South Carolina Books

This is a great book that's broken up into small chapters so it's easy to read and doesn't bore anyone with un-necessary details like some books too. Pleanty of information in it, if you're planning a trip to Upstate SC, deffinatly grab this book for some great places to stop and check out...even if just for the beauty, not the ghosts!

You don't have to be a Charlestonian or even play golf to enjoy this colorful (both in pictures and words)book that pays homage to the city and the game. Granted it may be more meaningful but how can you not smile when reading a profile of the Kiawah Resort Director, "his schedule is tighter than Kirstie Alley's strech pants" ; or in noting, "At the Ocean Course, you don't play into the teeth of the wind, You play into fangs"
Zuckerman uses words the way an artist mixes colors to get the right shade, it is entertaining and informative. And you may have to consult your dictionary, as I did, as his vocabuary is precise.
If you want info about the courses, he'll take you around for a hole by hole description that is far from boring. The insightful profiles of the local golf luminaries, from players to resort owners provide a most interesting cast of characters...you get to know them. The essays range from skiiing to very personal touching accounts about his family. His "Etiquette Court (A One Act Play)" essay should be a must read and pinned up on bulletin boards in every golf club locker room.
Not just another "coffee table" book but one to savor like back to back birdies.

Granville County is large in size, but could barely fill Kenan Stadium on a good day. It is in the shadow of North Carolina's Research Triangle
Park and will face immense growth in the coming years as Mayberry finds itself in the path of progress. Lewis Bowling gives us a poignant look back at some of the famous faces from its past.

"Grassroots Garveyism" is one of the best books I've read on the organizing traditions of the Garveyites!!!! Many young itinerate preachers, like Malcolm X's mother and father, were organizers. It provides a class analysis of the membership, supported by the census--workers, peasants and tenant farmers and farm workers--also many in port cities involved & exploited in maritime industry--as well as many labor organizers. In contrast to Judith Stein's class analysis, this is a powerful revision of the UNIA story--less speculation, more analysis. Above all, Mary Rolinson does a powerful analysis of the symbolic politics of self-emancipation, self-respect and self-defense at the grassroots.


Komozi Woodard
Professor of History, Africana Studies & Public Policy
Sarah Lawrence College
Author of "A Nation Within a Nation."

In reading about Southern history, I kept coming across the name of Moses Waddel and his Willington Academy. A narrow-minded fire and brimstone preacher, Waddel launched a galaxy of brilliant antebellum Southern leaders using educational methods shrewdly calculated to foster self reliance and intense self motivation. I wonder if our kids today have the same opportunity that backwoods South Carolinians did in 1804. Very readable book with plenty of well researched detail, that fairly deals with both the successes and faults of this influential if not great man.

A very good book of poems. Lovely stuff about Turkey.

Thought this was a great book and learned a great deal of how the city and county of Greenville came about. I plan to make Greenville, South Carolina my next home when I retire.

Now in an updated second edition, A Guide to North Carolina's Wineries profiles 64 different North Carolina wineries along with wine lists, directions, contact information, schedules, and fee information. Black-and-white photographs as well as descriptive histories of the wineries convey the conviction and dedication of the winemakers who run them. An easy-to-use, enthusiastically recommended guide for wine lovers residing in on traveling to the North Carolina area.

This book is exactly what its title suggests: It's a survey of HISTORIC architecture in eastern North Carolina, one of the richest concentrations of colonial, federal, and early Romantic architecture in the country. Eastern North Carolina is a feast for anyone who enjoys small coastal towns packed with historic churches and houses, small regional cities that aspired to metropoli but failed and are now preserved gems of early 20th century urban architecture, and rural plantations off the beaten path just waiting for that late afternoon thunderstorm. This book, along with its two equally good companion volumes covering the Piedmont and West, is a joy to simply browse for a quick daydream or a resource to pour over as part of a larger research project. They're really that good.

In the world of architectural surveys, the variation in standards can be frustrating. Some are generally excellent, complete and (relatively) objective, while some are grossly incomplete or out of date. Some are packed with structures that have otherwise been demolished or destroyed (what's the point?). Some are so overstuffed with editorial political correctness and arcane archi-speak that they can't be enjoyed for the art itself. Also, some like to use what I call "iconoclastic postdating." That's the process by which an expert tells you the gorgeous old plantation house you thought was built in 1785 was REALLY built mostly after World War 2. It allows that expert to express the fact that he or she knows far more than you (and the general public) about such matters. If you've ever seen Antiques Roadshow, you know what I mean.

This guide, miraculously, resists ALL of these flaws. It is of the highest scholarly and editorial quality. There are no significant omissions to reveal the author's political or aesthetic bias. The summaries are concise and well researched. The coverage is truly exhaustive. The photographs are largely functional rather than artistic, but are well chosen to reveal the structures in entirety.

If you're a fan of architectural surveys, these are among the very best and every bit as good as Oxford's BUILDINGS OF AMERICA series. If you're a fan of rural and small-town historical architecture, these books are representative of the genre. Buy all three and you can carry historic North Carolina around with you in your briefcase or backpack.

"Gullah Branches West African Roots" is the candid memoir of Ronald Daise and his journey of discovering with respect to his personal discovery of familial and cultural connections with West Africa through on-site sojourns to Ghana and Sierra Leone. In this unusual autobiography, Daise uses poetry, prose, creative non-fiction, songs, photographs, all artfully and successfully combined to involve the reader with an engaging and informative journey to a man's cultural and historical roots. Also very highly recommended reading is Ronald Daise's early memoir "Reminiscences of Sea Island Heritage" (Sandlapper Publishing, 1986). It should also be noted that a portion of the proceeds from the sales of the first printing of "Gullah Branches West African Roots" will be donated to Charleston's developing International African American Museum.