Virginia Books

Baumler is an interpretive historian for the Montana Historical Society, and she brings her professional credentials and storytelling ability to create what has become a very popular book here in Montana. Baumler travels around the state, and people tell her their stories, which she takes further through historical research. The sites covered in "Spirit Tailings" include:

Virginia City: Tollhouse ruins in Meadow Valley; Boot Hill and Hillside Cemeteries; House on Cover Street; Elling House; Bonanza House and Bonanza Inn; Episcopal Church; Lightning Splitter (house); Bennett House Country Inn; Gohn House.

Nevada City (only a few miles from Virginia City): Cabin #5; Nevada City Hotel

Butte: The underground mines; Anaconda Hill; Speculator Mine/Granite Mountain shaft; Quartz Street Fire Station (now Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives); Metals Bank Building; Butte-Silver Bow County Courthouse and Jail; Forsythe house; Maury house; Dumas Hotel/Brothel; East 2nd Street house

Helena: Grassy slope near Public Library (story of John Denn); Robinson Park/Sixth Ward Old Catholic Cemetery; Mamie's Bells (Cathedral; Resurrection Cemetery; Zastrow House; Lenox Addition house; Pioneer Cabin and Reeder's Alley; 10th Avenue rowhouse; Grandstreet Theater; Tatem House; Montana Club and Rathskeller; and even Baumler's own home in Helena has had paranormal happenings!

A great collection of Montana stories, not to be missed!

Spirit Tailings recounts tales of hauntings in three of Montana's mining towns. The author, a historical researcher, has done considerable investigation into the background of the hauntings. Not content with legend, she has sought out present-day witnesses wherever possible, and also recounts her own eerie experiences in some of the buildings. Well-written and at times absolutely chilling!

A great addition to the Campaigns of the Civil War series, and proof that there is always something fresh to say about any historical subject. I especially liked the essay concerning Lee's personnel moves in the wake of The Wilderness; it's becoming increasingly politically incorrect to praise Marse Robert. Also, the essay on the fighting at the Bloody Angle is a wonderful piece of microhistory. The maps are excellent. As with the rest of the series, a must- read for the hardened Civil War student.

Gallagher hits homeruns with this wonderful series of books on the critical campaigns of the CW. Not a continuous retelling but Gallagher and company get into specifics of the campaign through separate essays that allow greater detail on controversies, personnel, mistakes, and many subjects that prior to this were limited in detail. An example is Krick the Younger's detailed essay on the little known battle of Yellow Tavern that cost Jeb Steuart his life. The other essays all offer new detail and great insight. I was particularly fascinated by Gallagher's own essay on Lee's grappling with command erosion through the loss of Longstreet, Ewell's collapse and Hill's physical erosion. Show's Lee as a great commander much like a coach that loses star players but still manages a great game. All the essays are excellent by Matter, Reardon, Blair, Rhea and Carmichael but Krick senior's feature on the Mule Shoe exhibits great detail on one of the most horrid portions of any battle of the CW involving endless hours of close up fighting in the salient. The fighting involves trench warfare, attacking and shooting from just a few feet apart, hand to hand combat, continuous rain and a continuing of a struggle with death that seemed to have no end. After you read Krick's Mule Shoe, you recognize how the war changed dramatically from Bull Run to an incredible desperate struggle of all out war. Read closely Krick senior's dig at Longstreet who was not present after being shot down in the wilderness. Krick, a legendary critic of Longstreet, cannot leave him alone even in his absence.

This is a wonderful, almost true, story about a baby whale that got separated from his pod in Puget Sound waters. It has an appealing story line and illustrations that will delight children. I bought this book for two of my grandchildren.

This is really a wonderful children's book for kids from a year old on up. My two kids regularly pick this up off the shelf, my youngest loves the beautiful watercolor artwork, my oldest loves the silly sea otters.

It's really got a great story to it as well, and although it is slightly longer than most, my kids always want me to read it the whole way through. Thank you Naomi, for writing such a wonderful story.

Seeing an old building torn down is like losing a friend to me. This books is like a family photo album of the dead and gone that you never knew but with lots of great historical information. If it's obscure St. Louise history your looking for, look no further. I am a trasplant to St. Louis and reading this book is like hooking up with a local whose in the know. Not only do you get the history and a photo of each building but you also get St. Louis' own history as well. I highly recommend it to anyone regardless of whether you have a connection to St. Louis or not. I will read and re-read this one again and again.

For native St. Louisans with a taste for history, this is a pictorial marvel. The photographs and accompanying stories of early St. Louis landmarks are fascinating. The book clearly takes the reader from the earliest days of the city, thru its glory days, and finally, to the remaining examples of those days.

For decades Diane Rademacher has diligently sought remnants from the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. She has traveled thousands of miles and interviewed hundreds of people. Rademacher sought not the collectible souvenirs from the Fair but rather relics from the Fair itself -- the buildings (or parts of buildings), the sculpture, the exhibits.

Now she shares her findings in _Still Shining: Discovering Lost Treasures from the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair_. This volume is much more than a where-they-are-now report, however. Rademacher's introduction provides excellent background information on the Fair. In addition, she tells not only where remnants are today but also how they got there. In some cases this history even precedes an item's exhibition at the Fair.

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition generated a lot of salvage. The Chicago House Wrecking Company, which was awarded the contract for the Fair's demolition, published a catalog in which a number of items were offered for sale: "one hundred million linear feet of lumber, 'enough to build outright over ten (10) cities with a population each of 5,000 inhabitants,' new steel roofing, doors, windows, sills, pipe with fittings, stoves, office equipment, and construction materials of all types. . . . Three hundred and fifty thousand incandescent lamps were offered at 16 cents if new and 6 cents if used."

Rademacher's focus, however, is on unique items: the 56-foot statue of Vulcan that stands atop Red Mountain overlooking Birmingham, Alabama; the world's largest pipe organ (now several times larger than it was at the Fair) in the Lord & Taylor department store in downtown Philadelphia; the Connecticut pavilion that is now a stately residence in Lafayette, Indiana. In all, Rademacher cites about sixty treasures in fifteen states plus the District of Columbia.

_Still Shining_ is enhanced by nearly 250 photos -- past and present, interior and exterior, panoramic and detailed. These bring the treasures to life for the reader. In addition to listing the discussed items by state, Rademacher includes an index and an extensive bibliography. Thus it is easy to find desired information.

_Still Shining_ is an excellent volume to help you celebrate the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. It is likely to inspire you to look for connections to the Fair in your own community.

If you have any interest in the St. Louis World's Fair, I highly recommend this book. The author has clearly done a tremendous amount of research. It is absolutely amazing the one-of-a-kind items she has tracked down from this amazing Fair.

As a child, any little girl who has loved her dolls has wondered what would happen if they were alive. Ms. Gates lets you know. The Live Dolls at Christmas espeacially magnifies what has been in most of our hearts when Santa left the precious baby doll we yearned for. More than any of her other accounts, I would like to find this particular one. It was in the omnibus of stories called "Live Dolls in Wonderland."

This is a magical story that is vividly written in intricate detail. My daughter is the fourth generation to listen to tales of the dolls in Cloverdale coming to life. The beautiful Doll Queen comes in a carriage pulled by kittens to let the neighborhood girls know of the wondrous news. When the dolls come to life, they are treated to a sumptious picnic, a day at the beach, and are allowed to "pick" new bonnets, parasols, and dresses from trees of doll clothing. The Doll Hospital is also visited, where broken and mistreated dolls are mended. There's an enchanting passage about life in one backyard dollhouse that will have you yearning to be a child once again. This is truly a not to be missed favorite!

In a personal, painstaking and fascinating look back at the music and those who played it, the author has captured the essence, spirit and love for music of a time gone by but whose impact is still being felt today. With the care of someone fulled with the admiration and respect of those who have gone before, Kevin Donleavy's decades-long project identifies over 1,300 players of traditional music from southern Virginia and northern North Carolina, dating from pre-1870 into the 20th century. The text is accompanied by a wealth of rare photographs which add much to the rich narrative. As stated in the introduction: "The collection of anecdotes, stories and utterances came from the musicians as they talked about themselves or about other players with whom they are or were familiar." Besides being a valuable resource for any musicologist, the book chronicles the lives and a musical tradition in danger of being lost were it not for this authoritative and heartfelt tome.

Amazon's Reading Level rating of "Young Adult" for this unusual volume is inaccurate and misleading. While "Strings" will be enjoyed by readers of all ages, it is written for an adult audience. The book explores in elaborate detail a little-known segment of American society: the unsophisticated, gentle and talented musicians of the mountain South. This unique book chronicles and helps to preserve one of the few genuine types of traditional American music through its recording of intimate conversations with these aging musicians, whose way of life and mores are rapidly disappearing under the onslaught of modern American life.

Anne M. Whisnant has written not only an analytical work with penetrating insights into the difficulties of creating recreational spaces for the public good but has managed to do it with beautiful and engaging prose. The first work on the Parkway not to get bogged down into trivial details about the construction process (as a response to Harley Jolley's work), Super-Scenic Motorway uses several vignettes to highlight how the Parkway came to be, what it was supposed to represent in the eyes of many different groups, and the difficult choices inherent in pursuing a public good. These vignettes illustrate how the Parkway was vigorously pursued by Ashevillians as a panacea for the ills of the Great Depression as well as by other groups who saw its potential for economic benefit. What is clear from Whisnant's work is just how much the Parkway was a creation of mankind -- clearly, Parkway planners had to "improve" upon the natural setting to make it live up to their ideals.

Though Parkway boosters praised the combination of conservation and economic benefit, not all people welcomed the super-scenic motorway. Displaced mountain residents, those who worked with restrictive land covenants, and those who were denied the promise of a paved road by limited access all found reason to complain about the beaucratic nightmare that was the process of building the Parkway. Whisnant is careful to show that the definition of the public good creates winners and losers and she does not privilege the Parkway's boosters over the losers, nor does she romanticize the losers as victims. The account of both sides is nuanced and insightful.

The majority of the vignettes come from the North Carolina experience, highlighting incidents involving Asheville, Little Switzerland, Grandfather Mountain, and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee. A nod to the Virginia Parkway experience looks at the politics of history and memory at the Peaks of Otter. Whether this unevenness of treatment is the result of the bounty of archival material, authorial choice, or historical circumstance (perhaps North Carolinians had more to fight over?) is not clear. The theme of public good and the choices that it defines, however, ties the vignettes together in this masterfully written work.

"Super-Scenic Motorway" tells a fascinating history of the Blue Ridge Parkway -- just one small piece of the entire history, but an important and, as the author points out, a neglected one. At the heart of the book, Ms. Whisnant tells four stories to illustrate the impact of the political process, largely (but not exclusively) at the administrative level, on land acquisitions for the Parkway route. As noted in the Epilogue, other examples could have served the purpose, but the four, the Peaks of Otter in Virginia, and Little Switzerland, Grandfather Mountain, and the Cherokee lands in North Carolina, are well chosen, exhaustively researched and documented, and "to her credit" [a phrase I just had to throw in -- you'll have to read the book to find out why], fairly told. Along the way we are also given insights into the evolution of the National Park Service and its approaches to historical interpretation. I should add that the book begins with an explanation of the parks, roads and Western N.C. tourism setting within which the Parkway came about, followed by a cursory look at the roughshod way that state government, particularly in North Carolina, and the NPS treated small landowners and small businesses when acquiring land and building the Parkway. On the other hand, if you're looking for design, engineering and construction details or information about the contributions of the CCC and other New Deal agencies, i.e., the actual work on the ground, you'll find precious little of that here.

All that having been said, bear in mind that Ms. Whisnant is a professional academic historian, not a writer of popular histories (e.g., a Stephen Ambrose). Thus, we're frequently told (every couple of pages would be an exaggeration, but it eventually feels like it) that issues of class, culture, the broader society, competing economic interests, etc., etc. played out through the political process that gave us the Parkway. Sample sentence: "The equilibrium of public needs [a concept Whisnant conveniently glosses over] and private interests, local exigencies and broad policy concerns that the often-competing constituencies involved in the project had sought to achieve in the Parkway's first twenty years were knocked askew." Apparently that kind of language is intended to give the book its academic credentials. Ms. Whisnant having gone that route (no pun intended), I only wish that the publisher had opted for convenient footnotes rather than cumbersome endnotes.

If you have the same reaction to this book I do, your appetite will be whetted to learn more about the BRP and the NPS. One tiny example: How did the "Orchard at Altapass," a treasure near Spruce Pine and Little Switzerland that is a commercial venture (though possibly organized as a non-profit) of the roadside-tourist variety that the NPS apparently despised, end up directly on the Parkway?

[A disclosure of my particular interest. I've been a North Carolina resident for more than 40 years, and have made substantial personal use of the Parkway and its facilities. For the last 6 years I've lived within a couple miles of the Parkway, which is now my shortest route to the Wal-Mart in Spruce Pine, N.C. Again, you'll have to read the book to find out why this final fact is significant.]

An interesting book of letters written by Lieutenant Theodore Laidley during the historic Mexican War.

"'Surrounded by Dangers of All Kinds': The Mexican War Letters of Lieutenant Theodore Laidley" is edited, with extensive commentary, by James M. McCaffrey. The book is Number 6 in the War and the Southwest Series. Spanning the years 1845 to 1848, these letters tell of Laidley's journey through Mexico as an ordnance officer in the U.S. Army. These letters combine with McCaffrey's illuminating commentary to tell a fascinating story.

Laidley and McCaffrey cover many topics: concern about disease, battlefield medicine, the impact of guerilla activity on the U.S. campaign, the importance of mail to the troops, the challenge in getting volunteer troops to reenlist, cultural sensitivity issues involving U.S. troop contact with Mexican civilians, and conflict among senior U.S. military officers. Laidley describes the reality of 19th century combat; he notes that "the horrors of war one can not understand until you have seen it." Particularly interesting are Laidley's observations on the Mexican land and people; he writes about climate, religion, architecture, agriculture, food, and language.

One thing I found quite striking about the book was how relevant many of McCaffrey's and Laidley's topics are to the U.S. operations that are going on in Iraq and Afghanistan at the time I write this review. Laidley's observations are full of interesting details. His voice is at times quite feisty, and his style is consistently very readable. Overall, this book offers a remarkable look at the U.S.-Mexican War.

Albert Jay Nock was a profound champion of the classical Liberal Arts education which served Western Christendom for centuries. Such "education," as distinct from "training," is for a very small select elite, and runs counter to conventional educational dogma, from John Dewey to No Child Left Behind, where egalitarian ideology masks as pedagogy.

Highly recommended!

In this book, Nock discusses in full length his theory of education in general, and the state of education in the United States in particular. Nock's main objectives are to delineate the differences between education and training and to describe what constitutes true education in his view.

The best review of the book can be found in the introduction, written by his son Francis.
To summarize, Nock's main flaws are his lack of scientific education (he would refer to it as scientific training), and more important, his lack of understanding of the importance of science in societal evolution and progress. It is sad to read a true man of letters like Nock regarding science and technology as unrelated to education.

Nonetheless, Nock's main observation is correct: being a great scientist, physician, or inventor does not preclude one from being an uneducated brute when it comes to the philosophical aspects of life. If you are a member of academia, just look around you and see the veracity of Nock's claims: how many ingenious professors, scientists, researchers, doctors and engineers do you know who are ignoramus nincompoops when it comes to history, philosophy, economics, and political theory?

Despite its flaws, this book is a must read for every person wishing to become truly educated.
As a companion to this book, I recommend Nock's great essays "The disadvantages of being educated" and "The value of useless knowledge".