North Carolina Books

This is the second volume of a projected two-volume history of labor relations in Major League Baseball (MLB). It deals with the period since 1921 and focuses on the integration of the game beginning in 1947, the labor disputes of MLB in the 1960s and 1970s when a rejuvenated Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) under Marvin Miller won a series of bitter contests with the owners that eventually led to "free agency." During this period profound changes took place in labor relations in MLB. Mining records of MLB at Cooperstown and at other repositories, Burk fashions an interesting and useful narrative of the evolution of labor relations. He divides his book into two major parts; the first is what he appropriately calls the "paternalistic era" between 1921 and the early 1970s and the second is an "inflationary era" in the post-free agency period since that time.

Although he discusses earlier management/labor issues, the centerpiece of this book is its discussion of the transformation of the Major League Players Association from a moribund organization into an efficient and exceptionally effective union in the 1960s when Marvin Miller assumed the position of executive director. Perhaps no union leader has been more effective than Marvin Miller in changing the nature of owner/employee relations. When he took over the MLPBA in the middle part of the 1960s Miller brought a wealth of experience in union organizing to a completely new arena. The moribund organization he took over had been a defacto arm of MLB and had succeeded in aiding in the preservation of the status quo in the game that has reigned since the first part of the twentieth century.

Miller immediately began to change that relationship. He worked with the players to achieve a succession of small victories ranging from the raising of minimum annual salary to modest changes in such thing as meal money to salary arbitration and finally free agency. The ending of the longstanding "reserve clause" in MLB was the MLBPA's penultimate achievement. This "reserve clause" had been established in the nineteenth century by MLB and stated that the club had the right to renew a player's contract following each season even without the player's authorization--effectively making the player's contract the property of the team that first acquired him for the rest of the player's career. While the contract and hence the player could be traded, a player could not unilaterally choose to play for another team even if he did not have a current signed contract.

Robert Burk follows the efforts of a succession of players, as well as Miller, who challenged the "reserve clause." He includes an important discussion of Curt Flood, an all-star center fielder traded from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1969 who refused to accept this trade and filed a lawsuit that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court advocating for his right to tender his services to other teams. He lost that case, but the dam had cracked and within a few years, with the Messersmith decision, free agency became the norm for MLB. It fundamentally changed the nature of MLB and its economics. Because of Marvin Miller's enormous influence on MLB I believe he deserves to be inducted into MLB's "Hall of Fame," but it is a real stretch to see that ever happening because of the hatred he evoked from the owners. And, by the way, Curt Flood vdeserves induction too.

This is a fascinating, detailed, and scholarly analysis of how the business of baseball has evolved in the twentieth century. It is well-researched and reasoned, and relatively well written for most scholarly history but certainly not a breezy reading experience. It is a companion volume to Burk's earlier book, "Never Just a Game: Players, Owners, and American Baseball to 1920" (University of North Carolina Press, 1994), which should be read before "Much More than a Game" to provide background to this study. Burk's work is representative of the growing number of serious historical works on MLB. I wish there were more of them.

This book is a collection of 1850's love letters from one of North Carolina's favorite sons to his future wife. Zebulon Vance of Asheville, then a frontier law student at UNC, carried on this correspondence with his sweetheart, the socially prominent Miss Harriett Espy of Morganton, during the three years that it took him to get his law degree and improve his prospects so that her guardian would consent to the marriage. The letters offer a charming portrait of two young people: one a poor, but ambitious young lawyer from the frontier and the other the prim orphaned daughter of a Presbyterian minister, raised by the gentry. In their letters Zeb and Harriett parry, quarrel, and play social games as their relationship deepens into trust and finally love. The personalities shine through the pages of this book, showing Zeb as a rough diamond determined to be accepted by the social and political aristocracy of his day, and Harriett as a pious and sheltered gentlewoman swept off her feet by the whirlwind of charm and determination that was Zeb Vance. These courtship letters, found in an old trunk many years after their deaths, were compiled and edited by Elizabeth Roberts Cannon for the Press of UNC-Chapel Hill in 1971. Zeb Vance went on to marry Harriett Espy. Nine years later he became North Carolina's governor during the Civil War, and afterwards was elected to the U.S. Senate. Zeb Vance was beloved not just by Harriett but by all of North Carolina-- and finally by me. I found this book when I was researching "Ghost Riders," my novel about the Civil War in the mountains, in which Zeb Vance is a main character. I spent several years getting to know Zebulon Vance, through primary source material, biographies, and through his own writings which range from his earliest school boy letters to his speeches in the 1890's Senate. Zebulon Vance's charm is undiminished by the passing years. I felt his impatience at being the outsider in his early days, the warmth of his wit, and the force of his wrath when he felt that the mountain people were being mistreated by the Confederate government. He was an irresistible combination of Will Rogers and Winston Churchill, and I was sorry when I finished writing my book. I miss him.

This book opened my eyes about life in general. People need to respect their lives and the lives of their loved ones. Our memories are wonderful stories about the good times of our youth and we think at the time is the bad times. This author has a wonderful way of expressing his feelings and, at times, mine. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who is searching for a little bit of their country upbringing, or who wished they had a country one to remember.

This story of sweethearts who love each other, thier homes and their Country, North Carolina, during the War Between the States is written first hand by real people who lived and died in the most troublesome of times, 1861-1865. The Ediors have put together beauty in words of the people who wrote the letters which form the book. A soldier's letter of the time tells you which flag he thinks is shameful and it isn't the Confederate flag. First hand accounts of Civil War soldiers at Yorktown, VA, with the bones of Revolutionary War soldiers all around them are eerie yet poignant.

No history can be more true that which is written by the people of the time at the time and in that regard this is true history that is compelling and will captivate any reader young or old.

A love story, a history, social commentary, and a climatic surprise ending make this a great book that will endure and become a collector's item in years to come. I've read it five times and will read it again before passing it on to my grandchildren.

Great book for an introduction to learning about our state. We are homeschoolers and this makes our history lessons fun with the pictures to color and the text is age appropriate. I would recommend this series for a study of your state.

A fascinating, extremely well-written look at the life of a major figure in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in North Carolina, and while that may seem like a limited audience is available, it is a fascinating biography for any reader interested in a nuanced look at a complex figure, which Leo Haid certainly was. Baumstein, who is a specialist in the life of Haid, brings a compassionate understanding to the life of a man who judged himself not completely successful, despite the raft of accomplishments at his death.

This book was written by a relative of mine and names most all of my family in Bladenboro, NC. It is very well presented, although it did not present the Hesters in a good light. I am one of those Hesters, and some of the things that were said in the book, I know to be a falsehood.

Functioning modern states have their own myths, stories (historical or otherwise) that illustrate the shared communal values that the state is believed to embody and wishes to project (to citizens and foreigners alike). For Renaissance Venice, the myth was that of the Most Serene Republic, built on a perfect foundation of justice, peace and the rule of law, established as the Christian heir to pagan Rome and protected by the saints. In this brief, elegant book, David Rosand shows how richly that political myth was embodied in the public art of the Venetian state, focusing on the paintings and sculpture of the Doge's Palace, the Loggetta of the Campanile, the Libreria di San Marco, and various of the scuola grande. Rosand does a superb job of teasing out all of the multi-layered mythological meanings and allusions present in individual works and in the relationship of one work (or even one building) to another. He also shows that these meanings, although not transparent to most visitors today, were easily understood by educated Venetians and foreigners (and recorded in their diaries and descriptions of the city) throughout the Renaissance. I saw many things that I had not seen before, and will go back to these works with a new appreciation of their meaning and function.

This is not art criticism or art appreciation (there is barely a mention of anyone's technique or of aesthetic issues), it's real art history. Rosand's goal is to show how the artwork he considers functioned to both present the Venetian state's self-image and to persuade viewers to accept that image. Given Venice's important role as an early example of a modern state (one that viewed the state itself as an abstract concept, separate from the ruler, who is himself subject to the rule of law), we can still learn much from the methods that Venice used to envision and market itself.

Rosand writes for an educated audience, but is readily accessible to non-scholars. He assumes a fair degree of familiarity with Venice -- if you do not know the Piazza from the the Piazzetta, or which facade of the Palace is the south one, you will occasionally find yourself confused. Nor does he stop to explain in any detail the Venetian constitution or the organization of Venetian society. This is a book to take with you on your second or third trip to Venice, or to read while planning such a trip. It does not pretend to be comprehensive, but will give you a real insight into one of the many beautiful threads that make up this complex city.

If you are researching the Upper or Lower Creek Indians or the Chickasaw Indians of the late 1600s to early 1700s, this is a book you simply have to have, so this new edition is heartily welcomed! Thomas Nairne was an Indian Agent devoted to the spread of English culture and goods throughout the southeast. He opposed the Spanish, who had the same goals, and successfully brought many southeastern Indian towns and confederations into South Carolina's field of influence. He was killed at the very beginning of the Yemassee War, in 1715, attempting to diffuse the powder keg of Indian anger at unscrupulous Carolinian traders (which was largely justified), and though it took a while, many of his viewpoints and plans for the Indian trade were eventually adopted by the United States. His map of the southeast, showing locations of Indian towns just after 1700, is, along with this book, one of the most important primary documents of the era. Unfortunately the map is reprinted so small in this edition that none of the detail can be seen.

One of the best books I have ever read! I read it in three hours. Full of interesting facts.