Louisiana Books

This is a very nice guide to plants of a specific region of Louisiana. If you live in the state, it is great guide to have to identify all the local plants. Easy to read, great drawings, but it is out of print.

"No act of kindness goes unpunished" might be an alternative title for this explosive and meticulously researched book. It is a fast-paced indictment of the festering Bubba subculture in southeastern Louisiana, a subculture engulfed in ignorance, seething hatred and extreme violence.

In the midst of one such backwoods garden of evil lived a woman who was virtually a paragon of goodness, Jane Nora Guillory, affectionately known as Genore. She was a professional woman of color with comfortable means who worked for a local insurance office. A loving and generous woman, Genore took into her heart and her care some thirty forgotten dogs, kenneling them along with the horses that she owned. She distinguished herself by many selfless acts, such as providing money and work for white neighbors who were struggling financially.

It was all the more shocking that this lovely forty-two-year-old woman would be raped and murdered in an act of unthinkable cruelty. But who would do such a thing and why? The community was unprepared for the answer.

Hustmyre, a writer with 22 years in law enforcement and retired federal agent, deftly takes the reader through the intimate twists and turns of the investigation. The reader can easily feel the frustrations of a dedicated sheriff's department that had solved the unsolvable, only to find that the DA that wanted to dismiss charges against the white supremacists responsible for her death.

This book of poems about the people caught up in the Salem witch trials in the 1690s has an important and innovative technique: it weaves together poetry, historical research, the voices of people from the past, and the voice of the poet in the present doing the research. It would be great to see more poets following Cooley's lead here, and it's a way in which these poems could be significantly influential if they get a wide enough audience. It's a logical extension of New Historicism, the new belle lettre movement, and Cultural Studies. If we're going to acknowledge the subjective and language-based roots of history, then going all the way down that road leads to the kind of poetry Cooley is writing here. It's infinitely more positive, and responsible, then taking that same road into the dead end of apathy or agnosticism about history.

The good thing is that Cooley keeps her history solid. She did your homework, she cites her sources, and she isn't distorting the "facts" to suit her rhetorical ends. These are all things that poets have a bad reputation for when they take on history, even for a moment--see Keats' "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer," when everyone just shrugs off the sloppy use of Cortez in the name of "poetic license." Cooley seems to be undertaking a whole new way of approaching "poetic license," redeeming it and moving it forward in a way that is perfectly in tune with her moment in literary history. Having the poems themselves be so moving and well crafted is icing on the cake.

I read the book through in one sitting, and it let me see the way she strikes a nice balance between recurring images, motifs, etc., and finding something new to say and do in each poem. I liked the way Cooley uses the language of the historical figures in a musical and impressionistic way--I know it must have been difficult to provide enough of their voices to convey character and period flavor without letting it crowd out her own voice. Cooley works the two voices together well to let them modulate with one another without being overly theatrical or artificial about it. The mark of a pro.

Cooley makes the wise decision NOT to make her central focus a study of motive: why the first four girls started the lying and why others joined in. This has already been done so many times by other writers taking on the Salem witch trials, most famously of course in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible." It was a much better call to investigate what the actions of all parties came to mean within a context of femininity, religion, self-sacrifice, truth & fiction, mystery and history, etc. These aspects of historical investigation make the vehicle of poetry an asset, even a necessity, and not just a clever add-on. It also, importantly, makes it seem like the poetry is there to serve the cause of these misunderstood women, rather than the poet coming across as a creative writer trespassing on the intimate past of these people for her own personal profit or convenience (as in so much bad historical fiction). This is especially strong in "The Waste Book" (the conclusion of which is my favorite pair of lines in the volume).

I had several favorites in this collection--probably "The Salem Witch Trials Memorial" has all of the things I like best all together. The structure works brilliantly to capture the way the mind and the eye work together in a setting like that, and emotionally the interruptions of the names and phrases continually shadows and emphasizes the poet's own (and the reader's) thoughts. The final line is genuinely chilling and appeals to both heart and head in a way that encapsulates the project of the entire collection for me. "Testimony: the Parris House" is another one that sticks to the ribs. So does "Publick Fast"--image, structure, and character all come together well here, and this one is I think best illustrates Cooley's fine musical ear.

I was moved and stimulated by what is written here. Cooley sees both wide and deep, and her writing is simultaneously (not alternately) clear and suggestive.

Amelia makes the area come alive again through this book. She provides the balance needed in local history for African-Americans -- and respects the traditions which may soon be forgotten memories of past lives.

Her work focuses on two important parts of local history - the traditions in families living in Mars Bluff -- and the search for why tales of rice growing lives on in an area more than 150 miles from the "Low Country" and rice plantations of the old South Carolina. Both concepts are treated with respect while holding a scholarly approach to local history.

Amelia's work is something that may not be the same "fare" as Edward Ball's "Slaves in the Family" -- but its contribution to A-A genealogy, local history and preservation of oral traditions is extremely important. It is the foreword to any history of the Pee Dee area of South Carolina -- and should be treasured as a rare insight on the real lives of real people -- and the years that follow Reconstruction.

Joseph E. Harris' best selling book "African-American Reaction to War in Ethiopia 1936-1941" prevail vividly the historical facts and the African-Americans and other Africans reactions. Mr. Harris dedicated his research to bring the strong relationship between Ethiopians and African Americans. You will read more in detail about the aggressive movement of the African-American to defend Ethiopia from Italians' fascism in the following manner: the African-Americans wrote a letter to the city mayor all the way to President Roosevelt. They boycotted the Italian own business and demonstrated on the America streets against Italian. They enlisted to go to Ethiopia to fight the war beside their Ethiopians brother and sisters.

I'm going to take the direct quote from the book to show the deepness of the relationship and its highest pick during mid 1930's as one of the African-American statement.

"...a tendency to avoid the label of Negro in favor of Ethiopian. One black American said, "I do not want to be called Negro, colored, or [n-word]. Either term is an insult to me or you. Our rightful name is Ethiopian." (P. 7)

African Americans was significantly enlisted in different cities in America to go to Ethiopia to fight the Fascist Italians. The American State Department issued a statement based on the legislation:

..."American citizen shall be deemed to have expatriated himself when he had been naturalized in any foreign state in conformity with its laws."

The African Americans viewpoint to the American State Department as Orhardo Andrews, of New York City, stated.

"First the Africans who are residing here and all the West did not come here voluntarily, but by an act of kidnapping which today is punishable in the United States by death...As for loosing our citizenship of this country, we don't give a nick about that. This citizenship is of no value to us.... If you country can not protect us when we are citizens and living here, why should we worry about it?" (P. 41)

In the same book you would learn about Ethiopians who were resided in American. Dr. Melaku Bayen was one of prominent among the many Ethiopians who worked with African American in New York City. He was also the editor and the father of "ETHIOPIAN REVIEW" magazine as far back as in the early 1930. You can request the copy of the magazine form American Congress Library. The magazine encompassed all the black people in the globe. It was rich with Pan-Africanism ideology.

I found it diligently researched book to learn the oldest relationship between Ethiopian and African-Americans. I recommend for anyone who would like to learn the magnitude support Ethiopia received during 1935 to 1941 mainly from our African American brothers and sisters.

I'm certain the book will also shed some light about European unfounded characterization of Ethiopians to justify and qualify their dark history against humanity.

A glorious pictorial; educational, beautiful and totally fun! Cookbook collectors, it's a definite. Even if one never prepared a dish (say not!) it is a beautiful object.

A wonderful travel book with pithy insights into a very volatile part of the world. Franc and Jean Schor travel through China after WWII on their honeymoon when Jean gets the idea to follow the route of Marco Polo after reading his account. After much planning with the National Geographic and cajoling of governments to issue the necessary visas they embark on an adventurous trip through much of South West Asia.

The more interesting accounts are of their meeting and befriending the Shah of Iran. They come to spend quite some time with him and his family. He even flies them himself in his converted B-17 over the "hot Desert" of Iran. They come away seeing the Shah as an enlightened leader who will modernize the country. Just to show you what a small world it is they meet Chief Justice William O'Douglas, at a dinner party in Iran. He seems to have spent allot of his spare time exploring in that part of the world as a hobby. At the dinner party he says, "I would much rather set precedent than follow precedent." In Afghanistan they get to meet King Mohammed Zahir, (who is 93 and presently in exile in Italy), by using a letter of introduction given them from the Shah of Iran. King Zahir grants them permission to travel through the Wakhan corridor, a very dangerous desolate area bordering China. They are the first "westerners" to travel this part of Afghanistan and write about it since the 19th century. The descriptions of abject poverty and their dealings with "duplicitous" Afghans still rings true today by all accounts we see in the news.

This is an enjoyable book describing the people and treacherous terrain of South West Asia. It will give you good understanding for what we are up against in this part of the world. Franc and Jean Schor were intrepid world travelers who did many stories for National Geographic.

This eye witness account delivers a great true story. The main theme of the book is doing underground operations while having constant above board dealings with the enemy. The writing style is very readable, although I got lost a little when references were made to various towns.

It starts with Andre being in manufacturing in support of the war effort, and a description of the German invasion as seen locally. There was a German anti-aircraft installation near where he lived which shot down several Allied planes throughout the war. Andre gets involved with the Underground when he decides to harbor some evading airmen. This involvement was not thrust upon him, he seeked it out. As his activities became known to people in the area, many of whom were sympathetic to the Allies, he became more involved with harboring downed airmen. He also became involved with the Passive Defense, an above ground French organization that did what they could to fight fires, discourage French and German looters, etc. While patrolling the town for the Passive Defense, they would simultaneously participate in Resistance functions like putting nails on the road at night to sabotage German vehicles and removing the nails in the morning. The looting and sabotage intensified during the chaos of the Allied Normandy invasion. The most violent thing he did in the book was to set a German truck on fire. I get the feeling that Andre may have participated in some violent acts but did not include them in the book.

In 1944 he was fingered by informers and arrested by the Gestapo, who beat him up very badly. The Gestapo gathered up other suspected Resistance members, and sent them together to the Buchenwald concentration camp. He and another prisoner were able to escape during a bomb raid while being transfered to another camp, and after a couple of weeks made contact with the Allied front.

I wish there had been more follow up on what became of the participants in the book after the war, and especially what became of the informants and collaborators. Maybe a later edition could add an appendix dealing with this.

For those looking for the history of Algiers (that town on the Westbank of the Mississippi across from New Orleans) this book takes a peek at the past and not so past. This the 3rd of Mr. Dixon's books was completed by his family after his death which probably means that no more books on this subject will come to print. If it weren't for Remy Dixon most of these stories would have been lost. If this book is still available and you have even a mild couriosity about this "part of New Orleans apart from New Orleans" then buy it, read it, and pass it down to your kids.

In this illuminating study, Herman Lebovics offers a provacative and original interpretation of the origins of the conservative stability of the Third Republic in France, using the Great Depression of the late nineteenth century as his focus. According to Lebovics, the new conservative republican order created by the Opportunist politicians and their formally monarchist allies was first made possible by the confluence of narrow economic interests forced upon the bourgeois industrialists and the agrigarian notables by foreign competition, depressed prices, and the beginnings of modern social conflict.

A sense of common economic needs and problems, Lebovics argues, facilitated collaboration among the elites for the passage of protective tarifs such as the Meline tariff of 1892. This sociopolitical alliance, which formed a bedrock of support for a new conservatism, was also forged to deal with the growing discontent of peasants and urban workers.

While the industrialists created a powerful organization to fight for the needs of National Labor, the growers worked to dispel the dissident groups in their provinces. The Ralliement and the development of the colonial empire provided further opportunities for mutually beneficial alliances among the elites. The new ruling stratum completed its work in the ministry of social pacification of Jules Meline between 1896 and 1898.

Lebovics employs a method that unites the social history with the study of socio-economic and political influences. This approach clarifies the pivotal early decades of the new French republic and makes possible a synthetic understanding of the ways a modern French upper class created itself, not in vacuo, but rather in relation to the contending and cooperating forces at that historical conjuncture.
--- from book's dustjacket