North Carolina Books

This is really a fascinating and well written book. Oriard looks at every angle in deconstructing how and why football became America's Game by 1960. Great illustrations accompany very readable text. It's a social history as much as a football history, but it speaks volumes about the sporting heritage of America and how race, class, and ethnicity are reflected in the game - and indeed how the game has forced us to confront some of the less savory facets of American society, particularly race. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of football and American popular culture.

H. Trevor Colbourn writes that the college-educated colonists received a heavy dose of the Greek and Roman classics. This classical education would make it easy for them to assimilate into their own character the virtues embodied in Cato the Younger. Many of these men, such as Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Nathan Hale, and others, would quote from the play in many of their writings and speeches. Colbourn asserts that in the years leading up to the American Revolution, and especially after the Stamp Act crisis in 1765, the play "Cato" served as the epitome of resistance to tyrannical British rule for many colonists.

It is indicative of the Age of Enlightenment, which educated leaders such as America's Founding Fathers, to select their models of heroic virtue from Greco-Roman history instead of from the Bible. Plays, such as Addison's "Cato" social and philosophical message was clear to any Enlightenment audience because it was Roman moral virtues and not Christian morality that Enlightenment audiences most embraced. Cato's self-reliance caused his actions; not his reliance on God. This notion of men acting outside the sphere of religious bonds was an important lesson that was certainly not lost on our Founders, especially since many of them were such devoted disciples to Enlightenment ideals. In fact, one could stipulate that "Cato" is part of a genre of plays that replaced the Christian morality plays that had been so popular for centuries in Europe.

The revolutionary generation immersed themselves in the classics, which enabled them to be on the look out for examples of distant tyrannical rule. The Founding Fathers believed that in order for a new nation to survive as a republic, they would need to remake men in the mold of Cato as portrayed in Addison's play, and as other heroic men found in "Plutarch's Lives." Cato was first and foremost a patriot. He would not have sullied himself by becoming embroiled in party politics. Thus, the Founders learned from his example and understood that they too had to be especially diligent in guarding against men forming political factions and the misuse of political power for their own self-interest. This is why Founders, such as Thomas Jefferson, placed such high hopes for raising a virtuous body of citizens through education, which became one of his motivating factors for founding the University of Virginia. Aside from Addison's flowery prose and powerful imagery on stage, "Cato's" most important and enduring role in the American colonies was its political message; fighting to the death, if necessary, for freedom from tyranny.


I read this book for a graduate Humanities class. Recommended for people interested in literature, history, philosophy, and the founding of America.

Beautifully written and wonderfully detailed, this book looks at literature by women who, in different ways, make "the West" their home. But Comer overturns defintions of the West as simply the old frontier and "the big sky." The West is black women in LA and Asian women in San Fransisco and Native Indian women writing about their modern lives. The book has very interesting interpretations of contempory women's literature, but the best part is the way it makes you re-think what you thought you knew about the "West." Put away your cowboy images, this book shows the West as a diverse region that has produced some of the best fiction writers in the nation.

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.

Many people who have discovered the hermit through the years have become infected with "hermit fever". THey wanted to know what it would be like to BE a hermit. Therefore, the latest edition comes with an entrance exam along with information on how to become an "Official" hermit, a title given through The Hermit Society--which was registered in 1993 in New Hanover County (Wilmington), North Carolina. New members will receive a Certificate proclaiming them an official hermit (see photo on these pages) and a graduate of The School of Common Sense. All that is necessary to pass the exam is to read the book and pay a nominal entrance fee!
Anyone who cherishes independence and loves Nature will be thrilled with a membership!

I read this book as an introduction to this author. It was a fun read that took me back to when I was a child. The characters are written with wit and great characterizations. Kids and adults alike with love this one.

Lee's Tar Heels is a superb narrative of one of North Carolina's premier brigades in the Civil War. Author Earl Hess delivers a very readable and interesting account of the brigade, which included the 11th, 26th, 44th, 47th, and 52nd NC regiments. Hess draws on a large number of period resources, including some priceless accounts from brigade members, some of whom did not survive to see the war's end.

The book basically covers the entire history of the brigade, from its early days participating in the relatively small skirmishes and battles of Eastern NC, until its true baptism of fire at Gettysburg, in which it suffered appalling casualties and gained immortal glory. One thing I liked about the book is the consistency with which he covers all the regiments of the brigade, and not just the more famous 26th NC. It would be easy to have written a book on the 26th, with scant reference to the other equally deserving member regiments, but Hess never fails to present the brigade as a whole.

He also tells of a number of interesting side stories, including devoting much space to the famous Moravian band which travelled with the regiment. He talks about the Quaker members of the brigade, who were caught up in a situation they hated, yet earned the sympathy of their fellow soldiers. Each aspect of the brigade history is presented in a readable way, including discussions on desertion, camp life, and politics.
He also talks a great deal about the three leaders of the brigade; Pettigrew, Kirkland, and McRae. He is candid about each of their leadership styles, including any blunders they may have perpetrated, but he is quick to come to their defense when he feels it is warranted. One thing I was impressed with was the natural talent that the last commander, William McRae, exhibited. If not for the end of the war, he surely would have gone on to be a fine division commander.

Hess also addresses the post-war controversy over the blame for the failure of Pickett's charge between North Carolina and Virginia. Several prominent Virginia newspapers printed accounts of the Tarheel's actions at Gettysburg that were biased and inaccurate. There is a whole chapter on "After the War", which deals with the efforts of various members of the brigade to rectify the incorrect accusations of the Virginians, and to accord the brigade the credit it was due. He also writes about the eventual fate of many of the soldiers you come to know through the reading of the book, some of whose stories are absolutely fascinating.

This brigade was present at pretty much every large battle of the ANV from Gettysburg until the end of the war, including a number of smaller engagements which are generally overlooked. It gained a reputation for hard fighting, and was often used in situations where extreme measures were called for. Hess writes about them with an obvious enthusiasm, but never loses his objectivity. I will have to admit, this is the first brigade history I have ever read, but I cannot imagine it gets much better than this. If you enjoyed the book he co-wrote on Pea Ridge, I think you will find this one just as good, maybe even better. I simply cannot recommend it highly enough.

Don't even open this book if you have important plans for the next three days.

*Nance Dude* grabs you from the first sentence and compels you to pick it up again and again until you have read the last line.

Based on a true story, it tells of a women who killed her own grand-daughter in the mountain country of North Carolina in 1913. You know immediately who did it, the outcome and some of the people involved, but the why's and how's are more compelling than in Capote's *In Cold Blood.*

Still Nance is not a killer story. It is a story of love, compassion, redemption and ultimately the tale of a down-trodden person, who, like *Everyman,* represents all down-trodden people. Nance Dude becomes, through Stanley's skillful handling, a symbol for the black plight, battered women, abused children, those physically and emotionally impoverished.

One cannot help but think of *Cold Mountain* because of the time and the setting, but Nance goes far beyond *Cold Mountain.* In it, Stanley carries you to every human emotion in your psyche. You will laugh, smile, become enraged, cry, feel fear, but most of all you will be constantly surprised and impressed at the buttons Stanley has pushed in you that you thought were hidden.

There is action, suspense, romance, epic tales covering a hundred years, sadness and mystery. What's more Stanley is such a skilled writer that he compresses all of this emotion and time into 253 pages. Writing with the excitement of Grisham, the fine ear for dialog as Goldman, the tenderness of Wolfe and the compassion of Capote, Williams, McCullers and Welty, Stanley will not let you alone, once you have picked him up.

Put this book at the top of your list. But remember, cancel everything on your calendar for the next three days.

(The book is -- as of 12/99 -- back in print from Marblehead Publishing, Raleigh NC.)

William Spence Robertson was born in Glasgow (Scotland) on October 7 1872 and devoted his entire life to the study of Diplomacy and International Relationships in America. He prepared in Yale his Doctoral Thesis with the title of Francisco de Miranda and the Revolutionizing of Spanish America, who bestowed him the Prize of History of Yale `s University.

Under the light of the previous considerations, it has become a perpetual reference source and documentation for biographers, Historians and investigators at the moment to understand the complexity and enormous transcendence of this singular personage.

Finally I would like a little incise in this sense. The most pyramidal Venezuelan painter: Arturo Michelena, consecrated what to my mind constituted his sublime masterpiece: "Miranda en La Carraca", a mesmerizing and captivating that will shock you for the rest of your life due its impressive realism.

I Loved the Book!