South Carolina Books

Dr. Sullivan presents a fascinating account of an important--but often overlooked--era in the American Civil Rights movement. Days of Hope is an authoritative account of the roots of the civil rights struggle. The book is interesting, comprehensive, and impeccably sourced and researched. A must for any student of the movement.

Every now and then you luck into a beautifully produced book which changes your frame of reference. "De Leon" is as close to telling us about who we are and what made our nation as any I've read.
You don't have to be an historian or a scholar or someone with a particular interest in Mexican American history to realize that the De Leon story, in Crimm's telling, is as engaging, exciting, and moving as any part of our American story. "De Leon" offers an understanding not just of a piece of family history but of a whole landscape, storied but unfamiliar to many of us. Highly recommended!

This was required reading for a graduate course in American history.
Brooks book highlights another example of how Americans, demobilizing from a foreign war against racism and tyranny, became acutely aware of their own country's inconsistencies and hypocrisies about race and democracy. This article shows how returning veterans - both black and white - organized protests against the undemocratic machine in their home state of Georgia, but struggled with the degree to which they embraced racial change. Brooks argues that it is difficult to ascertain whether World War II helped inspire change, or just reinforced the status quo in Georgia and the South.

Using both primary sources, such as interviews and newspaper articles, and secondary sources, Brooks recounts the efforts of returning veterans. She regards veteran activism as a "barometer by which to measure the war's political impact" (564) and supports her argument by detailing the opinions of veterans and describing efforts of black and white veterans groups to jointly support political campaigns. Brooks suggests that the contradictions about race, economics and social progress the veterans experienced help define the postwar period as disruptive and destabilizing.

One example of black and white Georgian veterans groups working together was when the black World War II-Veterans Association mobilized so many black voters that they ultimately gave the win to the white Citizens
Progressive League, thereby ousting a less progressive incumbent political machine. Another more direct example is the interracial American Veterans Committee, in which black and white veterans worked to obtain full GI benefits and better housing and to stop police brutality against blacks. They also worked side by side toward change by jointly supporting moderate or liberal candidates. against white supremacist candidates like Eugene Talmadge. Finally, black and white veterans jointly launched an attack on the county-unit system, which apportioned electoral votes so that it discriminated against urbanites, blacks and the working class. A joint coalition, called the Georgia Veterans for Majority Rule, challenged this practice through lawsuits and letter campaigns.

Brooks reinforces the argument of the ambiguity of World War II as catalyst or as a constrictor of racial change by examining the other side of the argument the times when progressive racial reform agendas failed. For example, she details reactionary efforts of veterans who aligned themselves with the Ku Klux Klan or the Columbians, Inc. and how their tactics prevented efforts of moderate politics. She found that the economic situation was an important element in the Ku Klux Klan's and Columbians' ability to successfully recruit white veterans. Many veterans felt entitled to some of the spoils of the reconversion efforts and became disillusioned by the realities of overcrowding and the slow economic situation of post-war Georgia. As we saw in McEnaney's article2 some white veterans fought to claim their position on the top of the economic hierarchy and became afraid of competition from blacks.

Alternatively, these economic concerns inspired other white veterans to overturn the corruption and inefficiency of incumbent regimes. They were also embarrassed by the wartime remarks of fellow servicemen from other states deriding their home state's economic depravity and corrupt politics. Therefore, they fought to change the status quo and successfully ousted the incumbent political machines. However, these white veterans were most convinced by arguments that the corruption infringed upon their economic rights, not necessarily acknowledging the infringement upon the civil rights of their fellow black veterans. These often separate, even opposing, positions of race and economics reflect the ambiguity that is inherent in the definition of progress.
Brooks further reflects this ambiguity about race in her description of James Carmichael's campaign, in which he both attacked the racial extremism of the Ku Klux Klan and advocated the county-unit system. She declares that most white veteran campaigners were forced to adopt a two-faced outlook about progress, in which they advocated for economic growth and modernization while enforcing racial status quo. She asserts that the legacy of this period is one in which racial reform and economic reform walked side by side, but that growth politics
ultimately prevailed over progressive racial politics. While Brooks paints a complex picture of post-war Georgia politics and society, her arguments were incoherent at times. Instead of arguments postulated and defended with concrete examples, she presents incidences of where policies failed and where they succeeded. For example, she discusses how the CPL's campaign for economic modernization of society defeated the
status quo, often racist, Savannah incumbent party then, in the next sentence, discusses how the status quo county:-system defeated a more progressive campaigner, Carmichael. Perhaps, however, Brook's employs these juxtaposed arguments as a scholarly technique to parallel the ambiguity about race and economics and whether World War II helped inspire change, or reinforced the status quo in Georgia.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in American history, civil rights history.

College-level health collections as well as public libraries with a strong health information section will welcome DICTIONARY OF PHARMACY - the only English-language reference to provide a comprehensive A-Z listing of abbreviations, weights and measures, ethics, professional associations, colleges of pharmacy in the US, and more. Students will find it packed with all kinds of details relating to the industry - an essential handbook.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Book is an inadequate description. I like the term manuscript. Lately I've been having a problem with my neck--Dr. Golf has an answer.Sometimes I have a problem with my soul--Dr. Golf has an answer. The ultimate endeavor will survive the latest aberations of hype. Dr. Golf must continue to publish.

The changes that have taken place in ordinary life - especially in medicine - from the middle of the 20th Century up to the present leave most Americans ignorant of what it was like to live in a time before antibiotice, anesthetics and even a good working knowledge of the human body. This little book brings home to anyone interested in life during the 19th century what it was like for both doctor and patient.

This is a book for specialized interests rather than a broad view of the period but that very fact insures that it provides details and ephemera that would ordinarily not be covered in more generalized works. I am very happy to add it to my library of the period.

I was really able to use this book on my recent trip to Charleston. I used it daily to select my fine dining experiences. She only writes about the finer establishments and boy are they fine. Unfortunately I had to leave, but I hope to re-create many of the great dishes with the recipes.

The Dolphins Of Hilton Head: Their Natural History by ecologist and conservation biologist Cara M. Gubbins is an informed and informative introduction to the fascinating life and world of dolphins, studying their feeding, socializing, communication, and much, much more. Black-and-white photographs enhance the adventurous and detailed, "reader friendly" text, making The Dolphins Of Hilton Head a truly exciting account which is most especially recommended for marine wildlife students in general, and dolphin enthusiasts in particular.

The Author, the Late Jim McAllister, was a journalist with The Greenville News, Greenville, SC. I knew about this book and had searched for it locally for several years. To my surprise, I found five of them on Amazon and bought three of them. It is a very neat book of amusing short stories or folk tales from the upstate area of South Carolina and a few across the border into North Carolina. I plan to keep one copy for myself and will give away the other two for someone else to enjoy. The book will make a great gift for a hospital patient or for anyone who enjoys reading.

I'M ONE OF THE ILLUSTRATORS OF THIS BOOK. I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE LOOKING FOR AN ADVENTURE. THIS BOOK WILL TAKE YOU PLACES YOU ONLY IMAGINED. PICK UP ONE AND ENJOY THE TRIP!