South Carolina Books

This eye-witness account of US troop atrocities on civilians can no longer be hidden. Scholars may have had an excuse for ignoring it, but now that excuse is removed by this easily available, beautifully produced university press edition. The majority of the so-called historians who have attributed the burning of Columbia SC to accident, alcohol, burning cotton, etc., are now shown to be the apologist propagandists for a sanitized American history that they most surely are. In contrast to the eye-witness account, their work now appears laughable. How can we take these "historians" seriously in anything else they do? Truth has a way of getting outside its bottle, and like the genie, it can't be put back. Congratulations to the editor and press for a job well done.

The Civil War In The Carolinas by civil war expert and historian Dan Morrill (History Department, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Director of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historical Society) is a dramatically presented and extensively researched survey and analysis of the impact the American Civil War had upon the states of North Carolina and South Carolina, and the people who called these states their home. A meticulous, scholarly, and thoroughly engaging examination of the details of history and the sweeping change that the war wrought for everyone, The Civil War In The Carolinas is a welcome and informative addition to American Civil War Studies reference collections.

I had never heard of Ernst Glaeser before but I hope the reprinting of Class 1902 will make him known to a whole new audience. Anyone who has an interest in the First World War - or the literature of war in general - should read this book. While Remarque and Hemingway's classic novels concentrated on the horrors of the front and the necessity of sometimes making a separate peace, Glaeser's book is a little-known masterpiece about the home front in Germany, as seen through the eyes of a young boy as he watches the war, from the age of 12 to 16. Glaeser's hero, known simply as E., is often more interested in solving "the mystery" - adult sexuality - than he is in what's happening at the front. After witnessing a brutal sex act early in the story, E feels he doesn't want anything to do with sex, if that's the way it is. He equates it with a kind of murder. It isn't until a couple years later that he begins to understand that what he saw was not representative of the real "mystery." In the final pages of the book he finds himself on the precipice of solving the mystery. His innocence is indeed finally irrevocably lost, but not in the way you might expect. This book was first published eighty years ago in German. It made its English debut in 1929, the same year A Farewell to Arms was published. Hemingway called Glaeser's work "a damned good book." He was absolutely right. The translation, by Willa and Edwin Muir, was superb, and I doubt that much of anything was "lost in translation." E., Ferd and August emerge as very real and, even more importantly, sympathetic characters, boys in search of their place in an increasingly complex society as war looms on the horizon and finally descends with a vengeance that leaves them more concerned with finding enough to eat than with what's happening at either front, where their fathers are fighting and dying. Professor Horst Kruse's introduction is very helpful in putting Glaeser's book into a proper literary and cultural context. I cannot say enough about how absorbing and GOOD this book is. If you enjoyed Erich Maria Remarque's books about the Great War and the post-war era, then don't miss this one. - Tim Bazzett, author of Soldier Boy: At Play in the ASA

A Colonial Complex provides a very interesting look at an often forgotten war in colonial America. The Yamasee War fought by the Indians that would become known as the creeks was a devastating conflict for both sides. It shaped the colonial mindset with regards to the Creeks and developed the role of the Cherokee for the future of colonial relations. It sets the stage for the development of Georgia as a colony and continues the erosion of Indian sovereignty by adding more boundaries to the creek nation. There are very few books that analyze the creek and almost none that take into account the Yamasee war. If you are interested in colonial affairs this is a must read. It is well written, concise and straight to the point.

Colonial Virginia's Cooking Dynasty presents two cookbooks from eighteenth-century Virginia. One is an anonymous work dating from 1700; the other is the 1739-1743 cookbook of Jane Bolling Randolph, a desecendant of Pocahontas and John Rolfe. Editor and historical archaeology expert Katharine Harbury offers introductions and analyses of the cookbooks themselves, and links these enduring works to the 1824 classic "The Virginia House-wife" by Mary Randolph. A comprehensive and in-depth portrait that reveals much in the evolution of cookbooks and housekeeping instructionals, at once both nostalgic and containing a wealth of information that remains quite practical throughout the centuries. A "must-have" especially for cookbook collectors.

This was a great book telling how the laws prejudeces i reccomend it to anybody interested in the truth.

Colors Of The Robe: Religion, Identity, And Difference by Ananda Abeysekara (Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) is an evenhanded examination of Sri Lankan Buddhism and it's intersection between culture, religion, ethnicity, politics, and much more. Individual chapters deftly address religion and identity, as well as the scourge of violence that seems intertwined with religious differences, socio-political issues. Colors Of The Robe is a very highly recommended contribution to Buddhist Studies reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

It is almost impossible for the reader to miss the central theme of Come Shouting to Zion. The authors made sure that its composite but unifying motif recurs constantly within its pages. Divided into its three thematic parts, the book argues that African-American conversion to Protestantism did not happen in a vacuum; that African religious traditions influenced the new form of Protestantism created among the slaves; and that the role of women, as in African traditions, was vital in the process of conversion and transformation of their form of Protestantism. In a more basic way, the authors convincingly contend that African-Americans, in the South and British Caribbean, were propelled by their own experiences and cultural backgrounds to actively participate in the process of their Christianization.

This book starts with the 16th century Italian Cappuccinos in Africa and ends around the 1830s Antebellum. The purpose of starting in Africa was to draw parallelisms between African religious traditions and African-American religious experiences. The authors also dealt with a plethora of primary sources, beginning with missionary records in African, and ending with American churches' official documents. Probably most importantly is that the authors also considered a large number of recent (and not so recent) scholarly works in related areas. Indeed, we might say that this book is better understood if we consider the scholarly context in which it was conceived. This book, for example, consistently referred to Jon Butler's "Awash in a Sea of Faith." This is so because the authors were concerned with disproving one of Butler's more daring thesis: that the African-American conversion to Protestantism starting with the Great Revival happened because the African slaves experienced a spiritual holocaust. This holocaust, Butler argued, was the annihilation of the African religious cosmology right in the midst of the time when they needed it the most: in their slavery. Consequently, when Methodists and Baptists enthusiastically came to share their religion to the slaves, the spiritually deprived slaves were eager and open to the new message. Frey and Wood asserted that Butler's thesis is without foundation and that African religious traditions resisted and survived despite coercion and the advances of the SPG. The authors show plenty of evidence that African religions were alive and well after the slaves arrival to America. Among their examples are the fearful "Obeah," and the proliferation of women mediums. Following the chronology of the events, the authors move into explaining why the Anglican Church failed to produce inroads among the slaves: "because their version of Christianity found no confirmation in the reality of daily life in the quarters." (80) For example, Anglicanism provided no convincing answer to the question of their suffering. On the other hand, John Wesley, George Whitefield, and many Baptists were able not only to identify themselves with the slaves, but to impart a message of assurance with its emphasis on social justice and hope (i.e., the promise of the millennium, spiritual regeneration and attacks on slavery). Furthermore, the structural flexibility of these dissident religions, the availability for African-American leadership, the attraction of the written word, and the "fact that they revolved around a constant cultural core [that] provided continuity with the African past, [made] the transition to evangelical Protestant Christianity possible." (101)

It is nothing new that Evangelicalism provided a platform for the new American identity being formed among the African slaves at the turn of the 19th century. But Frey and Wood made this point pivotal in their quest to prove the Africanization of Protestantism. Among the characteristics that gave African-American Protestantism a tone of its own was their type of worship, and more specifically the shouting for conversion. Furthermore, another of the traits that made African-American Protestantism unique was the important role of women in evangelism and church management. These and other characteristics plus the development of a form of Christianity supportive of slave-owners' ideology, however, served to separate gradually whites from blacks by the Second Great Awakening. Despite its multiple origin, lively worship and shouting became associated with undisciplined and unintelligent African behavior. Already by 1790 and more so by 1830s, African-American Protestantism had developed its own religious identity, which was "both similar to and different from their African past and from evolving white religious culture." (181) This new form of Protestantism contrasted with the individualistic and egocentric message favored by white leaders. Their exuberant and participatory worship also differed from the white Protestant community. In sum, the development of African-American Protestantism came into being upon a "continual negotiation" between black and white church members.

Overall, this book is a marvelous scholarly work. It draws from previous works as Mechal Sobel, John Thornton, and many others, and put in place a picture that was intrinsically previewed by many, namely, that African-Americans were not passive, but active in the formation of their form of Christianity. Its extended perspective, in time and space, was much needed to provide a convincing periodization. However, it is here that the book is more open to criticism.

The intend of providing a comparative approach between the British Caribbean and the North American South, was to trace similarities among closely related patterns. Yet, the way that the book is organized, it does not lend itself to an easy-to-follow comparison. The moving from Antigua, for example, to Georgia, is often made without warning and without enough circumstantial support. The reader might easily think that some of the British islands are brought only to prove a forced parallelism, while their collective experience is being ignored. Furthermore, it is difficult to follow how the chronological patterns are similar in the majority of cases presented.

These, and others, are weak-links common to works that aim to cover such a broad subject without using case studies as anchor examples. Nevertheless, the main achievements of the book are not darkened by these shortcomings. It is very probable that many of the future works in African-American religious history will be motivated by the thesis and arguments that Frey & Wood present in this book.

I found this book quite helpful in understanding the use of communication in dispute resolution. The material is presented clearly and intelligently, but not in an intimidating manner; it is understandable. The material itself is thorough, with several documented studies and examples to illustrate the points made. All claims were supported by evidence or logic. It is a book I would recommend for anyone interested in the legal processes, for it demostrates the importance of communication to those processes. I would also recommend this book to those who are interested in the theory of communication and do not necessarily desire a focus on the legal system. The ideas of and studies on communication are fascinating independently of their application to legal advocacy.

Where was this book when I was studying North Carolina history? I was born in NC, but have learned a lot I didn't know from this book. Turnage has done great research and includes lots of little known trivia that really make the history come alive. Readable, entertaining, and lots of good travel information, too. Outstanding photographs! If you're traveling in NC, this guide is a plus.