North Carolina Books

Unfortuantely, I have only seen Codename Greenkil's chapter 4 regarding the "CWP's role" in the organization of the Brown Lung Association. I can speak to this with certainty and state that this chapter is on the money.

Some current CWP veterans claim that they organized the first chapter of the BLA in Greensboro, NC. This simply is not true. The hard work of organizing, i.e. facing down the fear factor of what Cone Mills might do, door knocking, building leadership, coordinating meetings/events, etc, was done by social activists with no affiliation with the individuals who later formed the CWP.

However, those individuals who later became the CWP did contribute invaluable medical roles in helping workers become identified as "possible" victims of brown lung disease, a critical first step in getting eligible for compensation and one that rarely occured in the Carolina's before 1974. In spite of the fact of expert physician estimates of 30-40,000 brown lung cases in the Carolinas, only some 80 had received workers' compensation before 1974.

I lived in Greensboro, NC when the the events in this book took place. Ms. Wheaton has done a remarkable job of research, in addition to naming names and defining the racist nature of the actions and the cover up. So sadly, it was no surprise that these events took place in my former city. It was also no surprise that the collaboration between the police/Klan/lawyers/
city officials convinced the 'jury' that the so-called officials had acted properly. In this year it perhaps becomes a more important read than when it was first published.

I really wish that some pepole out there would focus more on Mr. Toomer's writing talents and not on this whole "was he or was'nt he" about his racial background. I believe that Jean Toomer's words are powerful and universal for all people! His imagery is so amazing it's almost visual, and he is able to make the political deeply personal and not preachy. The works of this brilliant writer is far more important to me than the tiresome, trivial, and unfortunate pettiness of some individuals who want to argue about a subject that is designed to be derisive and distracting in a time when "Rome is Burning!"

This book is greatly recommened! Please add it to your library.

Jean Toomer should not be classified as "African American." He rejected that racist "one drop" classification and deserves praise and admiration for doing so. Toomer's parents and grandparents were not "black middle class" but looked whiter than many Americans who call themselves "white."Passing for Who You Really Are

Excellent scholarship by Michael Harris. A sensitively written history of visual stereotyping and its effects. The book interweaves and points out the importance of Yoruba and other African philosophical heritages and their positive affects on artists, images in the U.S. Really excellent!!!!!!

The book is as intellectually stimulating as it is visually captivating. Anyone interested in giving serious thought to the history and power of images depicting persons of African descent should read this book. It's thoughtful and thought provoking. A topic that should interest any American, no matter what their race or ethnicity!

This is an entertaining, inspiring, well written, highly readable and spectacularly practical book on community journalism. I cannot say enough good things about it. I'm currently using it in a class for students who are going to create a local news website and they like it, too.

I got this book because I'm starting up a local newspaper and it's been 30 some odd years since I majored in Journlaism. I found here a lot of what I only dimmly remembered, but which underscored what I believed about the feasibility of starting my paper. I also can see that it would be a good read for anyone nostalgic for the simpler days of newspapering.

South Carolina by Henry Leifermann is one of a series of Compass American Guides. Each state is written by a different author, and South Carolina is not only the best of them all, but also one of the most informative and concise guides ever written.

South Carolina is a diverse and beautiful state, and few states can boast that they begin at the Atlantic Ocean and end at the mountains. The author first provides us with a crash course in history from the geology of South Carolina, to the Colonial Era, the Revolution, the Antebellum Era, The Civil War and through to race relations and the diverse population that makes up this state. Leifermann also includes chapters on the Sea Islands, Charleston, Coastal Plantations, Myrtle Beach and Grand Strand, Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and the Blue Ridge. In addition to maps, timelines, paintings, and drawings, all the chapters include wonderful photography by Eric Horan.

This book is also packed full of pertinent information such as facts about the climate, the economy, the population, and specifics (state bird, state flower, etc.). It also provides the reader with practical information such as bed and breakfasts, hotel chains, restaurants, historic sites, festivals and events, museums, parks and forests, tours, golf courses, and places to get tourist information. It even includes a recipe or two.

So, if you're planning a trip to South Carolina, forget the AAA Tourbook and pick up Leifermann's book instead. You won't be disappointed.

Leifermann is an excellent writer, and his commentary is insightful. This is not your typical Chamber of Commerce, tourist brochure type of guidebook. The book is comprehensive and attractive, chock full of useful information. It contains excellent photography and tell-it-like-it-is descriptions. It has the accurate maps that are a necessity to any adequate guidebook. If you buy only one resource on South Carolina, this book should be it.

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.

A very informative book on a era in which either you weren't alive at the time, too young, or couldn't believe that you went through all of what happened during the 1960's to early 1970's.

Nothing inspires so much enduring controversy and strongly held opinions as the subject of active draft resistance during the Vietnam War. The draft resisters were composed of a relatively small segment of the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of young American men of draft age who avoided serving in the Army in one fashion or another. While most avoided active service in one or another fashion by enrolling in colleges or graduate schools, getting married and quickly having children, or by crossing the border into Canada, the draft resisters stood their ground and actively (and often quite dramatically) confronted the system by openly opposing the draft, burning their draft cards publicly, and serving themselves up for the legal and social consequences of refusing to serve in the military.

The author's approach is both appealing and effective; he uses a plethora of anecdotes and then places them in context by providing an overall history of the movement as well as an effective analysis of the effect of the movement both for the individuals choosing to participate in it as well as for the society at large. Author Michael Foley is a history professor at the City University of New York College of Staten Island, and he obviously has some personal experience informing his awareness of the phenomenon, which was in his estimation one of the most important and most progressively attempted efforts at defanging the war machine, a technique which comprising the cutting edge of young Americans opposition to the war in Southeast Asia. It found its inspiration in the Gandhi-like examples of the civil rights movement, and found widespread philosophical and legal support for a method that eventually forced the formal apparatus of government to sit up and take notice.

What I found especially fascinating about Foley's approach is his concentration on events transpiring in the greater Boston area, where I had many personal experiences, both with the active resistance against the war as well as the other related anti-war activities. So the author's cogent analysis and colorful anecdotes often churn up memories of people and the times from my own reservoir of such experiences some thirty-five years ago. What was so intriguing about the movement was the way it transformed what was initially a massive loathing for what was considered an unmanly and suspect strategy into one that was much more widely supported and endorsed by mainstream Americans. Thus, by placing themselves and their futures on the line (many resisters eventually served time in prison rather than serve in the military), the resisters did change public opinion and popular perception of the war itself and on the ways in which honorable young men could behave in response to it.

Eventually, such efforts actually helped to end the draft, as President Nixon foisted a lottery system as an interim approach to the patently unfair policies of the draft, and soon thereafter created an all-volunteer service in response to the public outcry over 'selective service'. The actions of the war resisters sparked a wide-spread recognition among their peers of the obviously unfair nature of the draft itself, and helped to legitimize the mass-protests against the war involving millions of Americans outraged by the racist and social class distinctions made in draft policies. Finally, Foley shows how greater civic awareness is required to ensure a more enlightened and informed understanding of one's patriotic duties to the country during time of war. Enjoy!

In "Containing Arab Nationalism," Salim Yaqub provides a remarkably in-depth look at U.S. policy in the Middle East during the mid to late 1950s and how it changed in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis. The main theme explored here deals with the increased level of U.S. influence in the context of the Cold War and how the U.S. reacted to Britain's changing role in the region. The narrative that Yaqub presents shows that the U.S. could not have been more serious about keeping Soviet influence out of the Middle East, but that the Eisenhower administration wasn't always confident in the methods employed to achieve this goal. In the end, the administration adapted its policies in such a way that the Soviets never gained the type of stronghold in the region that the U.S. feared, but Yaqub demonstrates that this was by no means an easy task.

The time period covered in the book is short, but Yaqub explores the crucial years of 1956-1960 with remarkable depth. The major events of these years, such as the interventions in Lebanon and Jordan, as well as the Iraqi revolution are all delicately woven into the overall narrative of how the Cold War affected Western policy towards the region. Yaqub's writing style is superb, and the book is extensively researched. This book should be at the top of the list of students and scholars alike that wish to achieve a greater understanding of recent Middle Eastern history and how those countries interacted with the United States.

In this important work the Eisenhower doctrin of containment in the middle east is finally given a full length book and its place in cold war history is finally made. Eisenhower had a number of Middle Eastern hands around him and like Presidents before and after he cemented his middle east policy on one pillar: Sunni conservatism, which at the time meant Nuri-Al Said, King Hussien, the house of Saud and the Shah of Iran(not a sunni, a nominal shia Persian nationalist). The creation of Nasserism in the early 1950s led Eisenhower to reposition America in the middle East. Before the 1956 Suez crises the United States took a back seat in the Middle East. Nevertheless the idea of the Baghdad pact, a confederation opposing communist ifniltration of the region was essential to U.S policy. Already the U.S had supported Turkey and Greece against Communism and when it seemed that Nasser would accept Khrushchev money to build the Aswan High Dam, Ike saw the danger. After the neo-imperialism of the English and French invasion of Egypt in 1956, Eisenhower took the plunge. He cemented the policy by trying to ally with conservative regimes, not neccesarily democratic but what he and his CIA director Dulles and Kirmet Roosevelt saw as the lesser of two evils.

When Lebanon was threatened in 1958 U.S troops went ashore. When Jordan was threatened the UK sent paratroops. Syria was cemented for a short period. A revolution against the Shah was thwarted. Iraq was kept firmly in the orbit of the west. Saudi had no where to turn as Nasser invaded Yemen and bombed Saudi so that Saudi had to fund the royalists fighting in Yemen. In addition the U.S had to check nasserism in Libya and Algeria.

This was not a simple game. What one may notice is that Israel was not part and partial to this policy. Eisenhower advisors saw Israel as a leftist upstart, upsetting the Sunni elites they loved and not helpful against Communism. It wasn't until JFK that ISrael became a U.S ally. This will shock those who beleive the U.S created Israel and that Israel was an 'offshore military base' from the get go.

A wonderful contirbution.

Seth J. Frantzman

I truly could not put this book down. My daughter gave this book to me for my birthday last fall. When I looked at the title, I was alittle skeptical. As soon as I started reading the book I was completely absorbed. If you want to know about Southern cooking or the Southern people this book is for you. What a fun book.

Cornbread Nation 1 was edited by John Edgerton and includes fifty-one original features and selections previously published in magazines and journals, all celebrating Southern people, places, traditions, and foods. It was published in association with Southern Foodways Alliance, a group of foodies who "celebrate, teach, preserve, and promote the diverse food cultures of the American South."

There are now four collections of essays thus the "1" in the title-- the "annual" has appeared four times over six years. The other collections are Cornbread Nation 2: The United States of Barbecue, Cornbread Nation 3: Foods of the Mountain South, and Cornbread Nation 4: The Best of Southern Food Writing.

This volume is organized by "People," "Times," "Things" and "Places", but it's much more fun to pick and choose your dishes much as you would at a buffet in Northern Virginia -- nothing prevents you from having dessert before the soup, for example.

As Edgerton writes: "Individually, the selections in these pages can stand alone; they need no shoring up from us. Collectively, they buttress our conviction that nothing else the South has to offer to the nation and the world--with the possible exception of its music--is more eternally satisfying, heartwarming, reconciling, and memorable than its food. Our dishes and beverages express our faith, our good humor, our binding ties, our eternal joys and sorrows, our readiness for whatever awaits us."

A few of my favorites: Rick Bragg's "Dinner Rites," Thanksgiving meal in Alabama with cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese ("a vegetable in the South.") "I eat until it hurts, and my brother Sam will grin at me, because he lives here, works at the cotton mill, and can eat it all the time."

Fred Chappell on "ice" tea: "I am one southerner who detests that dirty water the color of oak-leaf tannin."

Kathleen Purvis teaches that pig liver, head parts, and cornmeal spiced with pepper and sage is called "livermush" (possibly brought south from Philadelphia by German immigrants).

This collection sets a very high and enjoyable standard for the entire Cornbread series.

Robert C. Ross 2008
Robert C. Ross 2008

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