in effective control of the lands north of the Ohio River, intending to recombine them with Canada. The Spanish claimed the lands west of Georgia and south of the Tenessee River, hoping to recombine them with their Province of Florida and Louisiana.

With the national government impotent, the annexation of the Mississipppi Valley to the United States would depend on the heroic actions of a few thousand American pioneer families scattered around the frontier of Kentucky and Tennessee. These families waged an incessant war against the Indians and the British and Spanish agents who armed them. They wavered between declaring allegiance to Britain and Spain or maintaining allegiance to the impotent Articles of Confederation government east of the Appalachians. Ultimately, these few thousand frontier people decided to remain Americans and preserve the unity country. They kept the "door" open to allow the Americans to retain possession of the Mississippi Valley, then move on to acquire Gulf of Mexico, Texas, and the West.

Almost all the Americans of this 1784-1803 generation who lived west of the Appalachians died fighting hostile Indians or succumbing to illness and malnutrition. But they would not yield their land to the powerful empires of Great Britain and Spain. Dale van Every reconstructs their remarkable stories and breathes life into the epic struggles of a period that has been largely forgotten. Today the United States has acquired 90% of our land area due to these few thousand people who held the frontier at a critical time. As Winston Churchill might have said, "Never before has so much been owed by so many to so few." Dale Van Every gives life to this epic generation that created the United States of America as we know it.

When Federico Garcia Lorca said, "The song, the picture, are only water drawn from the well of the people, and given back to them in a cup of beauty, so that in drinking, they know themselves," he envisaged works such as this: cups of beauty filled with commonplace things. You will never see the Great River in the same light again. A lush and extravagant work accomplished by one of America's premier photographers from a raft as it noodles its way from the river's source to its mouth. Along the way, you meet Willie the river hobo and the nutria, the regulars and occasionals who ply the river for fun or profit.

Art in Mississippi is a treasure! The text, beautifully written and thoroughly researched is a gold mine of information and entertainment. The illustrations are superb. Patti Black's editorial skills have earned her the respect and admiration of all readers who have had the pleasure of reading her books, including The Southern Writer's Quiz Book, Touring Literary Mississippi, Eudora Welty: Early Escapades, and Eudora Welty's World. This book belongs on the tables and bookshelves of art lovers in Mississippi and wherever art history is appreciated.

Edmondson was one of the few artists ever to be led into his work by pure inner vision and his work shows the extraordinary power of genuine and uninfected inspiration so rare to us these days. A wonderful gift for anyone interested in the power of stone.

Assembling Art, The Machine and the American Avant-Garde, describes the impact of the events that went on in the early part of the 20th century on the, mostly American, Avant-Garde artists of that time. The book focuses mostly on the impact of the machine, mass production and Taylorism, advertising, the Woman's Rights Movement, Prohibition, and finally the development of Jazz music on the artists Man Ray, Stuart Davis, Alexander Calder, Morton Schamberg, Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven and Gerald Murphy with the great Duchamp sort of hovering in the background. A few other artist are mentioned, notably Georgia O'Keefe and Francis Picabia.

I find that books on art history are successful if they combine explanations of the ideas behind the art with a placement of the artist in the context of his or her time. This book book achieves this in abundance. I went into this book with a fair amount of knowledge of Modern Art but still managed to learn a lot about the artists, their art and their times. The artists Stuart Davis, Man Ray and Alexander Calder were especially well represented; I found the descriptions of the ideas and inspirations for their art to be very illuminating.

The way that the advent of modern day advertising was depicted by Davis for example was very interesting. He embraced the Modern World wholeheartedly. For example he used cigarette advertising in his work in a way that glorified the success of advertisers in depicting smoking, which is essentially a health hazard, as being part and parcel of a manly, vigorous and truly American way of life.

The advent of the machine in modern life is given a lot of coverage in this book also. There are a lot of paintings and sculptures depicting gears and other parts of machinery including a sculpture of a plumbing pipe called "God". What the artists, Morton Schamberg and Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven meant was that the machine and mass production represented what was most important to the people of that time. This is certainly somewhat eery, but is no different that our time, a time in which we certainly "worship" materialism, with the machine replaced, I suppose, by the computer. The book also introduces Taylorism which was a movement, spawned by Frederick Winslow Taylor, to introduce efficiency into every aspect of American life from the factory floor right into life at home.

Some of the art focuses on the Woman's Rights Movement. There is a lot of insecurity depicted here as most of the artists were men and they felt somewhat threatened by the rise of women. However, Francis Picabia's representation of the prototypical American Woman as a spark plug, I think, shows some respect for the energy of the Woman's Rights movement.

The final chapters depict the effect of Jazz on the fine arts. Jazz was, at that time, considered to be a threat to America, sort of the way Rock and Roll and Rap art considered to be a threat by some people of today. This is one of the reasons that the Avant-Garde artists of that time were attracted to Jazz in the first place. Stuart Davis, who is remembered for being particularly interested in Jazz, was not as much interested in the improvisational aspects of Jazz, but rather, he was impressed with the precision required to play the music. However, he was also interested in the dynamic aspects of Jazz music.

Finally, the author spends some time discussing the impact of American Culture on the French. Apparently, unlike now, France, especially post World War I France was infatuated with all aspects of American Culture. There were many Americans who took advantage of this including Alexander Calder and some performing artists such as Josephine Baker, an African American, who found France to be a place where there was less prejudice thatn in America. It is a sad fact that America of the time was very racist to the point where white boxers would simply refuse to fight African American boxers. Alexander Calder made a lot of wire sculptures of Josephine Baker. This brings up a dynamic between the technological and the "primitive" where the machine and mass production represent technology and the immense influence of African American culture on American culture represented the "primitive". Josephine Baker was very successful in capitalizing on this dynamic.

I highly recommend this book for its fine portrayal of life and art in this time.