North Carolina Books

Hugh Douglas has produced a very well researched and lucidly written book on the famous highland heroine.
The sometimes complicated family and clan relationships are very well and easily explained in this volume.
This book debunks many of the myths and legends that have grown around this singularly impressive woman. She was most certainly legendary and deserving of the status which she attained, and it is refreshing to read the facts of her saga.
Hugh Douglas is to be congratulated for this highly commended work.

In Fly-Fishing The South Atlantic Coast, seasoned angler Jimmy Jacobs shows the reader where to find game fish from North Carolina's Outer Banks down to through the Florida Keys. With an introductory chapter surveying the species of fish commonly sought during each season along the southeast Atlantic coastline, Jacobs provides advice on gear selection and saltwater flies, how to fish the different types of inshore waters from ocean inlets to tidal creeks to oystershell bars. Fly-Fishing The South Atlantic Coast also provides the aspiring fly-fisherman with information on weight records, regulations, and angling calendars for each state. With its detailed maps of each area to make trip planning easy, anyone considering a fishing trip anywhere along the southeast Atlantic coastline should begin with a careful reading of Jimmy Jacobs' Fly-Fishing The South Atlantic Coast!

Barbara Weinstein's study of the Sao Paulo, Brazil working class covers much more than labor relations in that city. As US and European social scientists and labor historians seek to broaden their understanding of labor/management relations in other parts of the world, they will find this an invaluable source. Extremely well-documented, with evidence from oral histories, interviews, newspapers, government documents and secondary sources, Weinstein tells the story of a ruling elite that tried to tame its workers in novel ways. In everything from cooking classes for women to soccer and volleyball games for male and female workers, the Sao Paulo manufacturers tried to lure their workers away from the anarchist meeting hall, or even the local bar, and into increasing productivity (and profits) for the company. They succeeded in some ways, but mainly failed. Sao Paulo's workers are some of the most militant in the world today. This is a fascinating story that should be! told in every labor, urban or social history class.

This is one of the best works of African-American film studies to come out in years. Many of us who have found the work of David Bogle (Toms, Mammies, Mulattoes, Bucks & Coons) wanting on several levels will have their prayers answered with Robinson's impeccable scholarship and far-reaching analysis of the changing perceptions and representations of African-Americans after the Civil War, Reconstruction and the release of Griffith's BIRTH OF A NATION (1915). What was important for me in reading this book was Robinson's astute ability to discern the origins of the specific caricatures of African-Americans in the traveling minstral shows that circulated throughout the country before the invention of cinema. He also reveals how early American Cinema was predicated upon these caricatures of African-Americans as a revenue generating source of "entertainment". He then reveals how these caricatures were employed by African-American actors as a means to gain employment within the movie industry. The chapters on early American Theatre, Oscar Micheaux, and The Birth of a Nation are the best written efforts I've read in years: fresh and full of new insights. Robinson discusses the duplicitous nature of minstrelsy for whites and African-Americans. This was a throughly engrossing read and a book that will be referenced by scholars, students and filmmakers for years to come.

Unique tales of the Old North State; not the same ones as every other NC story books

This is a deeply informative and highly personal diary (edited by the author after the fact, as most period diaries have been), especially valuable as the story of a soldier less than enthralled with war.

Berkeley spent most of the war in Kirkpatrick's Battery, attached to the Second Corps. His long account includes Yorktown, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Monocacy and a full recounting of the Valley Campaign of '64. (His repeated blaming of the Stonewall Brigade at Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek should not be taken as gospel, though.) He was then captured and describes unpleasant experiences at Fort Delaware, with rampant illness the primary hardship.

Berkeley seems to have been quite war weary by '63, sooner than many of his comrades, and his depressed commentary punctuates his narrative--though he didn't take the oath until late April of '65, during imprisonment. Many of his quotes are worth keeping, and he gives an excellent picture of experience in the artillery.

This anthology includes the complete novel "Dagon," something of a literary oddity. It's part of a subgenre of horror fiction known as the Cthulhu Mythos, which comprises stories that make use of supernatural elements found in the stories of H.P. Lovecraft--mostly having to do with evil godlike monsters (or monsterlike gods) that ruled the Earth before the dawn of time. "Dagon" takes this premise, twists the genre from supernatural horror to Southern gothic, and presents it with utter psychological realism. The result is shocking and fascinating--sort of like reading a horror comic book written by William Faulkner. I wonder what fans of Southern literature make of "Dagon"--there's a few bits that must be baffling if you've never heard of Lovecraft. But the rest of the book isn't like this at all, so don't be scared off if this doesn't sound like your cup of tea. This is surely the best-written Cthulhu story ever. But few Lovecraft fans will ever find it here, with a generic title and a cover completely devoid of squiggly monsters. (The novel, I should note, has no squiggly monsters either--on the surface. But they're there--oh, boy, are they there.)

The publication of Thomas W. Zeiler's book, Free Trade Free World: The Advent of GATT is indeed timely. As recent WTO meetings in Seattle showed, there is much confusion in the minds of many people about what has happened to world trade in recent years. Zeiler's book deals with the establishment of the GATT and provides an excellent background to the early years of the free trade debate. Covering the period from 1940 to 1953, it shows that controversy and disagreement were common at the birth of the GATT and globalization much as they are today.

Zeiler, associate professor of history at the University of Colorado at Boulder, provides a well-researched and detailed history of the very difficult discussions between the United States and its allies over free trade during and immediately after the Second World War. His book is well written and interesting. It shows that not only did the American supporters of free trade have to battle their foes at home, they had to constantly struggle to convince many other leaders of democratic nations that free trade was in their best interests, as well as America's. Economic arguments about the benefits of free trade to the world community often ran up against the realities of politics as well as the economic belief that protection was better for the public good. In the United States it was hard to argue with opponents of free trade that allowing in cheaper imports such as shoes helped to improve employment when workers in shoe factories lost their jobs.

Negotiations between the United States, Great Britain, and the British Commonwealth about the relaxation of protectionist measures began during World war 2. Britian and her former colonies devoted considerable time and energy to trade issues even when the British were involved in a life and death stuggle with Nazi Germany. Idealists were looking to the future when peace and an open world economy might prevail. Protection, of course, continued after the war. Much of the blame for the failure of the free trade negotiations at this time can be laid on the British and their Commonwealth. Facing considerable economic hardship as a result of the war, British politicians believed that protectionist policies would help their economy recover and allow them to regain some of their former world dominance.

In the United States, during the period covered by this book, presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower were all in favour of free trade but with different degrees of conviction. Their strongest opposition came from Republican members of Congress. Roosevelt supported free trade because he believed it helped his New Deal but was never a free trade idealist. He had, of course, seen protectionist policies cause world trade to decline by 60% in the early years of the Great Depression. Truman was much more convinced of free trade's merits, having believed in its value since his high school days, but also "backed protectionism when needed." Eisenhower, who became President near the end of this history, had a much broader world perspective than his predecessors. He supported free trade unequivocally, believing it would strengthen the non-communist world in the global struggle to win the hearts and minds of Third World leaders.

Considerable international opposition to free trade came from Britain and her Commonwealth. In 1932, as a result of the "Ottawa Agreement", Britain had established a trade system that discriminated against non-Commonwealth members. Naturally, Commonwealth leaders wanted this to continue and opposed any move towards free trade. In Britain, opposition to free trade crossed party lines as it did in the United States. Churchill, the Conservative Party leader, who had seen his country's power dissolve during the war, believed "that Britain's postwar salvation lay in regulated, not free trade". Clement Attlee, the socialist, Labour Party leader, who became Prime Minister immediately after the Second World War in 1945, believed in protection and regulated trade as a matter of principle.

Meetings to establish free trade took place between 1946 and 1948 in London, Geneva, and Havana. At Geneva, from April to October 1947, a draft charter for an International Trade Organization (ITO) was created. This was approved in Havana in November by fifty-three nations, most of the trading world with the exception of the Soviet Union. However, these nations were not truly committed to free trade and the ITO died. Replacing it was the less comprehensive General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was signed by twenty-three nations on October 30th, 1947. The realities of Cold War politics destroyed the idealism that had surfaced during the war. American business interests and politicians who had strongly supported free trade throughout this period as a means of improving employment and prosperity had to be contented with a compromise that blended free trade with protectionism.

From Catharine Beecher To Martha Stewart: A Cultural History Of Domestic Advice by historian Sara A. Leavitt is a thoughtful and informative overview of the history of domestic advice, gleaned from research into hundreds of manuals written throughout the past 150 years. Cultural themes, the broad appeal of domestic advice across the decades in spite of radical changes in women's rights and roles in America, and the connection between women's homes, and the world outsides the home, mark From Catharine Beecher To Martha Stewart as a fascinating, accessible, insightful, scholarly treatise. Especially recommended for personal and Women's Studies supplemental reading lists and academic reference collections, From Catharine Beecher To Martha Stewart is also available in hardcover (0807827029).

In this volume, Joseph Reidy traces the development of Central Georgia from the period of its earliest settlement following the Revolutionary War through Reconstruction, focusing on economic, political, and social changes. Prior to 1830, most Georgians were yeoman farmers seeking self-sufficiency, owning only a few slaves with whom they lived and worked in a familiar manner. During the cotton boom of the 1830s, large planters moved into the area, establishing the plantation system, large numbers of slaves, and the ganging method of production. The depression of the 1840s allowed the planters to make gains at the expense of yeomen, as they bought up land and slaves at low prices from debt-burdened farmers. The process of planter consolidation and domination continued into the 1850s when cotton prices rose. Reidy argues that to respond to increased demand, rather than practicing scientific agriculture to increase output, planters in central Georgia simply increased the workload of their slaves, hiring additional overseers from the newly dispossessed white lower class. The increased tensions between planters, struggling yeomen, overburdened slaves, and the new landless poor whites played out in the Secession crisis and period of Reconstruction.

Despite their claims that a slave republic was the only form of government capable of producing harmonious social relations, planters were aware that the growing poverty in the region undermined this argument and threatened to turn the yeomanry and poor whites against them. Evidence of this division could be seen in the growth of party politics, with planters, town dwellers, and immigrants preferring the Democratic Party, and yeomen and poor whites turning to the Know-Nothings. Planters hoped to alleviate social tensions by funding poor relief, public education, and internal improvements that would bring new jobs, but the yeomanry, while approving in theory of public works, rejected them out of opposition to the higher taxes such projects would entail. Once the Civil War broke out, planter actions only furthered the destruction of the social and economic relations they had hoped to save, as planters refused to devote all resources to winning the war at the expense of current profits. They continued to plant cotton when grain was needed to supply troops and would not contract out their slaves to war materiel producers at low prices, resulting in rising prices for yeomen families who could not maintain self-sufficiency with their household heads away fighting the war and decreasing purchasing power for white laborers. Planters were unable to feed or protect their slaves from Union troops, destroying slaves' faith in paternalism and forcing them to take care of themselves, which prepared them for independence following emancipation.

Following the war, planters hoped to exercise the same control over free blacks as they had over slaves, but with the help of the Freedman's Bureau and Radical Republicans, free blacks negotiated for more control over working conditions, their families, religious institutions, and rights as citizens. While facing legal discrimination at every turn, they were in many cases able to negotiate contracts as sharecroppers, educate their children, exercise their right to vote (though not to hold office), and establish their own churches and political movements. Yeomen also benefited somewhat in that they now had unprecedented ability to hire black laborers, but were harmed by new laws limiting hunting and fishing on unenclosed lands, which diminished their ability to subsist as much as it did that of freedmen. Both black and white non-planters increasingly turned to wage labor, marking central Georgia's transition to a capitalist economic system. Planters lost a good deal of their political and economic dominance, but maintained as much of their social power as they could under the newly bourgeois order.