South Carolina Books

Margot Theis Raven shares with us a forgotten 1955 event - when adults allowed racism to prevent the African American Cannon Street All-Stars from playing other Little League teams in South Carolina for the Little League World Series.

I'm not a baseball fan. Yet, my eyes welled when reading this book about a team of 14 black boys who wanted nothing more than to play baseball.

Margot Raven captures the 1950s in words. She reminds us of the pride and support the black community had for the Cannon Street All-Stars. Chris Ellison's illustrations transports us to 2nd base, to joyful pillow fights, and to a stadium chanting, "Let Them Play."

Excellent gift for children and baseball fans of all ages!

As a white man born only one year before this travesty of "sportsmanship" took place I cannot begin to tell people how important it is that this story be told not just to my generation who grew up in the begiinings of the civil rights, no the HUMAN rights, movements, but even more important, to the children of today. What could easily become an "oh poor us" story is not. It is a story of a wonderful bunch of kids who just wanted to play. "Let Them Play" is something you won't soon forget. Read it, give one to a kid and put one in a school library!

These letters are written by a young widow during the Revolutionary War. She is quite an excellent writer with astute observations, although at that time in history, women weren't allowed the privilege of expressing their sentiments politically. A wonderful book, but over much too fast!

These letters are written by a young widow during the Revolutionary War. She is quite an excellent writer with astute observations, although at that time in history, women weren't allowed the privilege of expressing their sentiments politically. A wonderful book, but over much too fast!

I really enjoyed this book since I grew up in Lexington, NC...a lot of history in Lexington I didn't know. I also gave copy to my best friend since we grew up together and were neighbors in Lexington.

I gave this book to my mother-in law who is from Lexington NC and she loved it! There are a lot of pictures to think of good old memories.
I think a book like this is very special.

Little Muddy Waters is a sensational book. It is one of my personal favorites. I have read this book over and over and over to kindergarten and first grade children at my school and they absolutely love it!! All the adults that hear it love it too. This is about a little mischievious boy who learns a big lesson. Ron Daise does an excellent job integrating old wives tales and remedies in this story. Lots of interesting gullah culture! I wish I had more books by Ron Daise. This one is a keeper!!

The book has a great story line and when listened to the cassette tape with Ron Daise reading it in the Gullah accent makes it even better. The illustration and use of colors are fantastic. Barbara McArtor does a great job with color selection and keeping a childs eye captive. She uses bright, vivid colors. She also continues her story (picture) line throughout the book. You will notice the cat numerous times and her characters are always carried from one page to another keeping in uniform with the previous page. This is a must buy for your child. I'd like to see a list of more books illustrated by Ms. McArtor.

The 1950's South was both a time and a place of contradictions. On the one hand, there was a cultural revolution going on that fused both white and black musical tastes into one revolutionary music genre (rock 'n' roll) and a political revolution that went on (integration) which made the cultural achievements seem to pale in comparison. In essence, the South of the 1950's was a confusing maelstrom of contradictory policies and failed opportunities for peaceful change.

So argues Pete Daniel in his book "Lost Revolutions: The South in the 1950's". Daniel's thesis is that the South offered ripe opportunities for change during the immediate post-World War II era but these opportunities were overlooked by the fact that warring factions between African-Americans and whites prevented to make important cultural revolutions make a difference in the political spectrum. These important cultural revolutions consisted of: the importance of rhythm and blues in forging feelings of appreciation between blacks and white country and western singers, the rise of NASCAR as a unifying factor among lower-class whites to challeng the hegemony of the white middle and upper-classes, and, finally, the rebeliousness exhibited by both white and black youth to forge a new consensus for political change. Daniel's book does an excellent job of explaining both why there were contradictions in Southern society and how these contradictions contributed to a painfully fought battle for integration and equal rights. This is a battle which is still being fought today but more on a state's rights and regionalistic front than a racial front.

Daniel's book is a true lesson in primary source research and his endnotes clearly demonstrate this. Interviews, 4 pages of manuscript collection sources, and numerous prominent secondary sources fully back up a thought-provoking thesis. This book is a welcome addition to southern historiography.

Read this for graduate American history course. Lost Revolutions by Pete Daniel is a book that looks at the South during the 1950's. More specifically, it is a cultural history of the American South from the end of World War II until the Freedom Summer of 1964. Daniel's thesis is, "The South that evolved in the twenty years after the war emerged out of displacement, conflict, and creativity - not tranquility" (1). Daniel covers many themes that support his thesis. Among these themes are the migration of small farmers to cities, the advent of NASCAR, Rock n' Roll, and the lost occasions to give full citizenship to African Americans. The author's intention for writing this book is twofold. First, Daniel explores the cultural achievements of the "Lowdown culture" (91). He does this by looking at how the displaced farmers kept their rural roots, despite the fact that they lived in urban areas. Second, Daniel delves into the reasons why the middle-class and upper-class South did not want to desegregate. Lost Revolutions is a fascinating cultural history that sheds light on many current issues.

Daniel discusses numerous issues that surrounded the South after the end of World War II. Primarily, the author looks at a multitude of reasons that massively shrank the number of farmers in the South. "Over a million farm operators left the land in the 1950s" (60). Ezra Taft Benson was a major contributor in the displacement of small farmers in the South. Benson was appointed the secretary of agriculture under
Eisenhower in 1952. This is about the same time that farm machinery, such as tractors, began to replace labor-intensive farming techniques. Additionally, since the Great Depression the majority of southern farmers relied on Government subsidies. "Calculations, allotments, and regulations - not hard work - determined whether farmers succeeded or failed" (46). In 1959 a seventy-one-year-old Alabama farmer named E. Spech said, " ... now we can't move without a handout ... Each morning the men headed for some local restaurant for a cup of coffee while their wives sleep till noon" (59). It was obvious to many that Benson did not want to support the small farmer, but rather Agribusiness and the large farmer. Many of the white southern landowners bought more farms, machinery, and became wealthy with the support of the government. Conversely, small farmers, tenant farmers, and sharecroppers, both black and white, left their farms for the cities.

One of the themes that Daniel discusses in Lost Revolutions is the role of the government on the southern environment. As machinery cut down on the need for workers on a farm, so to did the use of chemicals. Interestingly, after World War One, two the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) teamed up with the Chemical Warfare Service to combine their chemical research. These organizations researched
chemicals like DDT, which could be used against humans or insects to shut down the nervous system. DDT and other similar chemicals were used to dust crops by plane, but usually this was done by hand to save money. The USDA even funded the dusting of private property with dieldrin, which is 20 times more toxic than DDT in order to eradicate Argentine fire ants. This supposed scourge was built up by using "Red propaganda" in order scare Americans that an invading insect was going to ruin their land.
The government would eventually spend $156 million dollars to extinguish the Argentine fire ant. This resulted in ruining the environment in many places and actually caused the ...fire ant to speed up its evolutionary cycle and spread throughout the country. The picture that Daniel paints of organizations like the USDA and the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) helps to support his thesis that the South was changing out of conflict.

Lost Revolutions gives the history of displaced southerners who banded together, despite having different skin colors. " ... when it came to exchanging something offensive to the upper class, racial barriers collapsed" (92). The Lowdown culture of the South thrived on being unruly, unrespectable, hard-drinking, and rough. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) has roots in bootlegging and quickly became something that the Lowdown culture gravitated to in the 1950s. The drivers, mechanics, and fans typically put pleasure over values by their bad behavior on and off the track. Additionally, the Lowdown culture produced, "jazz, blues, country, gospel, rhythm and blues, rock On'roll, and soul music" (122). People like Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Willie Mitchell, and Otis Redding were the sounds of the 1950s and the music had no color barrier. The culture that the displaced southerners found joy in reflected their beliefs and could have helped to end segregation in the South. The author describes the South in the 1950s by looking at the continuation of segregation as something that came from the white middle class and the elite. Daniel argues that the working-class southerners were typically not fighting against integration in the South. This is seen through the crisis at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Daniel describes why many whites and blacks feared integration at Central High School. The nine black students who attended Central were kept from major physical harm by the 101st Airborne, which was sent by President Eisenhower. Segregationists saw this action as a threat to state rights and a throwback to
Reconstruction. The strength of Daniel's account of this well-known event lies in his telling of the rest of the story. He tells how the "Littlerock Nine" were subjected to being hit, having hot soup dumped on them, seeing racial words written in the bathroom, and having to be submissive. In the end, Daniel notes the opportunity for positive integration was lost when, "Segregationists policed the color line with a vengeance and intimidated and white person who deviated from their code" (283).

Lost Revolutions is a book that looks at the driving forces behind the Southern culture in the 1950s. The author focuses on segregation as a major topic, but also looks at the cultural collision brought out by the upper-class, middle-class, and the Lowdown cultures. After WorId War II many people in the South favored integration, civil rights, and a positive change in culture. However, "The white elite engineered agribusiness, migration, and massive resistance, a counterrevolution that poisoned both the environment and race relations" (305). The damage done to race relations is to take many years to heal, and in many places is still waiting for resolution. The Blues and NASCAR are proof that race relations in the South could have come from positive cultural influence. Daniel does not look at the South as being predominantly full of segregationists. Rather, he points to lack of leadership, ignorance, and fear as the major reasons that the South had an uneasy end to segregation. Daniel claims that the working class
people of the South were swept away in the racial tension that embattled the 1950s. Segregation in the South ended through laws and intervention rather than a belief in equality. "Before they [the working-class] were divided or tamed, these people redefined the South and established enduring cultural monuments" (305).

As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I recommended this book for anyone interested in American history, civil rights era history.

As I read this book and enjoy the beautiful photography of rivers, trees, flowers, and wildlife it is for me like taking a visual vacation through the South Carolina lowcountry. It has just enough information to satisfy my curiousity about the environment. I appreciate all of the talent and knowledge that went in to compiling this prize possession.

Blagden's artistic photographs truly capture the spirit of the South Carolina Lowcountry. They're divided into six sections: Tidal Rivers, Upland Forests, Swamp Forests and Freshwater Wetlands, The Salt Marsh, Barrier Islands, and The Coastal Edge. Highly recommended for anyone who loves the beauty of one of our most biodiverse states. Would make a great gift.

You can tell that Hubert Green writes from the heart. His own story is heartwarming and his ficitional story shows great imagination.

I recommend the book to everyone! This book is for your whole family to enjoy! Children will appreciate the meaning of family. Children will learn to not take life for granted and appreciate what you have. It is a book that is so good you don't want to put it down until you are finish reading it! Then read it again!

If Shackelton made it across the antartic as planned he probably would not be as well-known as he is today. The feat he and his crew managed to pull is simply astounding. One of the most inspiring adventure stories of all time in my opinion.
Amru Albeiruti

The collective effort of Jonathon Shackleton (Antarctic special and a cousin of the famed explorer) and biographer John Mackenna, Shackleton: An Irishman In Antarctica is an informed and informative portrayal of Ernest Shackleton's historic, dramatic, highly dangerous South Pole expedition. Even though the voyage's ultimately failed to achieve it's stated goal, and Shackleton's crew were stranded on ice floes, all hands worked together to survive for a year before the perilous return to civilization could be made. Not a single man died in Shackleton's expedition, a credit to Shackleton's leadership and determination. His is a profound, inspirational, and keenly engaging story which is very highly recommended reading.

Rarely has Senator Fritz Hollings used his renowned wit to more devastating effect than when he was interviewed in 1990 on the ABC program, This Week with David Brinkley. Some weeks earlier he had reportedly bought a bargain-priced Korean-made suit on a field trip to Seoul. Given his role as a leading critic of Korean dumping in the American textile market, the alleged purchase was the sort of trivia that passed for news in some quarters. Although Hollings had arrived at the ABC studio expecting to talk about the federal government's worsening budget deficits, the interviewer Sam Donaldson lost no time in getting to the nub of the matter: whether or not Hollings was at that moment wearing the notorious suit.

"Senator," Donaldson said, "you're from the great textile-producing state of South Carolina. Is it true you have a Korean tailor." Before Hollings could respond, Donaldson pressed on: "Let's see the label in there. What is the label in there?"

"I bought it," Hollings replied, "the same place right down the street where, if you want to personalize this thing, you got that wig, Sam."

The entire studio erupted. The blustery -- and bewigged -- Donaldson had had, if not his head handed to him, at least his tonsorial codpiece. But he was to exact a terrible revenge. Although Hollings had previously been a favorite on the program, Donaldson made sure that the courtly Southern Senator (and a man who still sports a full head of hair -- all evidently securely attached to its owner) was never invited back. Hollings had insulted a vain and not overly intelligent member of the new aristocracy of Big Foot media interviewers and for punishment he would be cast into outer darkness.

In "Making Government Work," an autobiographical account of the steadily worsening problems that have engulfed the American political system in the last six decades, Hollings tells this anecdote as an illustration of how America has lost its way. Politicians, he writes, "are failing people because journalists too often are in the business of pursuing sideshows and not looking at the big picture." His point is, of course, irrefutable. But there is a deeper moral here that Hollings is too polite to state explicitly: while, by the standards of his trivia-obsessed profession, Donaldson might claim to have been within his rights in bringing up the alleged purchase, his insulting tone was utterly inexcusable. No decent person should have been addressed in such a way. That a member of the U.S. Senate should be so addressed bespeaks a degree of decay in the American body politic that bodes ill for the entire future of American democracy.

In dissecting what has really happened to the American empire since its zenith in 1945, Hollings enjoys an unrivalled command of his material. Few if any political actors have played at such a high level for so long. A life-long Democrat, he was elected to the South Carolina legislature in 1948, became governor in 1958, and entered the U.S. Senate in 1966.

Hollings's place in history rests on his leadership role in addressing three of the most serious policy problems of the era -- the federal budget deficits, the trade deficits, and the depradations of the K Street lobbying system. Readers of this book will not be disappointed in the space he allocates to each.

Hollings is perhaps best known for his efforts to rein in the U.S. budget deficits. He had been a budget hawk since his days as governor of South Carolina and in the U.S. Senate in 1974 he hit the theme hard. He returned it to again in partnering two Republican Senators Phil Gramm and Warren Rudman in pushing through the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings balanced budget legislation of the 1980s. The legislation was severely weakened by a constitutional challenge in the Supreme Court. Remedial efforts have not worked because, in Hollings's account, successive presidential administrations -- Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II -- have "brazenly violated the law."

The soaring budget deficits have been a contributory factor in an even bigger and less tractable problem, the trade deficits, but the main cause of the trade deficits, as Hollings shows, is a fundamentally wrong-headed American trade policy. He identifies fellow Democrat Jimmy Carter as the President who did most to put the United States on the the course to industrial emasculation and ever-increasing foreign indebtedness. The basic problem is that the present policy is merely "one-way free trade." America may open its markets all its wants but if other nations do not reciprocate, the net effect is that American industries bleed to death. With the American current account deficit now running consistently at around 5 percent of gross domestic product or more, the Bush administration has daily to go hat in hand to other nations, most notably China, to scrounge the finance to make ends meet. For somebody who remembers as clearly as Hollings does how things used to be, America's predicament is truly unbelievable. In 1966, the year Hollings entered the Senate, America enjoyed a _surplus_ of 0.4 percent of gross domestic product. Indeed the United States did not incur a single deficit in the 1960s and trade deficits did not become "baked in" to the American economic structure until the Carter era.

Underlying the budget and trade problems is the lobbying problem. The Supreme Court again has much to answer for because, in the Buckley v. Valeo decision of 1976, it vitiated a major Congressional effort to stop dirty money polluting American democracy. Hollings is undoubtedly right that this ruling has not only utterly corrupted the American political process but has undermined the collegiality that once characterized the Senate. As Hollings points out, in earlier times when money played a less important role, Senators frequently spent the weekends in Washington and socialized with one another. That helped encourage a spirit of bipartisan cooperation in which Senators worked together -- much of the time at least -- in the national interest. These days they have no time anymore. They are on the road every weekend scrounging funds for their next campaign -- and in any case they are too busy outdoing one another's soundbites to focus on the sober task of legislating wisely.

While the policy issues provide the meat in this important book, many readers will particularly relish Hollings's recollections of the fascinating personalities he has known over the years. He devotes a chapter, for instance, to the Kennedy family. Having met Robert Kennedy as far back as 1954, he forged a close relationship with the Kennedys that among other things resulted in his delivering his crucial anti-Catholic state to John F. Kennedy in 1960. Such was the degree of intimacy he enjoyed in the Kennedy circle that, as he records in this book, he more than once was treated to the off-color side of JFK's wit.

He also has much to say about Robert Kennedy, whom he refers to throughout as Bob rather than Bobby. (Although that may seem slightly strange to the younger generation, Robert Kennedy generally styled himself as "Bob" in notes to friends. The press's preference for "Bobby" appears to have been inspired by JFK.) The Fritz-Bob relationship was evidently generally very cordial. But JFK's all-elbows younger brother more than once got Hollings's dander up. One telling episode concerns Robert Kennedy's run for the presidency in 1968. As a preparatory move, Kennedy decided to go on a tour of the nation publicizing some of the worst slums. One destination he planned to hit was in South Carolina -- at least it was until word reached Hollings's ears.

Hollings writes:

"As soon as I heard of Kennedy's plans, I picked up the telephone and told Kennedy I was working to do something about hunger in South Carolina.....He responded that everything had been arranged. I didn't understand the problem, he added....At that point I had had enough. 'Now look here,' I shouted. 'You go down there there, and I am going to get on a plane and go straight up to Harlem [in New York state, which Kennedy represented]. I am going to call every TV station, and then I am going to walk right through Harlem for four or five days, everywhere I can, and find every rat eating every child's eye out. And everywhere I go, I'm going to say why isn't Kennedy here? I am going to have a New York hunger expose at the very time you have yours in South Carolina.'"

South Carolina was dropped from Kennedy's itinerary.

Kennedy had learned what Sam Donaldson was to discover in 1990 -- that Fritz Hollings is not someone to tangle with lightly.

"Making Government Work" is a wise, well written, and consistently absorbing analysis of the epochal crisis now facing the American nation.

For almost four decades, Ernest F. "Fritz" Hollings had the quickest mind and sharpest wit of anyone in the U.S. Senate, which sometimes caused him troubles with the media and his political colleagues. Retiring in 2005, Senator Hollings has written a political memoir that is instantly a classic history of progressive politics during the last half of the 20th Century, much of which he helped shape.

Hollings, a native South Carolinian and Citadel graduate, returned to Charleston in late 1945 after three years of combat in Africa and Europe. Eager to get on with his life, Hollings got a law degree in record time and joined a law firm, where his uncle was a partner. To give him some local visibility, the senior partners encouraged him to run for a seat in the South Carolina State Legislature, which he admits they thought he would surely lose.

In 1948, segregation dominated work and life in the state. During that campaign, the daily paper in Charleston publicly questioned the several candidates, "Do you or do you not solicit the Negro vote." Hollings one-line written response was, "Do you or do you not solicit Negro subscribers and advertisers to your newspaper?" Hollings claims that the paper stayed angry with him for 20 years. Nonetheless, Hollings won.

The day of his inauguration, the county superintendent of education asked the freshman legislator to go look at something with him. The next morning they went to the local elementary school for black children. It was a single room holding 80 children in two grades, all taught by one teacher. The school had no bus, forcing the children to walk as much as nine miles and back every day. It deeply impressed the young war veteran who had fought besides and commanded black troops during the war.

Hollings' first action when he got to the South Carolina Legislature was to champion a 3 percent sales tax whose proceeds would be dedicated to improving education in the state and making the black schools equal to those for white children. It was a radical idea at the time, but Hollings prevailed.

Over the next 14 years, his legislative colleagues elevated him to the position of Speaker Pro Tem and then the voters elected him Lt. Governor and Governor. Unlike as happened in other Southern states such as Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas, Governor Hollings in the early 1960s guided the state's transition from segregation to integration without riots or a single death and the state's economy from agriculture to industry.

Relying on a "pay as you go" budgetary approach, Hollings helped the state get a three star rating from the national credit agencies, built the nation's finest adult technical training centers and attracted hundreds of new factories and hundreds of thousands of new jobs to the state.

The theme of this book is "making government work," which Hollings did. A friend and supporter of Jack, Bobby and Ted Kennedy, Fritz Hollings was one of the progressive politicians who created what became known as the "New South" which overcame the problems of race, bitter prejudice and deep poverty that had prevailed since the Civil War.

Entering the U.S. Senate in 1966, Fritz Hollings made hunger in America, and then elsewhere, a national issue. He wrote a popular book on the topic -- The Case Against Hunger and championed the creation of dozens of progressive programs, including those to help women, infants and children. He held the first hearings on climate change and helped enact legislation to prohibit dumping in the oceans.

An advocate of fiscal discipline, Hollings fought a decades-long battle against the "supply side" borrow and spend policies pushed by Ronald Reagan and his GOP successors. As a defense "hawk," he also fought the Carter Administration's efforts to weaken the national defense.

With the biting wit for which he is famous, Hollings describes the trade and ideological battles he had with every President from Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush.

In 1984, Hollings sought the Democratic nomination for President. Following the failed Presidency of fellow Southern Jimmy Carter, the candidate with his distinctly South Carolina accent was unable to overcome the doubts of Iowa and New Hampshire voters about electing another Southern and he soon ended his race. More is the pity, because no Democrat since FDR was better qualified by education, experience, temperament, and outlook to be the U.S. President.

In the last chapter, Hollings identifies 14 actions that will enable the U.S. to protect our prosperity and once again make it profitable for corporations to invest in the United States and create good-paying jobs with benefits here.

He also argues that we must change the existing way that we finance our political campaigns. In its 1974 decision Buckley v Valeo, the Supreme Court equated free speech with money. In a political world now dominated by expensive television ads, a candidate can spend an unlimited amount of their own money in a campaign while individual contributors are limited as to the amount they can give to their opponents. Thus, the rich have unlimited "free speech" when running for office, while those without wealth have as much free speech as the money they can raise in small chunks. The Court's decision created a Congress increasingly dominated by the superrich and a race for campaign money that is destroying our representative democracy.

As a solution, Hollings proposes the adoption of a Constitutional Amendment that would allow Congress to impose limits on political contributions. His goal is to make our elections competitive and democratic.

Making Government Work is lively, accessible and well written. It captures the wit and wisdom of one of America's most experienced and accomplished public servants and it offers sensible, politically feasible solutions that truly can make government work. John McCain, Barack Obama and their advisors would benefit from reading this book.

The states of North and South Carolina have a great musical history that is often overlooked. "Making Notes: Music of the Carolinas" is a complete and comprehensive look at the rich musical heritage that the Carolinas brought to the Americas. Featuring interviews with the music players and creators who hail from these states, "Making Notes" is another look at the genres that the Carolinas have made so famous. "Making Notes: Music of the Carolinas" is highly recommended for community library music collections and for any who want to see another aspect of American music history.

This is a beautifully-packaged, thoughtfully-edited book of essays and stories about musicians from North and South Carolina. What amazed me most, besides the melodic flow of the book, was how much I didn't know about these famous musicians. I thought the great Nina Simone was from Europe! Each story brings new knowledge and great little quirks. Easy to pick up, hard to put down - if you make music, know music or just love music, treat yourself to this lovely compilation. Kudos to the deft editing of Ann Wicker!