Virginia Books

This book started me on a long research project which ultimately lead to my MA thesis. Companies so frequently avoid dealing with employee safety and medical problems that there is a discernible pattern. Cherniak's dedication to fact-finding is inspirational. The story is spell-binding and frightening. While the Hawk's Nest issue dates back 70 years, the situation exists today - companies still disregard the needs of employees and government proteciton agencies still avoid meaningful action.

As a safety and health practioner whose strongest ultra specific technical competency is in the area of respiratory protection, I was searching for this book for several weeks. I wanted to know the particulars of how several hundred workers could die within a few months - on a jobsite - and no one go to jail for such actions. I was also seeking this book for inclusion in evidence on several matters soon being brought before this country's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The book is the perfect length, as I completed it in about five evenings. Its style is very readable and offers its reader the perfect blend of research rolled into a documentary format. Because I have devoted countless hours at the National Library of Medicine, The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, etc. I fully appreciate the hundreds - if not thousands - of hours Dr. Cherniak devoted to research. How many boxes in musty court record archives did he examine ? Read the book's bibliography and you will have some degree of understanding of his enormous effort. Better yet, track down the original (primary) sources and read these as well. The book provides an excellent analysis of the United States corporation involved in the project. For this reason alone, it is well worth reading.

This is a wonderful book, full of inspiration and love - give yourself a gift and buy this book!

I wonderful guide to opening your heart to God and seeing others as He does. I found it to be very helpful and easy to read. Don't miss this gem.

Hearthside Cooking, now in its second printing, has been an indispensible source for those of us who practice open-hearth cooking at historic sites. Not only does it offer practical advice, it provides an excellent overview of the development of Southern (the emphasis is on Virginia, of course) foods from the beginnings of English settlement here. The recipes are all from primary sources, shown as originally written, then for the fireplace, as well as for a modern kitchen. The bibliography, as well as the content of the book shows Ms. Crump's extensive research. I highly recommend it.

This book is the "bible" of open hearth cooking. Everything a beginner needs, it is also indispensable to the cooking interpreter working at a historic site.

Very, very exciting indeed. How the Saxons were christened. A translation of the oldest living proof, that the gospel came to us very early, and it was told in the language and spirit of the old warriors - great to read that Christ was the warlord and the disciples his true henchmen. Not only for the historybuffs but very readable for the not so faint at heart - but then again no christians are.

The Heliand is the modern scholar's name for an anonymous translation of the gospels into the East Saxon language, in approximately 835 AD. An earlier translation into the Gothic language, by Ulfilas, became the gospel focus of the Arian heresy, but the Heliand seems to have been a tool of missionary efforts as Charlemagne solidified his control of the German lands. No complete manuscript of the Heliand exists, but very substantial fragments have been collated from diverse archives.
This is an excellent text of the alliterative epic, with ample and useful commentaries on almost every sentence. The Heliand is worth scrutiny, not only for linguists and etymologists but also for students of early Christian history in the northern lands.

This book was of special interest to me because an ancestor of mine was captured at Limestone Station with the 100th OVI and imprisoned at Belle Isle during the time period in which Coburn wrote his diary.

J. Osborn Coburn's diary is especially well-written, and gives detailed accounts of activities at the prison camp, as well as describing the suffering that occurred in that place. By comparing my ancestor's record with Coburn's account of an exchange of 600 prisoners, I learned that my ancestor was almost certainly one of the fortunate 600.

Unfortunately, Coburn found release from his suffering only in death, but his journal somehow survived. Now it is available to us through Don Allison's book, which skillfully combines bits of narration and illustrations,with the thoughts of Coburn. There is also a good index.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Civil War prisons.

On October 18, 1863, while serving with Co. I of the 6th Michigan Cavalry in Charles Town, West Virginia, J. Osborn Coburn became a prisoner of war. A fairly large Confederate force under Brig. Gen. John Imboden attacked and captured the town that Sunday, and over 400 Union soldiers, including Coburn and 25 other enlisted men of Co. I, were marched to Belle Isle, the Southern prison camp located on the island of that name in the James River in Richmond. A lawyer from Big Rapids, Michigan, Coburn began keeping a diary of his experiences almost from the moment the men were marched south. This is that diary, and it's a powerful and saddening testament of man's cruelty to his fellow man.

Expecting to be paroled or exchanged at first, Coburn and the others were in good spirits. His early entries comment upon the beautiful fall weather, of playing cards and checkers, and only a little of the hunger they feel when rations are cut. But release from the prison doesn't come, and as winter sets in, conditions worsen dramatically. Shelter is scarce, the men are freezing; disease is more prevalent, especially diarrhea, which begins to take lives. Basic animal instincts begin to take over: bribes and barter are used to get additional rations, the sight of men dying becomes second nature. Coburn is often ill, and much of the diary tracks his condition. Before the end, shear desperation and despair set in, entries become single sentence cries: "Same as yesterday, why encumber the pages with more ..." Coburn dies on March 8, 1864, of chronic diarrhea and is buried in Richmond National Cemetery. Of the other 25 Co. I prisoners, 17 died on Belle Isle.

Interspersed with Coburn's entries, editor Don Allison has included other pertinent information regarding Coburn's history and what life was like for POWs in the Civil War. Closer to Belle Isle, he also relates some of Confederate Maj. Isaac Carrington's Nov. 1863 inspection report of Belle Isle prison where conditions are described as "comfortable," and "healthy." Something like 40,000 men died in prison camps, North and South, during the war; reading Coburn's account of his experiences puts a human touch on what might otherwise be just an appalling statistic.

"The Hidden Galleon" is a magnet that will draw readers through its wonderful historic "connect the events" content......this beautifully illustrated adventure is detailed with archival maps and drawings and pictures that brings the reader into a fascinating adventure of the last days of the Spanish warship La Galga to its final resting place in Maryland's Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.
Author John Amrhein takes the reader on his lifelong journey to prove that the wreck of La Galga in a terrible hurricane in September, 1750 included the descendants of Chincoteague Island's pony population that attracts tens of thousands of tourists yearly to Maryland.
As a native of Baltimore, Maryland and a high school US History teacher here in Virginia with 40 years of classroom experience, I found that the book was impossible to put down and a delight to read. In truth, it brought back wonderful memories of the pony pennings that I loved so much to see whenever we traveled to Maryland's eastern shore in the 1950s.

The Hidden Galleon brings the thrill of many years of treasure hunting right into your own living room and makes you want to continue reading as you participate in the progression of the hunt. The final conclusions are rewarding and exciting.

This is a great book. I just finished reading. The language used is good even for someone who doesn't speak English very well. I loved to listen to my grandpa talking about WWII. This is simply listening to other grandpas. Their lives are examples for us to follow and strengthen us by showing that mankind was able to deal with bigger problems than we have today.

History Next Door is stories of World War 2 Veterans in the Hampton Roads area. Even if your not into history, you'll definitely like it. I am only 16 years old and I read the book and really enjoyed it. It opened up my eyes and made me realize how special these war veterans really are and what they went through just for our country. They are the true heroes of America! The stories of these 18 veterans and increbible! I hope that you will go get this book. The author of the book is David Parker and he did a great job writing it. The way he described it and the words he used were really great. He got to interview and talk to these 18 veterans so he could put it all together and write the book. Go get it today!!!

Long overdue, and written by people I respect as glass scholars, this is an important volume on a serious glass shelf. As usual many attributions are expalined / illustrated with period info so we know why the authors tell us as they do. Sadly out of print but not always that hard to find yet if seeking through various sources. A major company with a pivotal role in the next generation of glass makers at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Good stuff inside this book, nicely illustrated and well organized.

I was so pleased to find this book. I have collected Hobbs glass for many years and have searched for information. Finally, this book is the only resource devoted entirely to Hobbs. The authors have included well documented facts and information about the glass and its history, along with beautiful photographs. There is a value guide if the collector is interested in pricing or selling their glass. All in all this book is essential and long overdue.

For all true oyster lovers this is a must have book. Excellent recipes and well presented.
Any one who has access to fresh oysters will find this book invaluable.

Ms. Pomo has hit the nail on the head. I've tried several recipes, they all were winners! What a suprize!

Driven by greed, a small handfull of businessmen and executives, boosting the formation of Shenandoah National Park, lied about the quality and nature of the land they proposed to include into the NPS system. Based on those lies, and in the face of much opposition that they managed to stifle, they got a Park approved by congress. Pressed to cover their tracks and eliminate all traces of the inhabitants of the mountains, they were at their wit's end to flush out all forms of civilization to prove their prior claims of primeval forests. Policy-makers, including, C. L. Wirth, professor at the University of Chicago and Miriam Sizer, social worker, met for two days at George Freeman Pollack's Skyland to decide the best course to take. They needed to justify funding to move the inhabitants off of their land, and concluded that a two-month census of such people would be conducted. Data, so-called, was collected from sites that had experienced the worst degradation so as to portray the mountain people as a sorry lot of senseless, immoral, filthy, deviant, poverty-stricken primitives. Arno Camerer instructed that ". . .the hollow folk were not to interfere with full speed ahead for the park; the conference saw them as nuisances and obstacles." [Darwin Lambert, SNP Administrative History, p. 94] The information collected supported the "SNP Evacuation and Subsistence Homesteads Survey," which former realtor, L. Ferdinand Zerkel said, "would justify a thesis or report of large booklet. . .or book length." To anyone who knows the decendants of the families who were portrayed, this book is a prime example of academia at it's worst and the reform movement at its peak; a smear campaign designed with the specific goal of eliminating all traces of the mountain heritage and its worth. Any member of any minority could relate to the tactics and massive contradictions embodied in the Hollow Folk text. Having eliminated nearly every authentic trace of this prescious heritage, the National Park Service, aided by it's own select authors, has been freed to "interpret" its version of the mountain culture, a beast that's "right different" from reality. Hollow Folk can be hailed as a sampling of the power and partnering of special interests, media, government and academia are capable of, absent an educated electorate. The same special interests in the form of foundations, associations and well-healed private partners boost the Park today, and vilify the same people in much the same, but more refined, fashion.

The rating I gave this book is for the purpose of recommending it to others and not for accuracy of content. It is definitely an interesting read and its content will really shock you -- especially if you are a decendant of one of the park's 400+ displaced families, or a frequent visitor to Shenandoah National Park.

In recent years, the Park has acknowledged the "true story" of the mountain families and their hardships surrounding the creation of the park and no longer sells the "Hollow Folk" book. This book is full of misinformation, prejudice against "mountain folk" and damaging (so called) "expert" research and opinions.

Amazon[.com] does not allow reviewers to give a book a rating in the NEGATIVE numbers on historical accuracy, so I am unable to give a number on how the mountain people were depicted in this book. However, as I feel its a must-read for anyone interested in the families of Shenandoah National Park.