North Carolina Books

Any of Roy's books are awesome for woodworkers who know how to read. Oh sure, you love Norm and his $8000 drum sander, but if you truly want to learn how to work with wood with nothing more than the bare essentials, then pick up this book as well as all the other books Roy has written. Otherwise, just buy all the garbage books about "How to Master a Biscuit Joiner" or "Setting up a Leigh Dovetail Jig". Just make sure you add a box of 80 grit sandpaper for your random orbital sander to your order.

I bought this book for my husband for Christmas, as he loves this show and the shows are not out on DVD yet. He loves the book and can't put it down. He advised it is very easy to read and understand.

It's amazing how many books Rod Underhill has written. Woodcarving! Internet business! Music! He seems to be today's version of Issac Asimov, tackling books on every known subject. All of his books, especially this one, are very well written. Maybe he should stop writing books with his brother Roy, and move out on his own.

I first saw Roy Underhill on a local PBS station back in the early 1980s. Instantly, I knew that this was the kind of woodworking for me. Screaming routers, finger-chopping table saws and jointers, and multi-horsepower lathes seemed not just dangerous but downright obsolete after witnessing Roy's talents. Honestly, who needs modern woodworking technology when the old methods are clearly better in so many ways? Better for your health and the health of your bank account, and better for the environment. Roy's wonderful series of woodworking books tell you everything you need to get started. They will positively change your woodworking, and your life. Thanks to Roy's books, and others, like Dunbar's _Restoring, Tuning & Using Classic Woodworking Tools_, power tool woodworkers look at my woodworking projects in awe... those amazing and elegant hand-cut dovetails, those silky-smooth hand-planed surfaces, those sweet touches that set my work apart as obviously hand-made. Once you've mastered hand-tool woodworking, you see that the products of woodworking machines stand out as brutal and clumsy. Guys, do not hesitate to purchase the entire series of Roy's woodworking books!

This is one of the finest things ever written! I sincerely hope that a copy of this book lives on the shelf of everyone who has a love for tools and wood and what happens when the two come together. Underhill gives us a look into the world of real hand tool woodworking - no electricity, please. "Start with an axe and a tree and make first one thing and then another until you have a house and everything in it." It can be (almost) that simple, but you have to restore a fractured culture first, and also learn to speak the language of trees and wood and steel. This book will accomplish both those aims.

Underhill, former Master Housewright at Colonial Williamsburg, did the amazing hat trick of turning something as offbeat and esoteric as pre-industrial woodworking into a highly successful career, and became a beloved personality and celebrity in the process. When you read his books, you'll know how he did it. Instantly, you get the sense that his deep affection for his trade, and the trades that support it, illuminates his life. He "sees" things, he doesn't just look. Like ripples in a stream allude to rocks below the surface, he looks at the bark of a tree and understands what lies within - twisted firewood or beautiful furniture? Dissecting an old piece of furniture or part of a house tells you about the tools that made it, and the men who used the tools, and the community they lived in, and what their lives were like. But all of this could be ponderous and self absorbed if it weren't infused front to back with an infectious sense of humor and a Tom Sawyer/Peter Pan view of the world, where if we're lucky we'll all get to run away and be pirates together.

Poetic, lyrical, sad, happy, this book has it all. A true classic from an amazingly talented person. Maybe the 60's hippy culture did ONE thing right - it gave us Roy Underhill, boy genius, and set him loose upon a (hopefully) grateful world. His books, and the first two particularly, make a perfect gift for that tired, world weary person in your life who is thinking that there is something missing in his or her work, that their long days are filled with meaningless seeking, and who might like to turn their hands to something slower, calmer, more beautiful, and decidedly valuable for a change.

Great novel. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the Civil war, American History.

Winner of 1997 Cader Cox Historical Fiction Award by the North Carolina Society of Historians

This book is a generous gift to anyone interested in not only the facts of the Civil War, but also how it was lived by those engaged in it. It depicts desperate battles that, though they may be listed as "skirmishes", were nothing less than horrific fights for survival for the participants. At the same time, it puts the reader in the trenches around Petersburg, fighting rain, sun, disease, mud, sharpshooters and monotony. This is not just good history, its a great read.

Picked this one up through a friend, much better than Frazier's "Cold Mountain". Must-have for any Civil War buff.

This book will live. it is a work that transcends history or fiction. a book to treasure forever, it takes the reader into the American Civil War as no other has. I recommend it highly

Like another reviewer, I've had a copy of this book since the 80s. As a kid, I practically memorized this book, and I still think it's finest field guide I own. This book coverage of the most common species is quite thorough. The style and presentation are also excellent, so aspiring field guide writers should take notice.

I am the Grand daughter of Bernard Martof!!!! I have liiked a the book. It has beautiful photographs. Great facts too!! If you need a reptile question answered you should look at this book!!! If I ever do a reptile study I think I will look in this book. I like the frog on the cover too!

Excellent book! It's a little more detailed that a typical field guide but what I like most about it is that its specific to our area. So, while I have a larger field guide (for the region) I also really love having this one because it's more focused. In the beginning of the book there's an introduction to habitat with great pictures showing what the habitats look like. The book then goes into the specific species - I was particularly interested in the salamanders and amphibians but the sections on snakes, turtles and lizards are super too. The pictures are great, descriptions cover approx. size, colors/patterns, species that they could be confused with, habitats, and egg laying (timing, incubation etc). Great book to have on hand.

I've had and used this book since it came out in 1980. I always recommend it to all of the classes and seminars I give on reptiles and amphibians and to all of the people who ask for a good field guide because, for the size and cost, there are none better for this part of the country. Well worth the money if a handy, accurate, well-done field guide with great photos and range maps is what you want.

I love this book. We see a snake in the woods, and take note of as many characteristics as we can, then look it up later to learn more about it. Same with frogs, toads, lizards, skinks! The actual information provided for each reptile is slim but very interesting. This is a great book to have if you spend any time in the wild in Virginia.

item was delivered promptly and in good condition..I was very satisfied with my purchase and would recommend this user to anyone!

HI MY NAME IS MICHAEL i WANT TO BY THIS BOOK BUT PLEASE GIVE ME A REPORT ABOUT THIS BOOK michaelwsaad@yahoo.com

Annemarie Schimmel's work is well known to the world of religion,and this book is no exception. This book gets into the details of the Life of the Prophet Muhammed and the love and respect the followers of ISLAM have for their Prophet. Obvisouly this book was not a biography of the Prophet Muhammad but it gives enough information, so one can understand the Importance of Prophet Muhammad in th eislamic world

Professor Schimmel, a German scholar of Islam here presents what could be called a 'traditional view of Muhammad' by that I mean how Muhammad is understood by the vast majority of his followers (i.e. Muslims) how they base their lives on him and how they take inspiration from him.

The professor goes through various traditional religious prayer manuals popular amongst Muslims such as the Mevlid of Sulayman Celebi, the Burda, the Dala'il al-Khayrat and others explaining how they are read by Muslims, the times of year that they are read (such as special occasions like the Prophets birthday etc) and the reasons why they inspire such devotion amongst Muslims to their prophet.

One negative point is that this book (as most of the professors) is largely based upon writings from the Indian subcontinent and Turkey. Practically nothing is included about for example, West Africa or the Sub Sahara which ignores the strong Sufi traditions of the Tijani, Qadiri and Darqarwi orders and their vast body of devotional literature.

The most important aspect of this book I feel is that it gives us in the west a greater understanding of the reasons behind the great attachment that Muslims have to the founder of their religion and also how they actually interpret and practice their religion something I feel that we would not be able to take from for example the various Saudi/Gulf publications that have flooded the market in recent years which tell us an awful lot about what Muslims believe but not how that belief is actually put into practice in the context of the world around them.

Highly recommended book. I would also strongly recommend Mystical dimensions in Islam from the same author.

Annemarie Schimmel has studied Islam for years, writing many important books particularly on the subject of Islamic spirituality. The aim of this book is to explore the love for the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in Islamic society. With samples of poetry and prose in praise of the Prophet, it captures some of the affection Muslims have for the man they revere as the "Mercy to Mankind." Although some biographical details appear, the book is not a biography per se. Instead the book represents a historical analysis of Prophet Muhammad's unique place in the life of his followers.

I, too, read this in the 1980s and still love it...I re-read it periodically and it still makes me laugh and grin. I marvel at how a simple Wildfire romance paperback has stuck with me all these years, timeless and well-written and so funny! Marnie's teen sensibility is intelligent and rings true as it evolves from self-absorption to responsible, even inspirational, maturity. One scene of enviable closeness between mother and daughter is particularly sweet, and all that she learns about self-sustaining farming is told with witty candor. A treasure!

I read "An April Love Story" when I was about sixteen (1986), and I loved it. It is a teenage romance novel, but it's clean and a sweet story. Marine is a high school girl who lives with her parents in (if I remember correctly) New York City. She loves her life and her friends. Her parents' best friends have a son, Lucas, who goes to school with Marine, but she keeps her distance. He's kind of quiet and serious and pimply. Anyway, one day she comes home to discover that her parents and her parents' friends (Lucas's parents) have decided that all of them are going to move to a farm in North Carolina and "live off the land" together. They use no electricity, no indoor plumbing, no store bought convenience foods. They wear no make-up and sew all their own clothes. The parents love their new life while the two kids silently hate it but endure it since their parents are so giddy. Eventually, Marine starts to see Lucas through different eyes. He becomes tan and muscular from all the outdoor labor, and his skin clears up. Marine has a girlfriend who thinks he's good-looking. Marine starts acting differently around him, and soon they fall in love. Anyway, it's a wholesome, sweet story clean enough for your teenage daughter to read.

I first read this book over 20 years ago, and loved it. I read it again about 15 years ago and still loved it. Now at age 57 I am reading it again, and still love it, so if you have ever thought about living the Mother Earth News way read this

I was feeling nostalgic, thinking of my favorite teenage paperback, which i lost and had wished i had been able to find, and read again (even tho i have read it probably 30 times), when i got the bright idead to search here! I will be buying it, and just to let anyone who stumbles across the page know, its a GREAT book for a young teenage girl!

Marine MacDonald is in love with Joel, the all-American jock at her school and everything seems perfect in life when-BHAM! Her parents break the news to her that they're moving. And it isn't just Marine's family that is moving with her-her parents' friends and their annoying son Lucas, whom Marine despises, are moving with the MacDonalds. Could life get any worse? Apprently so, because the farm in North Carolina is to be shared by both familes, and in an attempt to simplify life and get back to nature, (in a sort of Amish-Commune way) there will be no telephones, electricty or grocery shopping. No more make up, fast food, or after school activities either. In fact school takes a back seat to helping her parents on the farm since milking goats, picking apples and making sweaters is the only way the families want to earn money.

Suddenly, things start to change for Marine; Lucas doesn't look so annoying anymore and life isn't as dismal as it once seemed. Marine starts to fall in love with him. The only problem? Lucas doesn't realize she even likes him!

A romance through and through, this is one of Cooney's first books for teenagers and a wonderful read on a rainy day.

Thank you for providing such great service. You followed through on your end of the deal perfectly.

This thoroughly researched and well-written book held special meaning for me, one of the last generation from the segregated South who entered a movie theater through the "colored" entrance and sat in the balcony, and who spent four years at Duke U. during the early '70's. The presence of the Klan in my small North Carolina town was always known but hidden, and this book provided insight into why poor whites find membership in the Klan and its philosophies so attractive and how the white elite was secretly complicit in its support of the Klan. This book introduced me to Hayti, the section of Durham where low-income African-Americans live. Despite my four years at Duke, I'd never heard of this neighborhood, and the story of Hayti resident Ann Atwater's activism to improve conditions for poor blacks and whites in Durham is amazing. Duke U. is a very insular campus, and town-gown relations between the school and Durham have historically been tense. I'm very glad that this book exists for incoming freshmen to read; to spend four years on a campus and have no knowledge of the town surrounding the campus (as I did not have) is shameful.
A very valuable insight in this book is the author's understanding of the strange dynamics of class, which exists throughout the South but is seldom mentioned. Blaming African-Americans for their economic woes, and receiving secret support from the white elite, has historically distracted poor whites from the reality that it is this white elite, with its power and money, that keeps poor whites economically down-trodden.
Although I was in Durham slightly later than the years during which the events of the book take place, I had some familiarity with many of the key players (Howard Fuller, Floyd McKissick, Asa Spaulding), and the book exhaustively discusses the roles of everyone involved in this tumultuous time in Durham. It reads like riveting fiction, and the evolution of the relationship between C.P. Ellis and Ann Atwater is a wonderful story.

As someone who works for parity in this society, I look for materials that show clearly that poor white people have more in common with blacks and other ethnic/racial peoples than they do with the power structure that oppresses us all. This book clearly and beautifully illustrates that point.

It has always mystified me that more poor "white" men, in particularly, fail to see this. Every young white man who blames blacks for his inability to get a decent job, the meagerness of his life, or whatever, should read this book. Every petty racist should read the story of C.P. Ellis and Ann Atwater and learn something about the real problems, not the cheap shot racist answers that many of us come to too readily in this society.

I've purchased five copies for myself and friends. A great book to give that relative, co-worker or acquaintance who persists in making racist comments and blaming blacks for the problems in this society.

This book has been out of print for some time, but thankfully the University of North Carolina Press has resurrected it. Duke University's incoming Freshman class has been assigned to read this book as their compulsory summer reading assignment. The Class of 2011 will then discuss this book during Freshman Orientation Week. The selection of this book as the summer reading assignment is timely with the upheavals in Durham and at Duke during the so called "Duke Lacrosse Scandal."

It is interesting to note that Durham held on to Jim Crow laws and was very slow to integrate public schools compared with some high profile Southern cities. When forced to comply with court-ordered integration, the school district took the unusual step of pairing a long-time black activist and a ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan to lead a committee whose purpose it was to deal with the issues surrounding integration. It seems like this would be a disaster, but surprisingly it was far from it.

I should note that this is not some dry recitation of the past. The story reads much more like a novel. I couldn't put in down and found myself quite moved by the story.

This is a truly poignant book that demonstrates how much we have in common with people of other races, creeds or colors and how, by finding common ground, we can move ahead in our society. There are lessons here for us in the new millennium.

For those interested in an excellent book dealing with similar issues, I recommend Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story

An extraordinary book, not for its writing or ideas, but for the *very idea of it!* How could this have happened, and how could the book tell the story like this??? As a feminist I'm challenging the assumptions of white males who think they are in touch with African Americans, or with feminism. As a white Woman, I feel for the experiences of Black Women, and am sickened by the way white males mostly just don't get it. This is such a strange book you will be blinking hard for sometime afterward.

As a genealogist, I have a particular interest in these types of publications. Guillermo Baralt has collected priceless information on Puerto Rican history.

I have a lot invested in this book as my mom's family comes from hacienda life and are from this area of the island. It helped me flesh out a better picture of my ancestral movements. For my mom and aunts, reading this book was like reading a diary. This was their life experience. Thanks so much for translating this. It can be enjoyed by any serious historian of the Caribbean.

Historically, factual, fascinating, a wealth of information culturally, and a must read (required) for all Puerto Ricans, Newyoricans, and ANYONE interested in the history of the founding fathers of the New World!...I found this book, while researching the archives online at the New York Historical Society's Library. But, it only showed the original, which was written in Spanish. The history and clarity of the subject matter contained in this book is long overdue, and covered the subject spectrum 100%!


After speaking with my brother, whose first visit to Puerto Rico (at a ripe old age of 49), included a visit to 'Plantation Buena Vista,' he told me about the rich history that he saw there, and that he was totally fascinated by it! I again, researched this book online at [...], and saw, that it was redone in English, so that, I could read it!

If I were asked to contribute anything to this book, I would just say, that I would have liked it to be broader to include more chapters! Perhaps, a sequel to this book can be written! Or, maybe even, it should be made into a TV Series...muchas, Alex Haley's TV miniseries, "ROOTS!"

The ongoing saga of the Buena Vista Plantation, rich cultural history of the Vives Family and Puerto Rico after the turn of the century, is equally, and, even more, compelling a story!

Thank you Amazon for providing this book, as it filled in the facts that not being able to read comprehensively in Spanish has cost!

I received this book on Saturday and finished it Sunday . An excellent, detailed account on life in a Puerto Rican Hacienda. Wonderful illustrations of people of the time and details of sophisticated equipment used in those time. A true picture of how life was then. My grandfather was a farmer and worked on a plantation so this gives light to some of the stories he told me about. An excellent books for anyone that wants to know about their roots and is especially interested in the Ponce area although this was probably typical of all plantations. A must read!!!

If your really into history Colonial days you should really put your hands on this one. It takes you on a drive full of feeling to that era. Im Italian and it made me recall my grandparents village in Palermo... I give Gullermo A. Baralt an A+

(From Planeta journal): This new English-language translation of an established Caribbean classic traces the history of the Buena Vista estate in the foothills of Puerto Rico's central mountain range. Now a living history museum, Buena Vista gained its initial success producing food for the town of Ponce, proving that raising crops for local consumption could be as profitable as sugar or coffee for export. The text spans almost a century -- a time in which slavery ended and technology expanded at a phenomenal rate. This is an exceptional book, one that any visitor to Puerto Rico should read before making an obligatory visit to the island's Living Museum of Art and Science.

In meticulously chronicling US/German relations before the Great War, Mitchell has managed to reveal that there never was any German designs on the Americas, and that she was used as a bogeyman and cover for US imperialism under the guise of the Monroe Doctrine. She also exposes the innate anti German bias of the Fifth Estate, as well as the perfidy and treachery of the British in sowing/fanning the flames of US hatred for Germany, while appeasing the US by bending over backwards, in Venezuela, Mexico and Panama

Actually what was most interesting was the last pages when Mitchell cursorilly mentioned the blatant land grabs, occupations and annexations in Carribean and South America in 1915 and thereafter by that hypocritical, amoral imperialist, Wilson once the Euroepean Powers were heavily engaged in mortal combat, all under the name of protecting freedom, democracy and human rights (sound familiar?).

Prof. Mitchell has written a very good, well-paced and well-argued treatise on a particular situation (German-American relations vis-a-vis Latin America at the turn of the last century), that is relevant to broader, more current issues. American exceptionalism has always required demonization of a perceived villain or adversary, the Devil if you will, in order to mask our neo-imperialist ambitions. As Mitchell argues in her concluding chapter, Imperial Germany and its bombastic monarch made convenient demons to suit the ambitions or moods of particular institutions, such as the Navy or the yellow press, and even Woodrow Wilson conjured up the Teutonic bogeyman when it suited him.
In reality, the central theme of her book is of inconsequential historical significance, since the German dog had no bite to support its shrill bark (as one German wag deftly remarked.)There simply never was any credible German threat to American security or even the ambiguous Monroe Doctrine to worry about. But what is more relevant today is how perception can be manipulated to justify imperialism in the guise of some nobler ideal. If you need any modern evidence of this proclivity of ambitious politicians, look at the Iraqi Tar Baby and the President that's struggling to break free of it today.
This book is a must-read for any serious student of international relations, especially of the tense situation prior to WW One.

This is a splendid book. It is extremely well researched, yet it reads like a novel, because the author writes so well. It illuminates US-German relations in the 1890-1914 period, as well as US and German policies toward Latin America in those years, providing a subtle and nuanced interpretation that is based on an impressive amount of evidence culled from the US, British and German archives. And, again, it combines the rigor of a superb historian with the grace of a first-class novelist.

A superb read. If I were a dog, I would be salivating.

I re-read this book recently, which allowed me to place it on my list of books worthy of review. To begin, Dr. Nancy Mitchell is an outstanding professor. Having sat in her classroom several years ago as a graduate student, I can now look back and add that she is one of the best teachers I've ever had.

The Danger of Dreams is exceptional because it is timeless. In the early twentieth-century, there was a political game being played between the US and Germany; but, as Dr. Mitchell clearly demonstrates through careful research, "the uncertainty of it all, of perception and reality," allowed policy makers to distort and twist perception until it could become reality. In this case, it was the dreams of a kaiser versus the ambition and intent of a rising power.

As a history book, Mitchell stepped to the plate and knocked the ball out of the park. She writes like she teaches (grabbing your attention and pulling you in), using such a wide range of sources that any student of history will be both envious and enlightened. As a careful analysis of diplomacy and policy making, she has added a great volume to the shelves of political scientists as well. For those who read purely for pleasure, here too she rounds the bases because this book is a great story and it is exceptionally told.

In the games that nations play, "perhaps there is a constant ratio of power to sense of threat," and perhaps there are some powerful and very modern lessons here. Perception is reality, isn't it?

Major Allen C. Boothby, Jr.
Infantry Officer
US Marine Corps

This is a splendid book. It is extremely well researched, yet it reads like a novel, because the author writes so well. It illuminates US-German relations in the 1890-1914 period, as well as US and German policies toward Latin America in those years, providing a subtle and nuanced interpretation that is based on an impressive amount of evidence culled from the US, British and German archives. And, again, it combines the rigor of a superb historian with the grace of a first-class novelist.

This is an excellent book, a long awaited and much needed factual account of a group of courageous men whose activism had major impact on the movement. Hill has produced a wealth of documentation to prove the history he has brought to the fore.
This account does tribute to those brave and unsung (heretofore)
heroes who refused to further degrade themselves and thier communities by turning the other cheek! Must reading.

This book kept me up reading all night. I had in the past heard that their had been a group that pre dated The Black Panther Party, and were operating in the deep south. However there was not much information on this clandestine group. Well there is now. This is the book. My chest burst with pride as the tears fell down my cheeks. If you read nothing else this year please read this book if you want to know what our people were really doing during the "movement". The media had been lying to us about our role in our own history! This book is about us!

excellent coverage of a little-known but very important part of the civil rights movement. if you're tired of the conventional view of the crm with everyone on their knees praying, this book is for you.

An important corrective to the nonviolence theme that domninates most histories of the Civil Rights Movement. The Deacons were mostly home grown Black Veterans from working class neighborhoods in small southern towns like Bogalusa and Jonesboro Louisianna. When the Klan and Police beat on civil rights workers and local protestors the Deacons fought back. In July 1965 when a mob of whites attacked a group of civil rights, mostly children, marchers in Bogalusa a Deacon shot a Klan member sending him to hospital. This incident had a profound impact on the response to Black demands for equal rights in Lousianna. Finally, the White Establishment began to make changes that led to a better life for Louisianna's Blacks. Professor Hill's(History, Tulane Univesity) book is full of such incidents and proves that the Deaon's impact on the souhtern Civil Rights struggle must not be overlooked.

you have to speak the language of the wolf." - Henry Austin, Deacons for Defense

This is truly a lost history of the civil rights movement that author Lance Hill has found under the layers upon layers of mainstream narratives which conveniently dictate false truths that - when repeated enough - become larger than life.

Following the organized self-defense philosophy espoused by Robert F. Williams in Monroe, N.C., a small group of men in Jonesboro, Louisiana, founded an organization that had great influence in the civil rights movement of the mid-1960s. The success the Deacons had in defeating the KKK and other haters on the streets by standing up, moving forward and staring them down with guns loaded brought a new sense of empowerment in demanding that justice truly be served today.

Hill explains how he became aware of the Deacons and then began his quest to research the history. Initially founded to protect civil rights workers, the Deacons' influence in the Deep South grew with a regional organizing campaign in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, along with chapters being founded in several Northern cities.

The success and expansion of the program brought interest from the FBI, coverage by an oftentimes adverse media and linkage - oftenetimes quite temporary - with a number of revolutionary organizations.

But through the comparatively brief time the Deacons operated - about four years - Hill successfully argues that the organization forced the federal government to aggressively enforce the 1964 Civil Rights Act and was the bridge to the Black Power movement that emerged later in the decade.

The Deacons' legacy continues, as former members have strongly stated over the years that the group has never actually gone away. And, as Hill writes, "Finally, there is something inspiring in a story of people who stood up to injustice when everyone around them was afraid. That is a fable that will always serve us well."

The Deacons for Defense lives in the souls of those who do their part on a daily basis to bring real justice to this country.

"GIs and Frauleins" presents a comprehensive review of the cultural and economic impact the massive American military machine imposed on a small, agrarian, and relatively poor German state at the peak of the Cold War. This book presents a seminal work for the comprehension of later cultural clashes that dominated both the United States and Germany and continue to the present.

I recommend it for both the serious scholar as well as the casual reader of social and demographic history.

Unlike the previous reviewer, who took issue with the allegedly "academic" style of the book, I found it was very readable, avoiding a lot of the "constructing the other" and "conflicting gender identities" type of language one might expect to find in an academic book of this sort. This does not mean, however, that the book does not address the kind of conceptual, academic issues that are frequently raised in such stilted terms. In no sense is the book merely an antiquarian show-and-tell kind of catalog; it quite thoroughly discusses the "holy Trinity" of race, class, and gender issues. I found the discussion of German and American forms of racism to be especially interesting.

The content of the book has, for the most part, been adequately addressed in the "official" Amazon review as well as in the previous customer review. There is one aspect, however, that deserves further mention, and which I found particularly insightful: Höhn's discussion of whether the changes that came to the rural areas she discusses would be best described as modernization or as Americanization. This sort of issue is something which would interest anyone who is concerned with the cultural issues of globalization and the dominance of American cultural products in today's markets. Because she focuses on an area in which there was a very strong American presence in the immediate post-war years, it is not surprising that her evidence shows a significant American component to the modernization process. It would be interesting to compare her conclusions in this regard to those of someone studying an area where American influence was less direct and personal. This comparison would better demonstrate whether the American influence was a necessary, or merely a contemporary, component of German societal modernization. Such a comparison, however, would not fit very well into a book titled "GIs and Fräuleins." Höhn is to be commended for putting the abundant evidence which she presents into such a larger context of modernization debates, and not faulted for not being more encyclopedic.

To the postwar German churches, the great moral issue was not what the German government and military had done to millions of innocent people in World War II; the "moral" issue was the sexual freedom enjoyed by German women who chose to sleep with American soldiers.

German elites wanted a good relationship with the United States, so plans were dropped to label every German woman who slept with an American a "prostitute." Besides, too many respectable German families acquired American sons-in-law. Germans couldn't help but notice that "Negro" soldiers were despised by their fellow Americans, so women who slept with "black" Americans were the only ones labeled prostitutes.

Interesting fact: One German judge released a mulatto Fräulein who was accused of prostitution for sleeping with a "black" American soldier. He reasoned that, since she wasn't good enough to marry a white man, she was only engaged in some innocent "husband hunting."Passing for Who You Really Are

This book is a truely fascinating study of German-American encounters after World War II. It is full of interesting details and also extremely well written. A MUST for anyone interested in German history!

"GIs and Fraeuleins"
Maria Hoehn
ISBN 0-8078-5375-5

This book explores the culture clash that occurred during the Cold War in the 1950's when American GIs were first stationed in large numbers in the towns of Baumholder and Kaiserslautern in the rural Rhineland-Palatinate state of Germany, between the Rhine and Mosel rivers. Having served in Germany a decade later, I was surprised at the extent to which there had been such problems. In Mannheim, most of the issues that Maria Hoehn describes were not readily apparent. But Mannheim was urban versus the relatively provincial character of Baumholder and Kaiserlautern of the previous decade.

Some of Hoehn's themes in this book include the impact the American soldier's money and lifestyle on rural German society, the German conservatives' attempt to punish German women who associated with GIs, especially black GIs, and the irony of the Germans' rejection of discrimination against Jews in the new Federal democracy vis-à-vis their acceptance of it against black American soldiers. Certainly, Hoehn points out, white attitudes toward fellow black soldiers played a role in the German view.

Hoehn's documentation from publications of the time convincingly demonstrates that there were significant racial problems and that many Germans vehemently opposed intimate associations between German women and American blacks, so much so that the conservative CDU political party and various religious organizations tried to have these women legally classified as prostitutes.

Hoehn writes that many Germans including those who had lost ancestral lands to American military installations began to cash in on the boom by renting rooms to Americans. Barns and attics were transformed into apartments. German families moved into their own kitchens to be able rent out the rest of the house to the Americans who were willing to pay four or five times the going rate. Hoehn quips that in the small towns where everyone usually kept animals that some Germans had to choose between having a pig or an American, an "Ami" in the German parlance of the time.

Due to high unemployment throughout Germany at this time, many young women came to the area hoping for a job as a maid for an American family, a waitress, or a dancer at an establishment that catered to American soldiers. Many, who had lost homes and parents during the war, hoped to escape from a life of poverty. Some were refugees from the former territories or East Germany. These women did not find favor in the traditional view of the residents of the area for their fraternization with American soldiers, especially black American soldiers. Such women were dubbed "Veronikas". A number of them were arrested and subjected to humiliating trials in local courts by extremist judges. Efforts for national legislation classifying these women as prostitutes by the coalition of CDU, Protestant, and Catholic leaders ultimately failed.

This book is an excellent, well-documented piece of research. Although Hoehn's writing is somewhat academic and redundant in places, this is a commendable book of considerable merit. Those interested in postwar German history and even some former GIs may get new insight from it.