Tennessee Books

Four drafties tell the story from basic training thru their trial under fire. This story made me laugh and cry as I followed their antics from arrival in the army to returning home from the war.
The battle scenes were so authentic I could smell the gun smoke, while the humor was very genuine. Even in battle they experienced a unigue humor.
Excellent reading.

As a Lambuth alumnus, I was very pleased to see such a fantastic collection of photos from years past. It brought back fond memories of my years there. The book is divided into sections by decade and college president. It covers Lambuth from its founding as MCFI through today. Now as a current professor at Lambuth, I hope that I can help contribute to the next edition!

I think that this is a good book! I will not elaborate since I am one of the co-authors, which means that my view is probably biased.

In any case, here's a description of the book that UT Press posted:
Cherokees called the magnificent mountain range in eastern Tennessee "land of the blue mist," which European settlers later changed to "Smoky Mountains." Today, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is one of Southern Appalachia's leading tourist attractions. But that fabled blue mist isn't so blue--or healthy--any longer. Particularly in the summer months, the "smoke" of the Smokies is a haze of sulfate particles and other pollutants released by coal-burning power plants, a mixture more likely to create dangerous ozone levels for visiting tourists than the invigorating "mountain air" so many come to seek.

It is a story common throughout Southern Appalachia, one of America's most beautiful, biologically diverse, and fragile bioregions. A Land Imperiled is a symptom-bysymptom look at the myriad of ecological issues threatening the health of the southern high country. Sections on air, water, plants and animals, food, energy, waste, transportation, and population and urbanization make this the most comprehensive environmental study of Southern Appalachia to date--a much-needed wake-up call for anyone concerned about the region's natural legacy.

But it is not just the future we have to worry about, the author asserts; pollution, development, and other forms of degradation are already affecting our quality of life. The excessively high ozone levels plaguing the Smokies have been connected to a host of respiratory problems, including chronic bronchitis and asthma. Once-crystal streams are green and sluggish with runoff from agricultural wastes. Over half of the South's natural forests are gone, and a mere 2 percent of the remaining forests have protected status.

The environment of Southern Appalachia is a collection of complex, interrelated systems that needs care and protection to function in full health. A Land Imperiled not only illustrates the many ways in which the health of this bioregion is being affected, but also provides examples of how the damage can be reversed to sustain ourselves and this natural treasure.

John Nolt, a professor of philosophy at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is the author of several books, including Down to Earth: Toward a Philosophy of Nonviolent Living.

Expertly co-edited by archaeology experts Rebecca Yamin and Karen Bescherer Metheny, Landscape Archaeology: Reading And Interpreting The American Historical Landscape ably collects and presents essays from a variety of learned authors having as special focus America's landscapes and how changes in the lay of the land reflect changes in culture and society itself. A thoughtful, well-reasoned compilation, offering informed and scholarly insights into the steady evolution of human nature, Landscape Archaeology is especially recommended to the attention of archaeology students in general, and those non-specialist general readers with an interest in the sciences of landscape archaeology, landscape assessment, and garden archaeology in particular.

this is a must have for collector of walking tall, buford pusser pic i have never seen it great if you can get it grap it if you have to use a big stick it worth the money

Excellent choice for readers whose interests include the realm of nonfiction and african-american heritage. The setting takes place in Tennessee and predates the civil war. I am motivated by this piece to properly continue Tamer's legacy! Thank God for the will to survive.

THE LETTERS OF JEAN TOOMER, 1919-1924, edited by Mark Whalen, with a Foreword by Barbara Foley. U. of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, TN; [...]. 2006. 249+xliv pp. $[...] hardcover, ISBN 1-57233-470-3. notes, appendix, bibliography, index.
Lewis Mumford, Alfred Steiglitz, Harte Crane, Countee Cullen, and Sherwood Anderson were among the notables of his era the leading Harlem Renaissance writer Jean Toomer corresponded with. Toomer's letters to these and others have meticulous notes by Whalen, a lecturer in American literature at the U. of Exeter; which notes give a pronounced biographical and critical dimension to the volume. Most of the letters are now at the Beinecke Library at Yale. They were written in the few years surrounding the publication of Toomer's book "Cane" which brought him into the spotlight. Not only this and other works, but also many of the letters try to come to grips with Toomer's complex racial make-up. In a letter to his publisher Horace Liveright, he writes, "My racial composition and my position in the world are realities which I alone may determine...Feature Negro if you wish, but do not expect me to feature it in advertisements for you...Whatever statements I give will inevitably come from a synthetic human and art point of view; not from a racial one." Such letters record Toomer's finely-tuned thoughts on social, political, and literary realities and issues in America at the time. The letters from the relatively short period associated with the completion and publication of Toomer's signature work "Cane" give a crystallized picture of the psychology, values, and aims of this author.

I am a recent transplant to Nashville (yeah, I play the guitar) and I was eager to read about the literary history of Nashville. There is so much more to the history of this city than Garth Brooks and Vandy fever. The editor has done a great job in seeking out "high" and "low"--the Fugitives to John Berendt--to present a well-balanced picture of this city. Funny, serious, old, and new--this is probably the defiitive history of Nash Vegas' literary scene.

A Union force of some 42,000 troops and over 100 vessels campaigned in areas of Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas in an attempt to take Shreveport, LA, headquarters of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department. Though geographically on the periphery of the warfare and not much covered at the time by newspapers concentrating on events surrounding the Union and Confederate capitols in the East and in the upper part of the Mississippi River surrounding the strategically important cities of Chattanooga and Vicksburg, the Red River Campaigns, as they are called, brought widespread changes to this region and had adverse effects on the careers of several high-ranking officers. Against the Union force of tens of thousands, the Confederates could bring together only 25,000 men, with no more than 12,000 in action in any one engagement. With the help of an inhospitable terrain and dissensions among Union officers, and despite dissensions within their own ranks, the Confederates held off the Union army and navy. Documents from veterans associations, official reports, and diaries by soldiers of all ranks of both sides, a Frenchman who was serving in the Confederate Army, and a woman living on a plantation recreate all facets of the military, historical, and personal aspects of the Campaigns. Appendices include orders of battle for both sides and a listing of the numerous Union vessels. The volume of the publisher's Voices of the Civil War series collects and puts into perspective considerable source material on this southeastern theater of the Civil War.

Any interested in Southern history, culture and social issues must take a look at Looking Beyond the Highway: Dixie Roads and Culture. It follows the Dixie Highway from southern Illinois to Florida with essays which cover a wide swatch of the South and a range of Southern subjects, from the rise and fall of brick highways to changing styles in Southern hotels, architecture, and music and the arts. A fine survey of evolving Southern culture lends plenty of insights into social and political influences along the way.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch