Tennessee Books

There are quite a few typos in this book, some of which are quite frustrating - it's hard to find a hike when the street names in the directions are incorrect. Additionally, the information given on the hikes is insufficent for us retentive types. Elevation gains aren't given (you have to guess what "moderate" means), maps don't include segment lengths, and sometimes the maps aren't very detailed.

That said, it's the only hiking book centered on Nashville, and it includes a good selection. Do be aware that many of the hikes are short, and whether they're worth the drive from Nashville is a toss-up - but that's the nature of the hikes within 60 miles of town.

This book is fabulous! I get in such a habit of going to the same park all the time for hiking...it's beautiful, but I like to have a change of pace and scenery. Molloy's collection of easily accessible hikes from the city has taken the "same-ol-same-ol" out of my weekend hikes, and has helped me to see new and different (but of course still beautiful) areas around Middle Tennessee. From enjoying views of the Cumberland River I've never seen, to exploring different section of the Natchez Trace, Molloy gives very accurate trail descriptions and length of hikes, making for an enjoyable day outside alone or with a group.

This is a dated but useful volume that would be great for research but is not what you'd want to just pick up and read. Prose is stilted, not all that authoritative.

I've found it very useful in my genealogy research for Tennessee.

Great book with great recipes. But again one can get recipes for free off the internet. Russian cooking videos are the best. There is one that gets sold on EBay which actually demonstrates these techinques.

You may have difficulty getting to the recipes, because Alexandra Kropotkin's narrative is so engaging, you'll want to read it through for all of her insight into pre-Soviet Russian life and manners, especially the life and manners of the upper class. It seems as though Ms. Kropotkin had a not-insignificant position at one point (in fact, the man who wrote the forward calls her "Princess"), and she had to flee to England when the revolution came, and she learned to make traditional Russian meals using the ingredients found wherever she happened to be.

If you focus on the narrative, however, you will miss the fabulous food. The food is all very rich, and none of it is made with pre-prepared over-processed food, but good solid ingredients like milk and eggs and flour, and of course, sour cream and dill and turnips. Though some of the recipes are time-consuming (the 'yellow consomme' used to make cabbage soup simmers for three hours, for example), they are all accessible to cooks with even a little bit of experience. Princess Kropotkin talks you through the recipes like a good friend or a mother might, leading you every step of the way.

I would highly recommend the Tennessee Frontier Trilogy series for anyone who loves historical fiction and/or is interested in Tennessee history. Mr. Judd is a native Tennessean and has a true insight into life as it must have been for early settlers. I have read these books twice and have kept them and plan to rereread them. Mr. Judd's books were recommended for male readers,I am female and thoroughly enjoyed these books.
I could imagine my ancestors living again in the pages of his books. Very well written!!

In "The Border Men," Judd's characters have the all the problems that the early settlers experienced on the frontier. Judd tells his story with the conflict between Patriots and the Tories. There on the Tennessee frontier Judd's character have to fight for survival and deal with the political conflict. They fight the British for freedom on Kings Mountain and win the battle. I liked the conflict between the Colters and the Brechts Things move a little slow at times and it doesn't keep you awake. By Ruth Thompson author of "The Bluegrass Dream" and "Natchez Above The River"

From the familiar opening tableau to the token cast of characters, "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" had given me the false impression that it was fighting for the title of "The Quintessential Western". With a setting crucial to the plot, a regional dialect, and roles now iconic of the old "Wild West", the story is a prime selection for a study of local-color fiction-but the fact that it loosens the fetters of clich? with originality, allows it to transcend the genre. Unconcerned about "throwing the first stone", the incongruously named town of Poker Flat makes a capricious show of moral superiority and rids the town of its undesirables. In an obvious "tip of the hat" to irony, three of the exiles required the willing cooperation of the townspeople to commit their fateful crime. After suffering banishment, the four ordained pariahs are assailed by a storm. Oakhurst, the poker-faced conventional Western hero, selflessly refuses to leave behind the others when they underestimate the situation and decide to wait the blizzard out. Only after the na?ve and comparably innocent, Tom Swinson and Piney Woods, enter the scene, do noble characteristics of the prostitute and her madam become apparent. In these unadulterated eyes the "soiled" women are given another chance. These virtues may have never been tapped and now redemption is a possibility or the women may have always been honorable and the town in a sanctimonious fit has discarded two "queens".

It is doubtful that with the altruism and courage displayed in the story that the characters are, in any significant way, inferior to the citizens of Poker Flat. Surprisingly, the stereotypical hero, Oakhurst is the only one to fold his cards when the odds get too steep. Brave acts abound amongst the more unlikely heroes. The "innocent" treks to Poker Flat to save his new bride and she, the child, comforts another when her own life is diminishing.

It is appropriate that Bret Harte is studied along with Mark Twain. Although, most critics consider Bret Harte a popular writer and product of the era, he will remain notable for introducing the world to Twain's work. Twain has even cited that he was inspired by Harte's regional fiction and subsequently influenced. Regardless if the novice supplanted the master, Harte's "Outcasts of Poker Flat" has deservedly remained a canonical text.

John Oakhurst, on death row is outside in a nerby camp.Then one day, aparently killed himself.

The Burden of Brown is a great book for anyone wanting to study the problems of integration. A book like this is hard to find. Author Raymond Walters covers the history of integration beginning with a few years prior to the Brown desegregation ruling. This book is not exactly a polemic against integration; I consider it objective, but so many downsides to forced integration are presented that the reader will not come away with a positive outlook on all of the changes of the last half century regarding integration.

Prior to the 1954 desegregation ruling, blacks had inferior schools due to their inability to raise as much money for their schools because they had less valuable property to tax than whites and did not create as much wealth. This lead to inequalities in how much funding was provided for black and white schools. Before Brown, some state governments decided to spend more on black schools to equalize them financially with the white schools, so they could avoid integration and uphold the separate but equal ruling. The Brown hearing itself involved a black family who did not want to bus their child to an all black school far away when there was a white one close by.

The original ruling for desegration was interpreted to mean that a school could not use race as a basis for choosing its students; but there would be no forced busing to forcibly integrate a school to achieve a certain racial balance. But during the sixties, environmental explanations for black's inferior performance in schools came into vogue. It was considered that blacks in segregated schools were in inherently inferior schools because the segregated blacks got the impression that they were too inferior to participate in white society. Psychologist Kenneth Clark brought out his black and white dolls and found out that (gasp!) black children were choosing white dolls over black ones in the segregated south, which obviously meant that blacks were being psychologically warped into thinking they were inferior to whites in segregated schools. (It's silly, I know, but bear with me.)

Consequently, the new solution ruled by the courts was to rule that schools had to forcibly integrated to achieve a certain racial balance so that blacks wouldn't feel inferior and that they would learn the values of white middle class society and maybe some of the smarts of one race would rub off on the other. Ability tracking was even done away with in some schools because it was thought that this rubbing-off principle wouldn't work if remedial students weren't sitting around the bright ones. And blacks disproportinately made up remedial classes. Never mind if brighter students were held back by the mediocre pace of a class with integrated intellectual levels.

When the schools became forcibly integrated, there was a massive resistance by whites once they found out that in integrated schools crime and foul language were increasing and the standards of education were more geared towards integration and equality rather separation and quality. Even the many blacks were dissatified with forced busing and integrated classrooms that took no account of differing intellectual abilities. One mother complained that her daughter was frustated in the new integrated class because it was above her abilities.

Whites began to move out of the inner cities to white suburban schools or, as in one case down south, whites closed the public school, which left the blacks without a school for a time, and created a private white segregated one. Integration worked better in places where there wasn't a high minority population such as in Topeka, but proved disastrous in places like Washington, DC and Wilmington, Delaware in which nearly all the whites eventually moved out as the schools became bad inner city schools.

I saw the book as good demonstration of the weaknesses of the environmental theory of why races perform at differing levels. There is a general fear to say that such differences are innate since then the problem of differences can't be rectified by liberal social engineering and many people are loathe to differiate between inferior and superior in a society that believes in egalitarianism so much.

Wolters himself comes to fuzzy conclusions near the end. At one moment, he says he supports getting back to local control over schools as opposed to federal control with its forced integration. In another moment, he seems to deplore the increasing segregation of northern schools and declares that more compulsion is needed. But other than that funny little line, Wolters lays down the cold, hard facts about the dire consequences of having integrated schools.

While I am no fan of political correctness, this is in fact a rather one sided view on the results of integrating American schools. As one who went to intergrated schools in the 1970s, I find some of what Wolters writes about undeniable. Yes there were many riots and yes not all Black kids were the innocent heroes often portayed in TV-movies of this era. But to completely dismiss school integration as a failure is asinine. Those of us who have experienced this era must also admit that in spite of the problems we had during this period, positive results such as lasting frinedship and better understanding among the races DID happen frequently ("Remember the Titans," anyone?).

If Wolters and others would like to go back to the days of seperate and unequal de jure schools and when fear prevented interracial friendships, they are welcome to take a trip on a one-way time machine backward. Meanwhile, many of us enjoy the present and the future just fine.

Bessie starts to get sick with a fever and a sore throat
Bessie says she is seeing snakes on the floor and everywhere, the fever has taking her along making her imagine things. She is moaning she is saying things that she thinks she is seeing. Momma tells Clara to grab some spring water, Clara is week and scared. When she came in with the water she wets rags down and covers Bessie with them. Bessie still murmuring things with moans in a whisper. Momma tells Clara that the hoodoo man has done this to Bessie. She says to Clara they should have never talked to the Hoodoo man.
They get the White doctor to come and see Bessie The white Doctor says that Bessie has Mountain Fever.
Clara went to Old Sugar and he told her of a medicine you have to get A pot of warm Hot water and willow twigs boil it and then have Bessie lay in it like a bath it will make her better, Clara went and did this and it made Bessie better.

I read this book while taking a Children's Literature class. The story is great! The author really kept me attention. I was continually wondering if the Hoodoo Man used hoodoo on little Bessie, or if Bessie got sick because of Clara taking her into the mountains. The language Elizabeth Partridge used to describe the state little Bessie was in when she was sick with fever really captivated me. I recommend this book for all children and adults to read.

A reporter who witnessed Jerome Lejuene's testimony reported that she felt as if she'd been in the presence of one of the Apostles. Rarely have brilliance and humility been so perfectly matched. Lejuene, who discovered the cause of Down Syndrome, traveled on his own initiative and at his own expense from Paris to a small town in Maryland to testify in the Davis frozen embryo case. "Love is the opposite of chilly," he muses, and the proper place for the youngest human beings is in the womb, "not in the fridge." Laced with his gentle good humor, and packed with mind-boggling information, "The Concentration Can" is a fascinating read.

A reporter who witnessed Jerome Lejuene's testimony reported that she felt as if she'd been in the presence of one of the Apostles. Rarely have brilliance and humility been so perfectly matched. Lejuene, who discovered the cause of Down Syndrome, traveled on his own initiative and at his own expense from Paris to a small town in Maryland to testify in the Davis frozen embryo case. "Love is the opposite of chilly," he muses, and the proper place for the youngest human beings is in the womb, "not in the fridge." Laced with his gentle good humor, and packed with mind-boggling information, The Concentration Can is a fascinating read.

CONFEDERATE COLONEL AND CHEROKEE CHIEF is a truly laudable first published research effort on the life of Will Thomas. Though it lacks the multi-sourced documentation/research of Thomsen's REBEL CHIEF and at times seems to come across more as a dissertation overview rather than as a "readable biography" it is nonetheless a pioneering work of note.
One only wishes that the edition was sturdier and more reader friendly in layout and typeset.

This research is often quoted by scholars, since Ms. Russell and Mr. Godbold, Jr. record numerous references and endnotes for their very balanced account of William Holland Thomas. They offer pictures, maps, and various views about the numerous subjects discussed; allowing the reader to grasp an unbiased account of this unique individual, Will Thomas. He is the only white man to be recognized as a "Cherokee Chief". (However, Godbold and Russell state, without one source or reference, that Thomas was declared insane. They also make an inference to syphilis).

"Cherokee Chief, Confederate Colonel, Lawyer, Entrepreneur, and Politician: William Holland Thomas."

William Holland Thomas never knew his father, was raised by a single mother in a lowly mountain home, lacked any formal education, but is one of the most prominent figures in Western North Carolina's history.

William Holland Thomas is the only white man to serve as a Cherokee chief. As Indian agent, Will Thomas was in Washington during "The Treaty of New Echota" negotiations and he successfully lobbied for the right of a number of Cherokees to remain in North Carolina; these Cherokees are the present-day Eastern Band. He was very instrumental in the preservation of the Cherokees during their forced march west or "Trail of Tears" in 1838. His intervention provided safe haven for over 1000 Cherokees and, furthermore, it is noteworthy that Will Thomas's intervention is currently reflected with over 10,000 Cherokees residing in Western North Carolina. It is widely believed that without William Holland Thomas' intervention there would not be an Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

To this day the Eastern Band of Cherokee bestows honor and gratitude to their great white chief.

To study Will Thomas's Civil War service, consider "Storm in the mountains: Thomas' Confederate Legion of Cherokee Indians and Mountaineers" by Vernon H. Crow.
To understand and fathom the sociopolitical and geopolitical "tone" of western North Carolina and the American Civil War, purchase "The Heart of Confederate Appalachia: Western North Carolina in the Civil War" by John C. Inscoe and Gordon B. McKinney.

Matthew D. Parker

This is a love story. What would happen if you loved someone who could never recipricate the feeling. That is what happens to Alma. This play explores this quest for love and the damages it can do on a small town girl. This story does not have that usual happy, well wrapped up ending that most of us expect stories to have.

Tennessee Williams wrote "Eccentricities" in hopes that it would be produced in London in 1951. Unfortunately, the original version of "Summer and Smoke" was already in rehearsal. This new play cannot really be called a revision, as it consists almost entirely of new dialogue and situations. Certain characters from "Smoke" are absent (the Gonzales', Nellie, John's father) while another is added to "Eccentricities" -- John's mother. How does the play compare to "Summer and Smoke?" It is tighter, simpler, more direct, and the character of Alma is clearly more of a social outcast. However, Alma's transformation of John Buchanan is absent here, which keeps him in the background. "Eccentricities" is really Alma's play, whereas "Summer and Smoke" was a story of John and Alma. For fans of Williams, I recommend reading both and comparing -- a rewarding experience for any lover of the theatre and especially admirers of this fantastic author.