South Carolina Books

Charles Hudson is perhaps the best scholar to read about the interaction of Indians and Spanish in the American Southeast during the 16th century. His book about De Soto's route is definitive. This book concerns the nearly-forgotten expeditions of Juan Pardo through the Carolinas and across the Appalachians to Tennessee in 1566,67,and 68. Included in the book are the official accounts in Spanish of Pardo's expeditions plus English translations.

Pardo visited several of the same Indian cities as De Soto had thirty years earlier and thus we have two sources regarding such places as Cofitachequi, Joara, and Coosa. When De Soto reached Cofitachequi -- few miles east of present-day Columbia, SC, it was aleady in decline, having suffered from a plague -- almost certainly of European origin. By Pardo's time, the powerful Chiefdom was on its last legs. Within a few years, the complex societies seen by the early Spanish would cease to exist to be replaced by the much depopulated and simpler societies of the historic Creek, Cherokee, Catawba and other Indian tribes.

Hudson pieces together linguistic and archaeological data as well as nuggets from the tiresome accounts of the expedition by Pardo's legalistic notary to portray the Indians Pardo met. One interesting feature of Pardo's expeditions compared with De Soto's is that Pardo had few battles or adventures, got along well with most of the Indians he met, and none of his men were killed or died.

There is little information about the Indians of the Southeast at the time of first contacts with the invading Europeans. Pardo's is one of the most useful and least fanciful accounts that we have and Hudson's interpretation of it is almost surely the best that can be found.

Smallchief

I read Heidlebaugh's book at just the right time, after working through classical texts in rhetoric from the pre-Socratic to Cicero. The issue she deals with is clearly delimited: How can people (for example pro-Life and pro-Choice advocates) who come to a discussion with incompatible assumptions actually communicate rather than attempt to dominate or talk past one another? Heidlebaugh brings to the issue an intimate knowledge of classical rhetoric and applies this ancient wisdom to modern and postmodern issues showing that wildly divergent systemic thinking provides opportunities for the generation of new practical knowledge. She celebrates the clash of opposing views in the arenas of deliberation, justice and values-building as the engine which drives the production of virtuous judgement concerning issues we all hold dear. She exposes the commonalies between views we consider in opposisiton and helps the reader come to a new understanding of the common place of thought, judgement and public resposibility in which we must talk and act. Whether you are a conservative Christian (as I am) or a post-modern relativist you will want to have Nola Heidlebaugh as a conversation partner. Bravo.

This is an excellent book for anyone searching their geneology for connections to American Indian Nations in North Carolina. It is a well written history book that is interesting to read. I have trouble putting it down and wait anxiously to pick it up again.

Ann George (associate professor, Texas Christian University) and Jack Selzer (professor of English, Pennsylvania State University) combine their insight in Kenneth Burke in the 1930s, a thoughtful study of author Kenneth Burke's work during the restless 1930s. Chapters examine how Burke's literary contribution reflected and influenced cultural history, and Burke's philosophy of the literary form. Of especial interest is Burke's association with intellectual communities of his era, including the leftists in the League of American Writers, activist contributors to "Partisan Review", southern Agrarians, the New Critics, and more. A scholarly, in-depth literary analysis of Burke's classic 1930's period work as well as an exploration of the principles and life of the man himself, ideal for college library literary studies shelves. Also highly recommended is Selzer's previous study of Burke, "Kenneth Burke in Greenwich Village: Conversing with the Moderns, 1915-1931".

What a wonderful memoir! It is always interesting when we find African Americans who can document their origins as Earl Middleton has done. His personal history gives you a bird's eye view of how life really was both in the military and civilian life and especially in South Carolina. Mr. Middleton's book gave me new information about my hometown, Orangeburg, South Carolina, and some of its citizens as well as its history.
The book is well written, interesting and full of history. Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down. I would certainly recommend this book to everyone. It reminds people that life is not always easy, but if you treat people well you will reap the benefits.

This book is full of practical gardening knowledge! It's written for the lay person. No big botanical names. Just simple sound advice. If you belong to a garden club you should order copies for all your members. It makes a great gift for guest speakers at your garden club as well.

As is my habit with art books, I leafed through to view the images before reading the text. The bucolic scenes transported me back to a genteel time, when American was young and rich and full of promise.

Which is precisely the dilemma of plantation art. Typically hung in the landscape section of galleries, it reinforces the seductive myth of the Antebellum South as paradise lost. But in reality plantations were slave labor camps, and mostly absent from the paintings are the slaves upon whose labor the plantation rested and who, when depicted at all, are merely quaint accents or contented pets of benevolent masters.

LANDSCAPE OF SLAVERY serves as a companion to a traveling exhibit of the same name organized by the Gibbes Museum of Art and the Carolina Art Association. It explores the complex and incompatible experiences of plantation life represented in works by diverse artists, from picturesque painters such as Thomas Coram through Winslow Homer (who, as Michael D. Harris writes, appears to have been "more sensitive to different notions evoked by the word `plantation'") to Hale Woodruff whose work is full of rage.

All of the essays provide thought-provoking commentary on this complex dynamic. "Picturing the Plantation" provides an overview of the landscape tradition and its idealizing vocabulary, while "Identifying Spaces of Blackness" explores the African aesthetic found in rituals, ceremonies, dance, music and art created by slaves as a means of resistance and survival. "The Most Famous Plantation of All" about the politics and painting of Mount Vernon sent me to the internet where the web site of the Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens offers this rationale for why the Father of Our Country owned human beings:

"George Washington was born into a world in which slavery was accepted."

Of course, the "acceptance" of slavery depended upon one's vantage point. Ditto "nostalgia." I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in American art in general, and Southern history and culture in particular. It will definitely enrich your next visit to the landscape gallery.

I purchased this book several years ago and I was very impressed with the information that is in this book. Everything from planting instructions, soil requirements, and so on! It is also very detailed with "actual" color photos of the plants. It is a handy guide for those landscape architects and landscape contractors out there and it is very useful for the home gardener.

This anthology could have included a lot more than fifteen poets: North Carolina is for some reason full of remarkable writers, many poets among them. But by limiting the number of authors represented, Michael McFee is able to offer us a significant profile of each. Would that more anthologists took this approach! And this is a pretty varied crowd. There's A.R. Ammons, two-time winner of the National Book Award, and Maya Angelou, known to practically everyone after her appearance at the 1992 Presidential Inauguration--and then there's little-known Jonathan Williams, whose whimsical, often outrageous poems have usually been published by small presses. There's Robert Morgan, who writes of Appalachian life, and James Applewhite, who writes about the tobacco country down east. Some of these writers, such as Angelou, James Seay, and Betty Adcock, grew up in other parts of the South, and virtually all of them have traveled widely; despite its subtitle, this collection is anything but provincial. It's a must-have for those interested in North Carolina writing, but anyone who appreciates good poetry will enjoy this book.

Let Us Meet In Heaven is a compendium of letters written by James Michael Barr of the 5th South Carolina Cavalry, during the American Civil War. Editorial notes explaining place names and the like help make the letters instantly and immediately understandable to any reader; extensive familiarity with the battles of the Civil War is not needed to read and understand Barr's testimony. Let Us Meet in Heaven also includes an index makes for quick and easy reference. Let Us Meet In Heaven is a compelling, informative primary source and an invaluable contribution to Civil War studies reading lists and historical reference collections.