Tennessee Books

President Franklin Roosevelt, confronted with the hardship of millions of unemployed Americans and radical political ideas blossoming around the world, put millions of unemployed Americans to work building bridges, roads, buildings and other elements of America's infrastructure. These fine work projects are seen across America and represent a hard period in American history, and a period of hope and achievement.

I found this H-Net review of this book on the Internet.

"Carroll Van West. Tennessee's New Deal Landscape: A Guidebook.
Reviewed by Edward Salo, Geo-Marine, Inc.
Published by H-Tennessee (September, 2002)

"Creating a Modern Tennessee through the New Deal
When most people think of the New Deal's impact on Tennessee, the concrete dams of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) are the image that comes to mind. However, like many states, Tennessee's public landscape was drastically affected in other ways by a variety of New Deal projects. In Tennessee's New Deal Landscape, Dr. Carroll Van West, project director for the Center for Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University, examines over 250 of Tennessee's historic sites constructed during the New Deal and uses that information to catalogue how Depression-era federal government work changed the built environment of the state. West's book serves both as a heritage tourism guidebook and as a scholarly work. It also succeeds in illustrating how "New Deal agencies transformed the state's public landscape, leaving in their wake the infrastructure for the emergence of a modern--and different--Tennessee" (p. xii).

"Students of Tennessee's cultural landscapes and historic preservation will be familiar with West's earlier scholarship. Because of his work at the Center for Historic Preservation, West has either written about or is familiar with most of the New Deal historic properties in the state. His previous book, Tennessee's Historic Landscapes, is the definitive study on the different historic landscapes across the state. West's new contribution focuses exclusively on the historic properties that were constructed during the New Deal era in Tennessee. He has mined both primary and secondary sources on Tennessee's New Deal experience, including TVA records, the WPA guidebook on Tennessee, cultural resource reports, and National Register of Historic Properties nominations to produce a similarly authoritative examination of the state during the 1930s.

"In his first chapter, West presents a short thematic history of the New Deal, identifying the ten major New Deal agencies that worked in Tennessee. Unlike his previous book, which looked at the state's regions, he divides New Deal Landscapes into chapters based on the resource's property type. The next seven chapters include discussions of state offices and county courthouses; federal courthouses and post offices; community buildings and institutions; schools; housing; parks, memorials, and museums; and infrastructure. Each chapter contains a short narrative focusing on political, cultural, and social patterns that influenced the resources, as well as individual descriptions of other examples across the state, organized alphabetically by county. By not designating the properties as belonging to West, Middle, and East Tennessee, West makes his information accessible to those unfamiliar with Tennessee's traditional geographic divisions. A bibliographical essay also directs readers to important sources for further research.

"West makes it clear in his preface that the book is not comprehensive. The examples he uses are fairly divided between the rural and urban sections of the state. Many of the properties discussed in the chapters are representative and are not the only examples in the state. The identification and description of New Deal property types, however, is one of the book's strengths, making it easier for local historians to examine Depression-era landscape and distinguish significant buildings.

"The examples that West uses illustrate two interpretations of the New Deal in Tennessee: construction and destruction. Although many projects created new buildings, some, such as the TVA dams, also destroyed rural areas and displaced people from their traditional homes. Additionally, the construction of TVA lakes disrupted rural life, while also laying the groundwork for Tennessee's economic growth during World War II and the Cold War. This dichotomy shaped many Tennesseans' attitude toward the federal government both during and after the New Deal years.

"Although the book's only problems are cosmetic in nature, a few changes would have helped the reader. First, all of the pictures in the book are modern, but many readers would appreciate historic views of some of the buildings. Additionally, sidebars with brief descriptions of architectural elements or styles (for example, WPA Moderne style) would have made the book more accessible to laymen. Also, with the growing interest in environmental history, West's discussion of the creation of state parks and soil conservation only begs for more study.

"The study of New Deal landscape has bloomed during the 1990s. Many state historic preservation offices have developed New Deal theme studies to assist in placing 1930s properties on the National Register of Historic Places. Although these theme studies are helpful for historic preservation planning, they are not easily accessible to the public. Public historians should use West's book as an example on how better to communicate historic landscapes to the general public. The book takes "gray literature" and presents it in a manner that is useful. The framework that West has developed also lends itself to other possible historic themes, such as railroads, military, agriculture, industrial, and ethnic landscapes. This book should be read by public historians not only for the content but also for the methodology."

Professor Corlew does an outstanding job covering the history of the Volunteer state. A must read for anyone interested in the history of this area

I bought this book after reading about Wilma Dykeman's death in our local Greene County, Tennessee newspaper. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Informative and beautifully written. This is not an *complete* history, by any means, but is very good for the history it covers. It is meant to be an overview of the history that makes Tennessee unique, and it covers that well. I found out things I hadn't known, which was a bonus.

Great history of Tennessee for tourists.

Not the science class that CSI is but a very " behind the scene view " of what First responders see firsthand. Entertaining and insightfull

This book was very entertaining because it entertwined real accounts of ghostly and spiritual happenings that are part of Tennessee's history with the beautiful storytelling of Kathryn Windham. My children love it.

This is a rich and absorbing portrait of Thomas Wolfe and the shenanigans that went on around him. Although the book is ostensibly an account of the last year of his life and the year that followed, it is in fact a broader view of the man himself, the world he came from and the world he created. Having limited knowledge of Wolfe's works ("O Lost"), I have nevertheless, after reading Mauldin's sweeping and detailed rendition of these final years, become enraptured with the character of Wolfe and the host of piquant characters that surrounded him in life. This is a delightful and entertaining read.

This book is so awesome! It is about a young owl named Kos whos mother died in an animal trap set by humans. He must survive in the world alone. Until he finds some friends. And some enemies. Read the book and find out what happens when Kos meets the rats. You have to buy this book. IT IS AWESOME!

wow i loved this book and could not put it down one well written book

A more suitable compilation than this will not be found. These three plays are arguably the essential core of the Williams canon, and certainly a great starting place for novices.

Sweey Bird of Youth is blessed with perhaps the finest epitaph ever in a modern drama, when the play's main character emanates Williams's legendary compassion with the concluding line, "all I ask is for the recognition of me in you, and time, the enemy, in us all." Shakespeare would have salivated.

Both the Rose Tattoo and Night of the Iguana exhibit Ibsen's impression upon Williams, as Williams incorporates brilliant metaphor's that wrap around both plays like knotted ribbons, but Williams's poetic language in each surpasses that of Ibsen by eons. Much in the vein of Ibsen's The Wild Duck or Chekov's The Seagull, Williams gives us a lesson in fate, freedom and human desire with his Iguana, tied to a post by a rope and struggling to escape, waiting to be killed as food, and he walks us through a world of intense nostalgia and heartbreak with the Rose Tattoo marking the chests of Serafina's lovers.

Even O'Neil, lauded by most as our finest American playwright, never quite matched the powerful language of the heart that saturates these three works of gritty, raw desire and nostalgia. Both of which, as Williams insists, take up plenty of space in the hearts of all.

William T. Shepherd was a soldier in the First Illinois Light Artillery during the Civil War. He fought in most of the early battles in the Western Theater including Fort Henry, Fort Donelson and Shiloh. Although no mention is made of college, he was quite well educated for the time and in the fall of 1862 he was made a clerk. He remained a rear area soldier for the rest of his service and survived the war.

During his time of service he wrote some 150 letters home, mostly to his mother and father, but also to other relatives. These have been carefully preserved and form the basis of this book.

His letters are unique in several ways:

First, as mentioned, he was quite well educated for the time.

Second, he served in the west. Education was much better in the eastern states, making him more unusual.

Third, he served as an enlisted man. The correspondence or memoirs of officers is much more common. But as an enlisted man he experienced the war at an entirely different level than an officer.

Finally he was a rear area soldier, especially concerned with logistics. Here is a view of supplying the army from one at a low level that again is quite rare in the literature of any war.