North Carolina Books

For anyone with an interest in law or history this is a great read. Justice Rutledge was my grandfather's first cousin -- thus the initial reason I bought the book. Unfortunately the dust jacket was crinkled upon arrival so I'll have to send it back for a new copy.

As the folks at Amazon could tell you, I read many novels and very few biographies. I am a corporate lawyer, and have not practiced constitutional law since I clerked for Judge Ferren, the author of this Rutledge bio, more than 20 years ago. I picked up this book because of my connection to the author, but I stuck with it for other reasons. First, the writing is elegant and precise; it is a very readable book. The book tells the story of a good man (and very good lawyer/dean/judge) who is concerned with doing his job right, respected others, was respected by others in return, and achieved great things -- what an encouraging, uncynical story! (Not dissimilar to the author's own story, a fact that creates an extra richness of texture in this book, especially in its descriptions of the life of an appellate judge.) In addition, the constitutional issues that the Court dealt with during WWII and the immediate post-war era remain fascinating -- and very timely. These issues are made understandable to nonexperts without being oversimplified. I learned a lot, and greatly enjoyed the process.

At long last, thanks to Judge Ferren, we have a complete biography of Justice Wiley Rutledge. While Rutledge is not much remembered today, and his tenure on the Supreme Court was relatively brief (1943-49), his significance merits more attention than he has received. Judge Ferren employs a completely different approach than the only other biography of the Justice, Harper's "Justice Rutledge and the Bright Constellation" (1965). Harper focused almost exclusively upon Justice Rutledge's decisions. Judge Ferren does not get Rutledge on the court until page 222 (out of 548). While one might conclude that perhaps too much detail occupies the pre-Court discussion, I can't think of another judicial biography that so effectively affords one a feeling of becoming so intimately familiar with its subject. This initial section is particularly effective in discussing the political maneuvering that accompanied filling several vacancies on the Court, including Rutledge's. The book's central focus, Rutledge on the Court, is very well developed. Judge Ferren not only brings his own insight into the judicial process to his analysis, but discusses some unique aspects as well, such as Rutledge's habit of asking trusted law faculty members their opinions on issues before the court, and Rutledge's exhaustive preparation for writing opinions. The book also adds to our understanding of the personal interplay in that most bombastic of Supreme Courts, that chaired by Chief Justice Stone. Interspersed with the discussion of Court cases is additional biographical material relating to the Justice. Finally, the underlying research is simply awesome--truly a labor of love. While it is a very long book, if you are interested in Justice Rutledge or his period on the Court, it makes for indispensable reading.

Patricia Hickman tells a great story in language so beautiful that it's a feast for the senses. I felt as if I've known March Longfellow for ages--sometimes felt as if I WERE her, that's how emotionally involved I became.

Patricia Hickman is not afraid to explore the depths of grief and recovery from loss, packaging her journey in a story that invites the reader to explore her story's setting, North Carolina's coast and Outer Banks. March Longfellow's bumpy ride through grief is realistic and reveals the confusion, struggles, pain, and helplessness in the face of great loss, even as she plows her way through the fog and discovers a new way to live. March's life parallels my own; her struggles are much like my own, and her path through it all is helpful to anyone in the midst of similar problems. And, in the midst of the struggles, the book is a load of fun with March, her son, their pets, and their quirky neighbors!

This is a beautifully written book about a woman dealing with life after the tragic loss of her husband. I laughed, I cried and when I closed the back cover after reading the last page, I cheered. This is definitely a keeper on my shelf. Highly recommended.

Seaboard to Sideboard is like taking a vaction at the beach without leaving the comfort of yourhome... This is a wonderful book filled with great recipes, beautiful photos and an enchanting historical narritive of the Cape Fear Coast. Seaboard to Sideboard was just chosen as the 1999 Tabasco winner of best regional cookbook from the south. This is a "must buy" for anyone who appreciates a really great book.

I've been collecting Junior League cookbooks for years. This book is absolutely gorgeous!!! The artistry and contents are exceptional. This is the best book I've seen since "Stop and Smell the Rosemary" in 1997. Some of these books are "double-yawners", this is not the case. Go buy it! I cannot say enough good things abount Amazon.com - they were so exceptional in their service to me. Buy it, no hassles, get it right now!!!

The is not just a cookbook, but a beautiful pictorial as well as historical look at Wilmington, North Carolina. The recipes are varied and doable. This is a quality cookbook, a great hostess gift, mothers day gift, any kind of gift.

Since few people in respectable circles today would admit to having supported segregation, it is rare to read honest accounts from White southerners who admittely accepted the system and went along with it, as most did at the time.

This book is an interesting read for that reason. He speaks matter of factly about his own acceptance of the prejudices of his era and area, as he punches a black boy who uses his mouth on the same needle that he does to blow up a basketball without realizing why at the moment, although he is usually pleasant in hiis relations with the black customers who frequent his grandfather's general store in Wade, NC in the 1950s.

However, he comes across people who challenge everything he is led to believe about Blacks. There is the African-American schoolteacher who forces him to refer to her as "Miss" and most of all, his unlikely friend Street. Street is a self-educated free spirited intellectual who is amazingly accurate on biblical, astronomical, and constitutional facts who lives in a cave by himself. The local Whites dismiss him as crazy and eccentric, but Melton comes to see that Street is not only accurate in his facts, but represents the tragedy of racism through the inability of Street to make a living from his knowledge. One of the most interesting characters in all of Southern biography, one could easily picture Louis Gosset Jr. or James Earl Jones portraying Street in a film version of this book.

I would strongly recommend this for exposing young people in particular to a seldom-heard side in writings about the segregation era.

McLaurin has written a valuable and beautiful book. It deserves a place on the shelf with "Coming of Age in Mississippi" as a document of life in the segregated South and of the moral challenges that segregation presented to those who lived in the system.

McLaurin's book is a touching recollection of growing up in the South during the 1950s. His rich narative describes not only the difficulties all teenagers face, but explores how these difficulties are made even more difficult in a changing environment. While so many imagine the white teenagers of the Little Rock school integration as pictures of young whites during the 1950s, McLaurin paints a picture of a young man sensitive to the plight of blacks in the Jim Crow South. A very good book, highly recommended to those who wish to get a detailed portrait of the 1950s South

Cozzens has written a fine historical account of this campaign. He writes in an interesting and informative style. It is no easy task to write an accurate and informative book that covers such a broad topic. My only criticism of this book is that he states "It is my purpose to write the first balanced, and I trust comprehensive history of the 1862 Shenandoah Valley campaign, giving equal voice to both Union and Confederate sources..." I am not certain that he fulfilled his goal at least in his description of the battle of Port Republic. Cozzens's account follows too closely that of Robert Krick's in Conquering the Valley. As Robert Krick writes from the southern perspective, it seems that Cozzens needed to dig deeper into the accounts of the Union officers and men who fought in and about the Coaling. In particular, he overlooked a number of both wartime and postwar accounts written by the officers and men of both the 66th Ohio and Battery H, 1st Ohio Light artillery. Those officers and men describe a different version of events that occurred in the fight for the Coaling. Two guns of Huntington's Battery tore through the forming ranks of the 66th as that Ohio regiment was forming to counterattack. As the 66th swept into the Coaling, they would recapture the 5 remaining guns. Also lost in Cozzens's account is the broken command structure of the Union Artillery. The feud between the artillery officers Daum and Huntington is not explored. Also Cozzens does not appear to describe all of the Union guns that were delivering raking fire into the Coaling. In short, the description of the battle is not "comprehensive." In fairness to Cozzens, his book is on the 1862 Campaign and perhaps one can not expect an overly detailed account of the Port Republic battle. It seems that a balanced, comprehensive account of this battle has yet to be written.

Peter Cozzens established his reputation as an author with a series of excellent western battle histories. Now he turns his attention to one of the classic campaigns in America's military history. "Stonewall" Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign is one of the best examples of what a smaller determined force can accomplish. The Robert G. Tanner and Gary W. Gallagher produced excellent campaign studies and Gary L. Ecelbarger is doing excellent work on individual battles. Tanner's book has long been considered the "standard work" by which all other books are judged. I am not ready to dethrone Tanner but I feel this is a real challenger for the title of best campaign study.
This is a detailed history, omitting nothing of importance and including most of the smaller details that make history interesting. This is not a dry, detailed account that plods on page after dreary page. Cozzens' lively style combines first person accounts with his considerable skill as a storyteller. The result is a history unfolding as it happened, imparting the urgency the participants felt to the reader. We know the story BUT we always understand how limited their knowledge was at the time. This ability makes bad decisions understandable and it shows the problem with doing nothing.
General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson is one of the pivotal figures of the early war. Lionized by many, he became a mythic heroic saintly leader. Cozzens gives us a very human Jackson. He is a complex person completely committed to the cause. He is a harsh taskmaster, prone to snap judgments and unforgiving. This portrait is neither unflattering nor idolizing. It seems to be completely honest, presenting the good and bad points that all men have.
N. P. Banks is a mixed bag, with some very good points as a person but a poor general. He is given a fair treatment that refused to make him a fool or a hero. Freemont is himself, vain, a poor general and a fool. The portrayal is what he was and nothing can change that. The treatment of Lincoln and Stanton is fair. While condemned for overreacting the author recognizes they lost sight of what was important and concentrated on a secondary front.
The handling of Garnett is excellent. The "reasons" Jackson found for the charges are well covered. This includes the personality problems and differences in what they saw as the role of second in command. The full story of the court martial and political maneuvers is not detailed within the book.
The writing is excellent. Battles are detailed, well covered and very understandable. The reader has no problems understanding why a position must be held or taken. The author's conclusions are well presented and quite good.
My only problem with this book is the maps. First, they were not completely proofed. Units in the battle are misidentified on the map. Second, maps need to be placed where they are needed. A map of the midpoint of a battle should not be placed at the start of the story. Likewise, one map cannot cover multiple unit positions with no indication of movement. I found this to be a constant problem when trying to follow the battle on the map. However, this is not a reason to bypass this excellent book.
I feel this will become a classic account of this campaign. The book is informative and fun to read.

Shenandoah 1862 is the latest in the series on Civil War America published by North Carolina Press. This outstanding series of book on the Civil War is edited by the eminent historian Gary Gallagher. This volume is by independent Civil War Scholar Peter Cozzens. Cozzens has penned major books on the conflict which have been well received by the Civil War community of scholars and buffs.
This 500 page opus is a detailed account of Jackson's immortal Valley Campaign from the Romney expedition in the winter of 1861 to the final battles in June 1862.
Cozzens:
1. Provides detailed strategic and tactical accounts of all the major battles of the Valley Campaign. These battles include Kernstown, McDowell,
Front Royal, Winchester and the final showdown at the twin battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic.
2. Jackson's victory in the Valley came at a time with Southern fortunes on the battlefield were at a nadir. Nashville had fallen in the West; Island Number 10 seized; Mobile occupied and huge inroads were being made by Federal forces in the Western theatre.
3. Jackson's campaign forced President Lincoln to shift McDowell and Shields armies to the Shenandoah instead of sending these troops to McClellan who was about to launch the Seven Days Campaign before the gates of Richmond. Jackson's victories enabled southern arms to fight on longer against the United States.
4, Cozzens is well balanced in his presentation looking at the plans and motivations behind Union movements into the Valley fray. Nevertheless, Jackson faced mediocre Union Commanders such as James Shields, Nathaniel Banks, John Charles Fremont who were unable to match Jackson's brilliance in battle.
5. Cozzens contends that Jackson was a great commander who did make mistakes. He was very secretive failing to share needed information with his subordinates. He had a vindictive streak feuding with the likes of General Richard Garnett who failed to perform to his high standards at Kernstown and General Loring during the ill fated Romney campaign. Cozzens asserts that Jackson would send his forces into combat in a piecemeal fashion rather than massing his forces for a major assault. These caveats are debatable.
6. Cozzens has done his homework. He has studied a vast array of first hand eyewitness accounts, memoirs and newspapers of the day to produce this first rate military history account of a major campaign in the Civil War
7. Maps are included but they could have been larger and easier to read. The book also has period illustrations and photos of the events described taken by the author.
8. Cozzens is one of our best Civil War historians as is shown by the blurbs of approval by such giants as Robert K. Krick and Kent Masterston Brown. This book is now an essential read for those interested in the Valley Campaign of 1862.

William Tecumseh Sherman was a brilliant military genius and a true eccentric.
A fascinating and complex man, who found his destiny in war. Sherman revelled in war and owed much to it: he began it as an former officer of modest means and ended it hailed as the Union greatest general next to Grant. At the same time he loathed and despised war and was horrified by it. He was shocked by what the war did to his country, his people, his soldiers and to himself. At times he was appalled by his duties as an officer, but he was always highly resolved to perform these duties.

Everybody who has ever read his memoirs knows that Sherman was not only a great general but also a very talented writer. His memoirs are not a dry succession of events and his part in it, but they convey how he lived through the war and how and why he did what he did in it.
Now professor Brooks D. Simpson has edited a big volume of his Sherman's correspondence from the Civil War years. Again it is the quality of the Sherman's writing which catches the eye and pleases the mind. His letters, as are his memoirs, are a joy to read. This book offers an interesting perspective on Sherman and his part in the war. Reading the memoirs is like having Sherman telling his war experiences to you, long after the facts. This is interesting enough but reading his letters is even more so. It feels like being there with him in his tent, in some Union camp during the war, looking over his shoulder while events are shaping. A truly fascinating experience.
He pours his heart out to his brother John, to his wife Ellen, to his friend Grant and to many others.
So many aspects of his personality appear: his quicksilver intelligence, his warmth and humanity, his wicked and dry sense of humour, his fundamental decency and his military capability.
Read this book and look intro Sherman's mind: it is an interesting place.

The book itself is a big b*gger, but once you've started, you'll be grateful that is is so big: you'll hate to finish it. It looks great, which I like in books and it's very nicely turned out, with good quality binding , high grade paper, a pretty typesetting and a nice dust jacket design. Listings and indexes are clear and elaborate, which is useful in a book like this. So here's a big thumbs up to the publisher's (Chapel Hill North Carolina State University Press): very well done, a fine piece of work!!!

I can't recommend this too highly. A must for all those who are interested in history, in the American Civil War and/or in Sherman. Read and enjoy the letters uncle Billy wrote in those four years of war and enjoy the sight and the feel of this beautifully made book.

William T. Sherman was an irascible, unpredictably brilliant man and his letters bring out these myriad traits. He was a fascinating man and his own words illuminate his fiery personality. Sherman's own 1875 memoirs are a mixed bag, marred by an over-abundance of wartime correspondence and ancillary material. This collection of his letters actually makes for more engrossing, instructive reading. We hear his opinions on the major players of the Civil War: Grant, Halleck and Lincoln. We gain an understanding of his tortured relationship with his wife, Ellen, to whom many of the letters are addressed. His visceral hatred of the press and reporters is well represented.

The collection is expertly edited by Brooks Simpson, someone who thoroughly understands both Sherman and the civil war era. The notes are instructive and unobtrusive and the introduction lays the groundwork for appreciating Sherman and his correspondence. This is an outstanding book for anyone who wishes to get to know the erratic and intellectual General who was second only to Ulysses S. Grant in ability and results.

It's difficult to rate a collection of primary documents such as this one for several reasons. The quality of the documents themselves might be very good but the arrangement or editing of them might be very poor, in which case it becomes a question of whether you should rate the volume well for the documents themselves or poorly for the editing job. Fortunately this collection does not have that issue, as both the primary documents themselves and the editing of them are excellent.

This massive volume contains much of Sherman's correspondence during the war. Surprisingly, these letters are enjoyable to read, and the editors have done a great job of compiling and editing them. Reading these letters, orders, etc of General Sherman can give someone a very unique perspective of the Civil War as Sherman himself saw it, without the bias of authors who have written about it since and without the inevitable coloring of events that happens later when war heroes write about their experiences (and which certainly affected his memoirs, though I do believe they were very honest and straightforward). General Sherman is one of my heroes from the Civil War, and this collection of glimpses into his brilliant mind certainly fed my understanding and fascination of the man.

If you don't have a subscription to the magazine, you will not be able to read the review, but here is the first paragraph.

New & Noteworthy
by Benjamin Schwarz

Chappell's is one of the three or four most important books on the civil-rights movement, but because its conclusions will unsettle, or at least irritate, much of its natural constituency, it will surely fail to gain the attention it deserves. This unusually sophisticated and subtle study takes an unconventional and imaginative approach by examining both sides in the struggle: Chappell asks what strengthened those who fought segregation in the South and what weakened their enemies. His answer in both cases is evangelical Christianity.

The Civil Rights Movement has been well covered by previous writers and I have enjoyed most writings on the subject. In A Stone of Hope I see a fresh perspective, a stone that has not been turned before. The role of religion,especially the "old time religion " of southern Black people has now been elevated to its proper height in the analysis of the success of the movement for equality and freedom. God's voice was echoed by the leaders of the movement and an evil system was dismantled. Faith gave them the fire that moved a race of people to stand up for what was theirs and the world is better for their having believed that God would not allow the Oppressors to continue in their sins. It was truly a prophetic movement. I think that all who are interested in the history of the struggle for justice in America should read this book

One of the most important books in recent years on the civil rights movement by an up-and-coming historian who takes no prisoners, pulls no punches. An absolute delight to read and meticulously researched. Demonstrates the crucial influence of religious ideas on the civil rights movement and the end of Jim Crow desegregation. Must reading for students of 20th-century American history and religion.

Richard S. Dunn examines the British colonialization of the West Indies. Dunn considers numerous colonies, but Barbados takes early preeminence. Dunn discusses the adventurers of the first twenty years, mostly small-scale farmers; the cavalier-planters of the 1640s and '50s, Royalist exiles who fled the English Civil War; and the slaves who became a majority of the population in the period Dunn considers.

Dunn offers a detailed contrast between the lives of the planter elite and the enslaved majority. This is a landmark work in the history of plantation agriculture in the West Indies.

The work should also interest readers of Southern history. Dunn compares the rise of a cavalier elite in Barbados to the same development in Virginia. Planters from the West Indies, especially Barbados, dominated the early years of the colony of (South) Carolina.

Other works on this period of West Indian history are Richard Sheridan's Sugar and Slavery and Gary Puckrein's Little England. Works by Hilary Beckles examine the lives of women and Blacks in this period of West Indian history.

Dunn does an excellent job of explaining the planter class in the West Indies. His research is excellent and his writing style is clear and devoid of that crazy academic jargon so often found in history books. This is my first book on planters and it gave me a good fund of knowledge on the histories of Barbados, the Leeward Islands, and Jamaica, and it outlined in detail how the planters made or lost money. For me, it's Dunn's careful unraveling of the planters' financial arrangements and entanglements that made this book absolutely hard to put down!

In "Sugar and Slaves," Richard Dunn shows not only the brutality of the West Indies slave trade that revolved around sugar, but also how slave owners "created a society...radically different from the one they left at home." He notes that while these planters brought with them to the islands their laws, church and social institutions, these settlers early on "developed their own lifestyle...bent by their eager embrace of African slavery." (46) Dunn persuasively argues that European planters who came to the West Indies traveled literally and figuratively "beyond the line" of normal, British social conventions, and created a world in which "everything goes," particularly the exploitation of slaves and natives in the creation of a dominant master class. These rapacious men, he argues, quickly adapted to harsh climatic conditions by abandoning the use of lower class but white indentured servants in favor of exploitable, controllable Negroes once the sugar boom created a demand. "The rape's progress was fatally easy," Dunn notes: "from exploiting the English poor to abusing colonial bondservants to ensnaring kidnaps and convicts to enslaving black Africans." (73) Unlike his Chesapeake or Lowcountry counterpart, the West Indies sugar lord produced nothing but his staple crop, and relied instead on imports for all other necessities. "In short, the English sugar planter was more strictly a businessman than the senhor de engenho of Brazil." (65) This was a marked difference from other English settlement and colonization patterns, which Dunn concludes is evidence of the atypical class of planter the Caribbean islands fashioned.

If you are interested in ghostly tales of North Carolina, this is a good book. An excellent addition to anyone's paranormal library.

I have loved this book since I was a kid--Harden has a gift for campfire storytelling that never fails to give me chills. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the tales, myths, and legends of the great state of North Carolina!

I have loved this collection of ghost stories since I was a child--Harden has a gift for campfire storytelling that continues to give me chills every time I read a story. I highly recommend this book for any Carolinian with an interest in the paranormal!

It's as much fun visiting Laura Fleming's hometown and meeting her relatives as it is trying to solve the mystery. That is what makes Ms. Kelner's mysteries so enjoyable. Her depiction of a North Carolina town is dead on, and this novel delves into the subculture of flea markets. While the novel is well written and well plotted (like Ms. Kelner's other work), it's the interesting characters that make this book a good read.

Every time Laura Fleming and her husband, Professor Richard Fleming, return to her hometown of Byerly, they always seem to get involved in a murder investigation. Laura has shown a knack for crime solving, so her Aunt Maggie asks her to investigate the murder of an acquaintance whose corpse was found at the TIGHT AS A TICK flower market. Out of their love for their relative, the couple begins to make inquiries even though they do not grasp their aunt's interest in the death of someone she loathed.

When Laura starts questioning the vendors about their relationships with the victim, she discovers that no one has a kind word to say about the deceased. When Maggie's table is trashed, Laura concludes that there is a connection between the vandalism and the homicide, both being done by insiders. Laura soon realizes that the killer will go to great lengths to obtain what he wants, including killing Maggie. It is up to Laura to identify him before he succeeds.

The Laura Fleming mysteries are some of the most whimsical and entertaining books on the market today. Toni L. P. Kelner captures the true meaning of community in a small southern town. Laura's literary quoting spouse adds comic relief as he serves as a counterpoint to the tension filled story line. They mystery is a mind challenger that is difficult to solve because of the long list of viable suspects. Mystery fans will have a jolly time with this well written charmer.

Harriet Klausner

When one of the least liked dealers at the Tight as a Tick flea market is murdered, another dealer asks her visiting niece, Laura Fleming to investigate the murder. Most of the story takes place at the flea market and to be honest I had never thought of how much work could go into setting up booths there. Laura manages to investigate the suspects while helping her Aunt Maggie run her booth. She finds out that the victim liked to make trouble and ruin the business of fellow dealers. No one is mourning his lose. Her Shakespere-quoting husband is helping in the investigation but Richard is having problems of his own. He has bet a group of friends that he can stop quoting the Bard for three weeks.

I enjoy reading the Laura Fleming Mysteries since they are set in an area of the country that I'm familar with. Even though Byerly and Rocky Shoals are fictional, it isn't hard to recognize bits and pieces of local towns in those two towns. I'm seeing the familar in a different way then normal.