South Carolina Books

Emory Thomas has long been one of my favorite Civil War historians and he has another winner with this book. By Thomas' own account, this book is an extended essay, while his later work, The Confederate Nation, was his more broad, lengthy study of the Confederacy. Still, this book has great merit, especially for being an easy to read synopsis of the Confederate revolution. As the previous reviewer stated, that means that the Confederacy was founded by revolutionaries, but also that the Confederacy went through an internal revolution during the Civil War. Thomas points out, as few other historians have, that the things the Confederacy fought for ended up being lost during the war years. Also, the "fire-eaters" (aka, the revolutionaries) who for so many years wanted secession and ultimately got it, were often shut out of the new Confederacy that they helped form. Thomas points out in the end that many of the revolutions that occurred in the South during the war (economics, industry, politics, social hierarchy, etc.) were actually lost post-Reconstruction.

This book is a great introduction to the topic of the Confederacy, but don't pick up this book for military analysis or even in-depth political analysis. Instead, if you wish to read about secession, the founding of the Confederacy, and the transformation of the antebellum South then pick up this book. I, for one, highly recommend it.

There are a lot of things I like about this book and almost nothing I dislike. I think the strongest feature of this book is that it presents the reader with a reasonable historical middle ground for reflecting on the Confederacy, a ground that lay somewhere between the two more extreme views (the Confederacy as an evil racist nation and the Confederacy as a pure and glorified "Lost Cause"). One of the last paragraphs of the book I think best illustrates the position of its author:

"The challenge here is to be honest to the Confederate past. Honesty requires that myths and historical apology be put to rest, along with many of the negative clichés about the Confederate South. To be honest to the Confederate experience requires that we accept its revolutionary aspects and rethink many outworn judgments of its positive and negative accomplishments." (p. 138)

The purpose of this book is to show that the Confederacy not only enacted an external revolution (in terms of its war with the Union), but that it also experienced a very significant internal revolution. Thomas does a great job in this short book of explaining what things within Southern society were revolutionized and in what ways. Examples of areas of Southern life that went through profound change include the economy, the aristocracy, industrialization and the prominence of agriculture, gender roles, the psychology of individualism and romanticism, and of course slavery.

This book is well written and Thomas makes his subject very accessible to the reader. This book would probably be out of reach for the average high school student, but is certainly appropriate for any college-age person. My only point of disagreement with Thomas was his categorization of the Confederate revolution as essentially conservative, which I think is a hugely debatable point. However, since the point is so contestable the disagreement does not affect my opinion of this work. Five stars for a great book from a qualified author.

This is a most worthy men-at-arms series; like the book's description says, it shows the much more colorful side to the uniforms of the Confederate Army. One man depicted in the color plates for Volume One that I found particularly interesting was a soldier in the Union Light Infantry, a SC unit based on the British Black Watch (42nd Royal Highlanders).
The plates are pretty much the highlight of this series, and show realistic looking soldiers surrounded by beautiful women and scenery, and baring all their various weapons. The text, nonetheless, reveals numerous interesting details. This is an excellent source on the uniforms and appearances of the soldiers of the Confederacy.

Osprey Publishing has issued Volume 5 of their popular book, The Confederate Army 1861-65. A part of their sprawling Men-at-Arms series (this is book #441 in that series), this one covers the uniforms and arms of troops from Tennessee and North Carolina. Written by Ron Field and lavishly illustrated with Richard Hook's watercolors, this book is a worthy addition to the Osprey family. Retailing for $15.95 here in the USA ($21 in Canada), the book has 48 pages, nearly all of them with period photographs or full color drawings.

The new book focuses on each state's antebellum militia and the hastily organized volunteer regiments that were pressed into Confederate service in the initial stages of the war. Using contemporary newspaper accounts, letters, state and local records, and early photographs, Ron Field presents an extensive array of early war military units, their uniforms and accoutrements, drawing heavily upon primary descriptions. He also takes a cursory, but interesting look at how the transition occurred from locally supplied clothing and equipment (which often varied widely from company to company) to state-issued regulation Confederate uniforms, particularly in North Carolina, where, by the end of the war, the term "ragged Rebel" would be made obsolete from the vast stores of supplies held by the state.



Field starts with Tennessee, looking at the outfitting of the militia and early volunteers in 1861, and examines the role various ladies aid societies played in clothing the soldiers of the Volunteer State. He then discusses the role of the state's Military and Financial Board in taking over the administration and logistics of supplying the troops. Field then shifts his focus to North Carolina, again discussing and characterizing the antebellum militia and contrasting them to how the state later took charge and made its forces appear more uniform in appearance. He also briefly compares winter clothing to summer issue for troops from both states.



The book includes a select bibliography for readers wanting to dive a little deeper into the outfitting of Confederate troops from Tennessee and North Carolina. The index is comprehensive, as is the discussion that accompanies the Richard Hook's illustrations. All in all, The Confederate Army 1861-85 (5) Tennessee and North Carolina (ISBN: 9781846031878) maintains the tradition of excellence we have come to expect from Osprey, and is well worth the modest investment.

I really liked this book. It was funny and interesting. I hated it when she died, but it was still funny. I can't wiat for the sequel!

This is a compelling diary of a young woman, dedicated to her family and community, who demonstrated great maturity during an extraordinarily difficult time. It shows an interesting side of what life was like for southern woman during and after the Civil War. Pauline was a strong and intelligent woman who had the courage to confront a Union General about a wrong done to her family. It is a remarkable account which gives much insight into the life of a woman - daughter, sister, wife and mother - in the Civil War south. Despite the comment from the reader in Moscow, those who read this book know they must be content with this one, and only, account of the author's life.

If a church is going to be discussed, it is less likely to be the Orthodox Church.
If it's an Orthodox Church, it's unlikely to be a Non-Chalcedonian Church like the Coptic.
If it's the Coptic Church, it's less likely to be the monastics.
If it's the Coptic monastics, it's highly unlikely to be a discussion of women.

So this is a rare book on a subject no one speaks of. When Abba Shenouda, the Coptic Pope, is asked about the number of monastics in his church, he lists only men. Pieternella performs a great ethnography on the Coptic Orthodox Nuns, discussing all aspects of their life in an extremely satisfactory etic study. She looks at the long history of monasticism in Egypt, and, because of the dearth of resources on nuns, we also get to learn a lot about Coptic monks and ecclesiology in the process. Pieternella lists the various forms of ministry that women have available to them in the Coptic Church- contemplative nuns, active ministry nuns, and quasi-deaconesses. She convincingly demonstrates how, in the Coptic tradition, contemplation is a more valuable pursuit for the monastic than is service for the poor and social justice work. She compares the monastic situation to the wider culture- the opportunities for women in Coptic Orthodoxy and the Muslim hegemony to show that monasticism is the best opportunity for religious advancement available to Egyptian women. It is only here, especially as Abbess, that a woman can become a spiritual authority figure, even to the point of performing the charisma of healing of men. And Pieternella doesn't just give a Western look at these monastics. She is to be highly credited for not falling into the myth of the excluded middle, in which the personal miraculous is ignored and does not exist. She looks in great detail into the supernatural, the mystical, prayer life, and saint hagiography. In this study, you get to learn all there is about a group that most don't even know exists. These are the women who have devoted their lives to love of others and serve through work and prayer to the Eternal Listener.

The general editor's preface to this volume states, "If books treating Christianity from a comparative religion standpoint are rare as hen's teeth, books in English treating Coptic Christianity from any perspective are far rarer" (p. vii). Pieternella van Doorn-Harder has thankfully reversed that trend. She reminds us of early lessons: listen to those who live their own history, write what they have said and meant to say, and write without casting too much of a personal shadow on the text.

Van Doorn-Harder's academic rigor sets her in critical solidarity with the subjects of her study and their ecclesiastical institutions. Her direct writing style joined with life experience sets a sympathetic tone for a text whose dissertational structure might otherwise have proven dull and pedantic. She aims at highlighting and describing how contemporary contemplative and active Coptic nuns have developed their place in their church and in the context of modern Islamic Egypt. The roots of this monastic tradition are found in the lives of the earliest monks, Antony (251-356) and Pachomius (292-346). The author points out without ambiguity that there is little written history of Egyptian convents, except for scant references to the twelfth century. She concludes that this "heritage is more or less confined to the centuries prior to the Arab invasion. What came after the invasion remains rather opaque" (p. 33).

The modern Coptic monastic rule of life is not a set document as it is in the numerous contemplative and active communities of Roman Catholicism. The singular rule for Coptic monastics does not yet exist. References to early patristic tradition and the needs of present-day bishops in consultation with convent superiors establish lines of authority, prayer life, ascetic practices, and bread-and-butter issues. In the case of the active convents, the type of social involvement also shapes both their ascetic life and the economic requirements of daily living.

The nineteenth- and twentieth-century revival of the Coptic Church is at the source of new religious lifestyles. Contact with European convent life and the Egyptian Islamic context have helped shape the lives of these Coptic nuns. Questions confronting all religious orders in Christianity are raised: authority and its exercise, the role of women as role models and leaders, the relations with the non-Christian community, and finally, the demands of the spiritual life in a modern society: "the key words for the situation of female monastics seem to be transition and redefinition" (p. 197).

The author neither shirks nor skirts the difficult issues. She shows a prudent restraint in being nonjudgmental with questions of possible conflict. One example is male authority and female competence, about which Van DoornHarder states, "This situation forms a potential source of friction within the highest levels of Coptic male hierarchy who on the basis of their interpretation of scripture, tradition, and culture, cannot tolerate self-reliant women" (p. 201). Photographs accompany the text. Notes, a glossary of Arabic words, a good bibliography, and an index complete a welcome and much needed study.

My daughter loves this cookbook. She was recently married and has enjoyed many of the recipes.

Having dined at The Old Post Office Restaurant on many occassions, I was thrilled to discover that Chef Philip Bardin has put some of his culinary creations to pen and paper for all of us to try at home. I'm blessed to live in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, near The Old Post Office Restaurant, and therefore I have access to some of the same sources of fresh produce, fresh seafood, and quality meats and poultry that the restaurant does. Chef Bardin emphasizes that you have to start with quality ingredients like they use in the restaurant to achieve the best results. With my already having access to quality ingredients, this book provides the final piece of the puzzle and allows me, and my friends, to create some of the same dishes we crave at The Old Post Office Restaurant. This book also provides a wonderful glimpse of our local culture on and around Edisto Island, South Carolina. Living near Edisto Island, I can say that the book gets it right when talking about the local culture, and if you're not from this area the book does an excellent job of introducing you to our wonderful, unique, paradise. If you don't think you'd enjoy the taste of "The Lowcountry" then you haven't tried our food or you haven't been able to try it done right. This book from Chef Bardin of The Old Post Office Restaurant will help you do do southern food right.

Cornbread Nation 3: Foods Of The Mountain South is the third such collection from the Appalachians and Ozarks and blends the best of Southern regional food writings - a blend which includes poems, essays, culinary history and cultural insights aplenty. Any expecting a recipe collection alone may be disappointed; but there are plenty of Southern cookbooks on the market - and relatively few Southern collections of literary food writing, making Cornbread Nation something to relish.

The Southern Foodways Alliance was founded to celebrate, teach, preserve, and promote the food cultures of the American South. Cornbread Nation 3: Foods of the Mountain South is a collection of stories, poems, and essays about the foodways of the mountain South. It is one of a continuing series which includes Cornbread Nation 1: The Best of Southern Food Writing, Cornbread Nation 2: The United States of Barbecue and Cornbread Nation 4: The Best of Southern Food Writing.

"Geographically, that region is defined as the Appalachian range beginning in Maryland and West Virginia and extending to the northernmost hills of Alabama, plus the Ozarks of Arkansas and Missouri. Culinarily, those borders extend farther to include eastern Texas ... also the fingers of the hillbilly diaspora that stretched north into the factories of Ohio, Michigan, Chicago, Indiana, and south and east into the mills of the Carolina lowlands."

Ronni Lundy continues in her introduction:

"In other words, looking through the lens of real Southern mountain food -- the methods of its growing, processing and eating -- we began to see a vivid picture of the region and its people that had little in common with their most prevalent and demeaning stereotypes. ... How do you hold to assumptions of ignorance when you see a list of dozens of native greens, berries, barks and seeds that were turned into food and/or medicine? Or believe in clannishness and hostility when you hear the catechism of a Loaves and Fishes ethic that made friends and strangers alike welcome at mountain tables?"

This book contains a few recipes, but it is more about people's connection to the land and to each other, and what food says about a people. It describes families and meals: pole beans, mutton, fried pies, beaten biscuits with homemade apple jelly, pawpaws (also known as custard apples), wild greens in the spring and syrup-boiling festivals in the fall. Even possum: Joel Davis writes it "doesn't taste like chicken -- no, sir. ... To my undereducated palate, it resembles pot roast."

The book is divided into six sections: "Planting the Essential Seeds: Corn and Beans," "Raising Consciousness," "Cultivating Community," "The Meat of the Matter," "The Harvest," and "Food and Love." Poets and authors include Nikki Giovanni, Rick Bragg, Harriette Simpson Arnow, Jim Wayne Miller, Naomi Shihab Nye, Tony Early, and Marilou Awiakta.

Two of my favorite essays: Rick Bragg tells how Cajun cooking cures a broken heart. David Cecelski sings "The Oyster Shucker's Song" about the Carolina oyster industry.

Altogether, this book is a buffet of Southern writing -- and a delicious series of meals for this reviewer.

Robert C. Ross 2008

Like natives in many of the most beautiful parts of our country, those in the cloud-laced mountains of Western North Carolina complain about growth and change even though they're the ones who opened the door to it - in this case, development of the region's tourism and second-home economy.

In "Creating the Land of the Sky," Richard D. Starnes, a history professor at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, offers a compelling analysis and history of tourism development in Western North Carolina.

With dogged research and an engaging narrative writing style, Starnes traces the history of tourism in the region to the early nineteenth century, when low-country planters fled the "fever season" each summer to the milder climates of the mountain South. "Whole communities took on new characters," Starnes writes, "as mountain towns such as Hendersonville, Flat Rock and Asheville became seasonal centers of southern aristocracy."

Starnes' book is packed with insider political tales, such as how the Blue Ridge Parkway got its route, and delightful, sometimes devilish, characters, including many we know well in other contexts. Consider these words that novelist Thomas Wolfe wrote to his mother about Edwin Wiley Grove, the quinine tonic magnate who built the luxurious Grove Park Inn of Asheville: "Grove is a great man because he sells more pills than anyone else," Wolfe wrote, complaining that tourism had changed the culture and values of the city so that wealth, rather than character, determined greatness. "Greater Asheville," Wolfe wrote, "does not mean `100,000 by 1930,' that we are 4 times as civilized as our grandfathers because we go four times as fast in automobiles, because buildings are four times as tall."

As a native of the region himself, Starnes' insights are astute and often poignant. But while some of his subjects - such as Harrah's Cherokee Casino, opened in 1997 - seem deserving of criticism for changing mountain culture and morals, Starnes handles them all with the fairness and respect you'd expect from a distinguished historian. "Tourism did bring progress, government aid and new opportunities to western North Carolina," he concludes. "It also created an atmosphere that led to the exploitation of labor, land and culture."

Whether you're a native North Carolinian, or a visitor like me (one of the thousands of Floridians who crowd these mountains each summer), I highly recommend Starnes' book to anyone who cares about the majestic "Land of the Sky."

Great book by a person in the know. As a past resident of the area it was really interesting learning more about the area.

Crossing the Color Line is a superbly presented collection of stories by Alice Adams, Toni Bambara, and others examine the truth about the color line between blacks and whites, using contemporary stories by novelists to explore the issues and problems. The stories which comprise Crossing The Color Line provide insights more charged than debates and probe issues of politics, class, gender and religion alike.

Stories by Alice Adams, Toni Bambara, and others examine the truth about the color line between blacks and whites, using contemporary stories by novelists to explore the issues and problems. The stories which comprise Crossing the Color Line provide insights more charged than debates and probe issues of politics, class, gender and religion alike.

I didn't know Huck Finn had a married sister until I read Crusoe's Island. I found the lady and her autobiography warmly engaging and wonderful. She says 'pine straw' and we say 'pine shats', but the smell of each, like her book, is lasting.

I didn't know Huck Finn had a married sister until I read Crusoe's Island. I found the lady and her autobiography warmly engaging and wonderful. She says 'pine straw' and we say 'pine shats', but the smell of each, like her book, is lasting.

With so much publishing money funneled into Chick Lit and the next mass market success, it is more than just a little refreshing to find a book of poems of such caliber. Wright, with his dark, lyrical style is the sort of poet who is the real deal. His sensibilities, reminscent of Roethke and Dickey, materialize in his masterful images and his language; while his approach to nature (especially a blue crab) is fresh and unique. His perception of the South denies the current trends of focusing on the "redneck qualities" and instead, revisits Southern landscape and relationships in a tone both comically horrific and heartbreakingly beautiful. Wright is an emerging enchanter to enjoy.

Give this book a chance, and see why the University Presses are putting out the best work right now.

It's hard to remain sedate about a book that shows such promise: I was one of the few who had access to the manuscript of William Wright's Dark Orhard before it was selected for the Texas Review Breakthrough Poetry Prize. For a first time book, Wright's poetry strikes me as masterly; he has a inherent sense of line break and meter, although most of his work is free verse. In addition, Wright's work synthesizes the sensibilities of preceding poets like Roethke, Dickey, Ammons, James Wright, Richard Hugo, and, in his more lyrically obsessive pieces, Dylan Thomas; Wright's style is definitely his own. My favorite pieces from the book include "Dreaming of My Parents," "Cruelty," "Benfield, Remembered," "Dead Dog," and "In Fear of Holiness"-- all of these poems interlace Wright's half-imagined, half-experienced childhood with interior exploration, really great stuff.

Nature and humanity coalesce in some of the best, freshest poetry that I've recently read, a welcome relief from the esoteric, propaganda fueled poetry that claims much of today's literary landscape.