South Carolina Books

Reflections of South Carolina gives an excellent glimpse into all that is South Carolina. Photographs range from the beautiful beaches along the coast to college campuses and the biggest cities to the smallest counties throughout the state. The photographs by Robert Clark are exquisite and make you feel as if you are a part of them. You do not have to be a South Carolina native - I'm not!- to appeciate this book. Makes a wonderful gift to anyone who loves this state.

Patrick Barr-Melej was a professor of mine during my undergraduate studies. His approach to Latin American history inspired me to be a history teacher. I would recommend any of his books. His passion for his subject matter is as well articulated as it is engaging.

Published by the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, this book provides a brief but thorough account of the events leading up to secession. This story is told in the context of perhaps South Carolina's most significant historical document, the Ordinance of Secession. [...]

It is a commonplace to speak of how quickly event move in our age, but I doubt events have ever so overwhelmed the nation the way the did between Oct 1859 and April 1861. In the beginning the sectional crisis seemed to have subsided and "Black Republicanism" was a tendency, easily overcome by the democratic party (or "the Democracy" as it was called). At the end, the war had begun and the battle was about to be joined.

Crofts book, focuses on the weeks between the election of Lincoln on Nov 6, 1860 and the proclamation calling up an army to subdue the rebel states on April 16, 1861. Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee initially and decisively defeated the drive towards secession only to be undone by being forced to choose between making war on fellow americans (and fellow southerners) or secession.

Crofts focuses on southern unionists, old Whigs for the most part, who participated in last minute negiations for a peaceful resolution of the crisis as well as William Seward and Stephen A. Douglas who were the chief go betweens. Previously historian like Kenneth Stampp have been dismissive of the efforts of the peace camp but Crofts build a compelling case for the legitimacy and viability of their negotiations and poses some difficult "what if" questions in the epilogue.

Like all good Civil War history, it will displease ideologues on both sides. It does not sanctify Lincoln or his course taken in rearming Fort Sumter and raising the army. While the militant "southern rights" prosecession camp seem like so many demagogic hotheads (at least that is how they appeared to the Southern Unionists).

Also it is a remarkable analysis combining primary historical research and statistical methods and is path breaking in contributing to what Stephen Hahn refers to as a "dissenter" tradition in Southern politics.

Finally this book was inspired by David M. Potter's LINCOLN AND HIS PARTY IN THE SECESSION CRISIS. In the most recent edition Crofts has the introduction to this 1943 classic. Read the both and really get an education!

The author does a beautiful job of bringing my charming Coastal NC hometown to life! The book is full of humor and wit! So many memories flood back as I read it. His writing style is as if you are sitting next to your best friend, sipping a glass of iced tea and laughing about growing up. The writing seems effortless but only because the book is so well written.

Some of the places he describes I have never actually visited, but feel as if I have been there due to his vivid and picturesque descriptions. Crayton's writing and descriptions kept me interested and wanting more from the beginning to the end. I have shared this book with relatives and friends.

Mr. Crayton, if you read this, how about your next book being about another one of my favorite haunts, Atlantic Beach!!

Having spend my college and young adult years in Columbia, SC, and being a lover of folklore and anecdotes, I found this book to be a great read.

Dr. Miles Richards, who came to Columbia in 1983 (the same year I did) found some fascinating crime and human interest stories from the files of the (dearly departed) Columbia Record, which was the city's afternoon paper with a lower-income and-education clientele than the still functioning Columbia State. Many of these read something like a 1920s "America's Dumbest Criminals" while others are touching and funny. Instead of straight reproductions of these stories, Dr. Richards put them in an anecdote format in modern language for today's readers.

While some of these are a hoot (especially the tale of the drunken viewers of an air show who nearly riot at the air field over the poor performance), some of the stories involving the African-American community have a touch of pathos when one considers the Jim Crow, poor education, and poverty that most of Columbia's blacks faced at the time.

Those familiar with Columbia's history will enjoy reading some little known tales about local landmarks and people such as the Jefferson Hotel, the pioneering Black lawyer Nathaniel Frederick, and the legendary charlatan "Dr. Buzzard."

But even if you know nothing about Columbia, SC or its history, this is the kind leisurely read that one does on the porch as the sun goes down or in front of your fireplace on a winter day.

This was a delight to read. I'm researching Henderson County and this little book shed some light on topics I would have never considered. I enjoyed it so much that I ordered another of her books "Along the Ridges". Does anyone know if this lady is still alive? I would like to contact her.

Professor Lu has written a thorough cross-cultural analysis comparing classical Chinese and classical Greek rhetoric. She corrects many of the incorrect assumptions regarding ancient Chinese rhetoric, such as the mistaken notion that Chinese rhetoric was inherently illogical and non-persuasive. Lu presents a thorough analysis of the many early Chinese rhetoricians and rhetorical approaches and compares them to Sophistry and Aristotlean theories of rhetoric.

In this thorough and readable study, Daniel C. Littlefield examines the African heritage of rice cultivation in colonial South Carolina. Littlefield discusses the choices rice planters made in securing workers from certain African regions; he also discusses the knowledge these Africans brought to the plantation economy. Littlefield argues that expertise in rice cultivation mostly came to South Carolina from Africa. Rice was grown by the Malagasy, the people of Madagascar, and by many peoples of Upper Guinea (a region encompassing the modern nations of Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia). South Carolina planters, in fact, paid the highest prices for workers from Senegambia (the environs of the Senegal and Gambia rivers), a major center of rice cultivation in Africa. Littlefield argues that, throughout the era of the slave trade, South Carolina merchants and planters showed an increasingly sophisticated knowledge of African regions and ethnic groups. He also asserts that not only African labor, but African expertise helped generate the wealth of the opulent Carolina Lowcountry. This work should prove interesting to those interested in African-American history, Southern history, and colonial American demography. Particularly intriguing is Littlefield's research based on the newspaper advertisements for runaway slaves in South Carolina. That portion of the work includes a list of different African ethnic groups present in South Carolina.

Pinckney is a master of character development, making his anacdotes of local residents more humorous than just the incident alone. He delves into the mindset and lifestyle of the island residents; rednecks, slave decendants, half-breeds, and transplanted outsiders; their Gullah roots, religion and superstitions (voodoo), politics, social structure, and lifestyle. There is a lot of lowcountry history to be learned in a series of funny and amusing stories. I liked this book so much I purchased a second copy for a friend's birthday and two more of Pinckney's titles for myself.