North Carolina Books

Each chapter talks about a different subject in a clear, logical manner. I had this book for a class on History of American Technology, among others, and it trully was a favorite, one that I'll keep for my own personal use in the classroom.

Precise detailed listings, excellent index, should be in every rock-hounders back-pack. However, it's only failing are the rather crude maps. The maps would be more helpful if they included topographic elevation bars. But, all in all, a very delightful reference tome.

Ecological Revolutions is an absolutely fundamental text in the fields of Colonial and Environmental American history. This book, along with William Cronon's Changes in the Land, transformed historians' understandings of Native American relationships to the land, as well as the ecological, economic, and reproductive changes brought by European colonists. Changes in the Land is more entertaining to read, but Ecological Revolutions is more advanced methodologically. I recommend both books heartily.

A wonderful read for die-hard fans of Wharton, but certainly not a casual read for most.

Although this work is basically a broad survey of the sources on early American education, Bailyn makes some important suggestions that ache to be brought full circle. He demonstrates how scholarship on this subject have been marred by a tendency to view everything in the light of a gradual progression to compulsory public education. He also notes how this has caused a large amount of distortions and myths to be created, with the result of quite near everyone making absurd and innance assumptions about the past. Moreover, the true nature of education in early education has been largely lost to the world, despite the fact that there are ample sources waiting to be exploited. This book should be especially fascinating to anti-public education libertarians, who, of course, view the growth of public education of the modern form as a serious regression in society. This work could serve as a starting point for a history taking up the libertarian point of view; an invaluable undertaking no doubt.

This work, by late-professor Baloyra, is one of the most complete and well written accounts of the military-political struggles in El Salvador during the so-called Central American Crisis of the 1980s. Its combination of history and politics is essential reading for any student of the area and/or time period.

Caroline Kettlewell has captured the nature of the EV Challenge in perpetuity and written a book that shows how every one of us can make a huge difference if we just find the right inspiration.

Chris Meekins's new book, Elizabeth City, North Carolina and the Civil War: A History of Battle and Occupation, highlights the war experienced by a local population on the east side of the Old North State. Meekins walks his readers through local history. His introduction gives us a glimpse of the northeastern section of North Carolina prior to the war. From this introduction, we learn of the importance of the canal system that connected the area with the port at Norfolk. This canal system was used by both Union and Confederates soldiers throughout the war.

Through the next 134 pages, readers look at the war, both in terms of military action and in violence against the civilian population. The war in and around Elizabeth City was a constant struggle between the two opposing sides. The Federals would arrive one day, only to leave shortly thereafter. Confederates, usually irregulars, would move in after the Federals left. When the Federals were present, they would usually demand loyalty oaths from the civilian population. But once the Federals left, those who took the Oath would be subjected to retribution by pro-Confederates.

Overall, I really enjoyed Elizabeth City, North Carolina and the Civil War: A History of Battle and Occupation. The period illustrations from sources such as Harper's Weekly add a nice touch. Many of the local actions are described in detail. The book is endnoted, but there is no index, something the History Press needs to start including.
Interested in northeastern North Carolina and the Civil War? Check out Meekins's new book.

Sandra Gustafson's 2000 book, "Eloquence Is Power," seeks through historical reconstructions of key figures and key moments, to recuperate the dramatic influence of oratory in the formation of America. Complementing and complicating the established American mythos surrounding founding documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Gustafson explores the dynamic and dialectic of what she terms the 'performance semiotic' and its impact on American culture from its earliest figurations to the present day. Gustafson defines the performance semiotic as the historical interplay between speech and text, which 'performs social conflict,' setting the stage for a broader notion of cultural interplay between racial and gendered identities, and between religious and political sensibilities. Utilizing a broad spectrum of theoretical frameworks, Gustafson incorporates models of gender performativity, critical race studies, and generous historical contexts to situate her reevaluation of American history.

"Eloquence Is Power" cleverly constructs its arguments in the framework of the performance semiotic: each chapter focuses centrally on two, sometimes three key figures at a particular historical moment who enact the struggle for linguistic primacy and social control through, and increasingly, in the mutual involvement of orature and literature. Eschewing the popular teleological view of a cultural progression from `savage' speech to 'civilized' writing, Gustafson claims that not only are the two insistently linked throughout the history of early America, but that each develops with notable contributions from Euro-American, Native American, and African-American, and sources. The central question of the book concerns power relations and their respective derivations. In the religious and political realms that provide consistent loci of cultural tension for Gustafson, inspiration and textual precedent are both at odds and variously incorporated in disputes over who has legitimate authority.

Beginning with the friction between Anglicanism (text-centered) and Puritanism (speech-centered) and their early efforts at conversion of the Native Americans, Gustafson shows how the supposed universality of the prepared text and the supposed appeal to the individual from extempore speech form a paradigmatic conflict that is repeated throughout American history. The following chapters detail the ways in which gendered and racialized modes of access to divine and scriptural authority provisionally threaten, but are tenuously contained by public displays of white male power. Publicly enacted debates over the relevance of feminine piety to religious communities ensue in the interstices of the ongoing performance semiotic between the arenas of speech and text.

In her account of Euro-American encounters with racial others, Gustafson discusses the appropriation of 'savage' performances in the religious conversion of Native and African-American populations. Aspects of these include the gesticular performances, and ritual qualities of both Native and African religious ceremony, manifesting itself as mimicry with a difference in the mobility and adaptability, and even linguistic translations of Euro-American itinerant preachers and missionaries. Of course, the mimicry with a difference is primarily attributed to 'Othered' American subjects, as shown in Gustafson's discussions of the careers of Samson Occom and John Marrant, who incorporate Euro-American evangelical styles hybridized with Native custom to serve and alter the interests of Euro-American Christianity. Gustafson clearly delineates the methods by which colonial authority maintains a cautious relationship toward the potential ascendancy and potential threat posed by the exploited Native, the enslaved African, and the suppressed woman.

Turning to the American revolutionary moment, The mixing of oratorical and textual modes troubles and defies any teleological notion of American national development through the spread of print media alone. The two, for Gustafson, are mutually-sustaining, continually challenging and reinforcing each other. The primacy of the body as semantic vessel returns in the pre-revolutionary period as the Boston Massacre furnishes revolutionary orators, writers, and engravers with an occasion to exercise their eloquence against insupportable English forms of tyrannical control. Deftly, the argument shows how public sentiment in the years following the Boston Massacre and the tradition of annual oratorical remembrances elide the initial identification of racial scapegoats, turning all of the American casualties into martyrs in the struggle for American independence. In the aftermath of independence, Gustafson shows how nothing was cleanly resolved by either the Declaration or the Constitution, as public debate raged in the form of party politics concerning the appropriate form that the new American government should take, as well as in an examination of George Washington's presidency and beyond.

Gustafson's "Eloquence is Power" is a fascinating reassessment of early American history at the intersections of literature and orature. In recuperating the influence of women and ethnic minorities on the formation of the American public sphere, Gustafson offers an inclusive and important study. Professor Gustafson's prose is lucid and devoid of academic jargon, making her arguments easy to understand and follow throughout the book. "Eloquence is Power" is a book that is informative, accessible, and enjoyable.

exhibition and looks at the lives of women from 1750 to 2000. Meet women who were and continue to be instrumental in building America.
Enterprising Women brings to life the stories of family, marriage, motherhood and business savvy success. Marriage was a crucial decision in a woman's life before the 20th century. A woman's choice in marriage ranked with survival, so a divorce could be the demise of a woman's lifestyle and life. Yet, Madam C. J. Walker, Elizabeth Arden and Martha Stewart endured and flourished after divorce while at the helm of their companies. Motherhood was a challenge (and still continues to be a challenge), so a few women remained single as in the case of Katherine Goddard whose business was a family business. Ellen Domoest sold paper dress patterns, Oprah Winfrey has taken self-improvement to billion-dollar success, Lillian Vernon started a catalog at her kitchen table and Maggie L. Walker became the first African American bank president. Enterprising Women is a must-have for every women and her daughter to know where she came from and what each of us are capable of achieving in business and on life's journey.