North Carolina Books

From its opening pages, Chicago's New Negroes delivers a knockout punch. Baldwin opens his monograph with a retelling of Jack Johnson's 1910 heavyweight victory and its impact on Black Chicago, and thus only begins to weave an epic and compelling tapestry that demonstrates how Black people "acted" rather than were "acted upon." He resituates ideas once limited to discussions of the Harlem Renaissance and moves them geographically to Great Migration-era Chicago. There, dots are connected to demonstrate the very tangible relationship between consumer culture and intellectual life.

To the reader's delight, Baldwin resists the tendency to provide a straightforward "history" of African Americans in Chicago in the early twentieth century. While the text does follow the stories and innovations of such major players as Madame CJ Walker, Thomas A. Dorsey, Oscar Micheaux and baseball's Rube Foster, it also provides a much needed space in which we get to hear the thoughts and words of everyday people, those who sat in beauty parlors, enjoyed the early years of cinema, attended sporting events, and made a way despite the racial, social and economic limitations. We soon determine that southern migrants to Chicago brought with them not country ways, but entirely new, entirely modern, ways of thinking.

For authors, allowing everyday people to speak for themselves is sometimes difficult. Yet, Baldwin manages to make these voices heard and it is a credit to his writing style. His presentation is especially adept in the sports chapter. Here, Baldwin takes the reader on a tour of Black Chicago's various "playgrounds." We have no problem envisioning the juking, the fakes, the fast forwards, the trucking, the passing and dribbling and their possible meanings for building a better world.

Through chapters devoted to the "mapping" of the Black Metropolis, beauty culture, film exhibition and filmmaking, the rise of gospel music and the sporting life, Baldwin allows a glimpse into a world of possibility, a world where popular culture is just as, if not more, worthy of study as so-called arts and letters. He forces a new understanding of even the Harlem Renaissance, an ambitious project for sure. While the book is a scholarly monograph, Baldwin's forays into social and cultural theory are so nuanced as to make the book accessible to a wider audience. And for that we should be thankful. Even though the urgent and triumphant stories within Chicago's New Negroes take place seventy five or a hundred years ago, the lessons we learn from them and the hope we take with us when we close the book are timeless. And are even more so in an era when Black culture is appropriated, diffused, and often taken for granted.

This is a very readable book. The author's sketches of the principal leaders of the CIO are diverting. I can't say I completely agree with a few of its arguments but the clarity of the narrative along with the far reaching and fair minded analyses of the topic overwhelms any of its flaws.

Zieger describes the very precarious state of the CIO in the late 30's. I was surprised to learn how extremely modest the victory of the United Rubber Workers was at the Goodyear Akron Ohio plant in early 1936. I always assumed it involved at least union recognition, increase in wages, etc. 10 CIO workers were shot dead and many injured by Chicago police in front of the Republic Steel plant on Memorial Day 1937. The police in that case opened fire without the slightest provocation as did the cops in Masillon Ohio who, in the midst of a wild shooting spree to break up a steelworkers gathering, killed 3. The Little Steel strikes were lost w/o gaining union recognition and anti-unionism at Ford's River Rouge Michigan plant was demonstrated by the ex-cons in Ford's security department who nearly beat to death Walter Reuther and Richard Frankensteen. The United Auto Workers was wracked by revolt against Homer Martin's incompetence at the same time the Reuther brothers, the communists and Richard Frankensteen fought each other and Martin.

Zieger notes that polls of the period showed working class support for government regulation of corporate wealth and protection for unions. But in 1938 one poll showed a preference of two-thirds of workers for the A.F of L's staid, conservative William Green over Lewis. Workers thought unions had too much power and supported efforts to clean leftist radicals from unions and restrict the constitutional rights of commies, etc. In particular most CIO workers were not at all supportive of the backing for African American civil rights that the federation's leader's expressed. This became particularly clear during the "hate strikes" of World War II when white CIO members struck or even rioted to protest desegregation or promotions given to fellow black workers. The leadership made reasonable efforts to oppose this racism according to the author. Such reactionary opinions of course made the workers vulnerable to manipulation by politicians seeking the cover of reactionary fear mongering in order to attack union viability.

Zieger covers the attempts by the CIO leaders to restrain workers militancy defense industries during World War II. Government agencies tried to restrain the growth of workers' wages in the interests of containing inflation. Many workers felt compelled to go on strike to contest this. The government ordered many defense companies to give the unions of their workers some form of security in return for which workers were expected to obey intense work regimens. The union leaders were supposed to make sure that workers were firmly focused on production tasks. Zieger notes the zealotry that unions led by Communists and fellow travelers showed in adhering to the no-strike pledge

The CIO really did not have much choice but to stick to the limits the establishment put on it. That is at least the author's conclusion That is to say the CIO had no choice but to stick to pushing for wage and benefit increases w/o really challenging corporate power while working to strengthen liberal Democrats in order to increase the welfare state and Keynesian economic policies. As the Cold War got under way, the CIO purged 11 of its communist inclined affiliates and the one million members belonging to those unions. The leadership centralized power in its executive committee.....The CIO leaders fervently supported the creation of the national security state and U.S. foreign policy; a few exceptions within the organization expressed criticism of actions like the overthrow of the Arbenz government in Guatemala in 1954. Beginning with their 1946 organizing drive in the South the organization downplayed its commitment to civil rights. Zieger describes the increasing bureaucratization of the CIO and dampening of rank and file activism as the Cold War got under way.

I'm most impressed with the author's portrayal of communists within the CIO. He notes that communist CIO leaders had some virtues. They had an admirable record in organizing African American workers and organizing biracial unions. Moreover according to the author, even among their harshest critics, Communist led unions had a reputation for honest administration, efficiency in gaining better wages and other benefits, an egalitarian internal structure, good cultural and educational programs, etc.

Zieger's portrayal of Communists in American labor in the main text is notable when contrasted with the seeming approval of the CIO's anti-communist purges he expresses in the book's conclusion. To Zieger it was important for the CIO to dissociate itself from people who supported Stalin's crimes (actually Communists tended to deny most of those crimes took place). It may have been a practical necessity given the environment of the late 40's to get rid of the Communists. But I think Zieger errs in trying to dissociate the purge from the processes that led to the CIO's increasing bureaucratization, the passivity of its rank and file and its support for military keynesian based economic growth. The American elite that the CIO was trying to appease opposed a CP presence in American unions not because CP members supported the murderous Stalin but because Communists were seen as a source of labor militancy. Moreover, speaking from my own very left radical perspective I don't see any virtue in choosing the United States over the USSR. Yes Stalin killed millions of people. But the world capitalist system that the United States has overseen since World War II has millions of victims too, from starvation and disease to say nothing of carpet bombing in Vietnam, Central American death squads, etc.

But the book is in the main well written and intellectually diverting. If only all labor history could be done as Zieger does this book.

The Civil War in North Carolina: Soldiers' and Civilians' Letters and Diaries, 1861-1865 (Volume 2): The Mountains, is the soldier's story. It is an A-to-Z compilation of what the "rank and file soldier" experienced during the American Civil War. The Western North Carolina soldiers express their hearts to their loved ones and friends, thus allowing the reader the most intimate and personal view of the war.
From triumph to tragedy, the "soldiers' letters" express what few authors or writers can achieve--realism.
According to cartographic and demographic studies, Southern Appalachia comprised a unique indigenous people, and by isolating these rare letters it allows the reader the most detailed insight to their experiences.
The soldier experienced various traumatic stressors in the conflict: such as witnessing death or dismemberment, handling dead bodies, traumatic loss of comrades, realizing imminent death, killing others and being helpless to prevent others' deaths.
Plain, raw and to the point: The reader will witness the most detailed insight to the so-called American Civil War. Intimate and personal: diseases, privation, wounds, loneliness, exhaustion, heartache, and death are all explored.

To understand and fathom the sociopolitical and geopolitical "tone" of western North Carolina and the American Civil War, purchase "The Heart of Confederate Appalachia: Western North Carolina in the Civil War" by John C. Inscoe and Gordon B. McKinney.

Matthew D. Parker

The Civil War In The Carolinas by civil war expert and historian Dan Morrill (History Department, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Director of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historical Society) is a dramatically presented and extensively researched survey and analysis of the impact the American Civil War had upon the states of North Carolina and South Carolina, and the people who called these states their home. A meticulous, scholarly, and thoroughly engaging examination of the details of history and the sweeping change that the war wrought for everyone, The Civil War In The Carolinas is a welcome and informative addition to American Civil War Studies reference collections.

Beyond "excellent" in content and detail, this book can be described as an "anthology of summaries and reviews" of classical writers from Homer to Umberto Eco. For those involved in the Classical Christian school movement, Kennedy's book helps to explain how Jewish scholars assigned authority differently from the Greeks and how both the Greek and Jewish traditions carried on into the Christian era. The book addresses both the content and artistry of classical rhetoric, is well-indexed and documented, and includes an excellent bibliography. Highly readable as well, this survey (in my opinion) should be in every library in a classical school.

Clingman's Brigade and its leader for whom it was named, has received a mixed assessment for their Civil War activities. Often on the losing side of engagements, the brigade has been ranked "below average" by some; Robert E. Lee, however, after the affair at Drewry's Bluff in May 1864, said that Clingman's men "did their duty well," and Jefferson Davis, who witnessed Clingman's charge at the same battle, described it as "the most gallant ... he had ever witnessed." Casstevens's purpose in this book is to examine the military activities of the Brigade in order to determine its impact on various battles and affairs. In this she does a credible, evenhanded, and thorough job.

Thomas Lanier Clingman was a proud man from a proud family. A "scholar-soldier," he was born and raised in North Carolina and loved nothing more than to wander the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains, mainly in pursuit of minerals and gems. He studied for the law and was elected to both the state and national legislature; he had no military training. Clingman's Brigade was formed late in 1862 and was sent to the eastern part of the state, where it saw its first action at the Neuse River (RR) Bridge near Goldsboro, in December. Ordered to protect the bridge, an overwhelming Federal force was able to capture it and burn it. Clingman and his men fought bravely, however, and blame for the failure rests on an insufficiency of men to do the job properly. Thus a pattern formed that attached itself to Clingman's Brigade like a curse: he and his men would perform their orders and their duty well, but circumstances beyond their control would intervene and diminish results.

The Brigade also saw action at Battery Wagner, New Bern, the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and Globe Tavern, where Clingman was severely wounded in the leg and was out of the war until almost the very end. Like most fighting units, Clingman's Brigade had some successes, some failures; had luck and better planning been on their side at some engagements, they might have done better; they certainly could have done worse. Most of the time they did what they could under the circumstances, which might be high enough praise for anyone.

Casstevens presents a very full picture of the Brigade and its leader. She is honest and shows the men in good and bad light, though usually presents an "excuse" for the group's failures (most seem reasonable). She also draws a thorough picture of Clingman himself, his years as a congressman and his character. My favorite description of him is from Mary Chestnut's Diary, where at a party she is critical of Clingman's dancing, which is "a serious business with him." When his partner insisted on talking while they were dancing, Clingman told her, "Pray, withhold all remarks. It puts me out. I cannot do two things at once. If you will talk, I shall have to stop dancing." Reams could be written about the man from that statement alone. Civil War buffs and historians will find much to appreciate and debate in this excellent regimental history. Highly recommended.

Robert Newman not only leads up to his highly praised history of the Owen Lattimore story and the influence of the "China Lobby" with this account, but gives much denied credit as well to the history of the left which had been censored, denied, and castigated... Included is a little-known quote from Lillian Hellman in her opening remarks to the Waldorf Peace Conference in 1949, which she co-organized. The Waldorf Conference was a credit to the post-WWII anticolonialist peace movement fueled by the activism of the radicalism of the 30s. This social/political/cultural movement included among others Hellman and W.E.B. DuBois, who founded the Peace Information Center in 1950 and circulated the Stockholm Peace Petition at a time when the Soviet Union was allegedly running a "peace offensive" and at a time when anyone who promoted peace or who criticized U.S. policy must therefore be viewed as being an agent of a foreign govt. in the McCarthy hysteria. Not only was anyone associated with those promoting peace at risk of suspicion, but also anyone who showed any independent thinking regarding foreign policy, no matter how extensive the institutional experience (as in Melby's case) or how well-founded the logic. This was the case with John Melby, chief editor of the China White Paper which acknowledged the inevitable failure of the KMT and the subsequent "loss of China." Just as anyone associated with the Waldorf Conference was eventually brought before HUAC and/or blacklisted, so anyone associated with authorship of the China White Paper was subjected to loyalty security board hearings and their careers ruined, but for different cause. The irony of this book is that it illustrates how the relationship of Melby and Hellman resulted in a collision of these two very different worlds of thought, intellectual culture, career, and experience.

This book is very near and dear to my heart as I am a descendant of R.M. Ward. I grew up hearing these stories and I also knew the author Richard Chase who was a family friend. I went to sleep almost every night with one of the Jack Tales as my bed time story and always asked for" just one more daddy". I am glad that this book is still in print so that I might pass on these beloved stories to my two children in hopes that they will in turn pass them on to their children. These "Tall Tales" will keep your children asking for "just one more".

Through most of the last half century, the Allied Strategic Air campaign against Germany has been criticized as ineffective. Alfred C. Mierzejewski suggests that this was only true till late 1944. After that, bombing became devastating.

In 1942 and '43, the U.S. and Britain attacked arms factories and housing respectively. The Germans kept fighting and war production kept going up.

In 1944, the Allies increasingly turned to synthetic petroleum plants and the German transportation system. The result was a catastrophic breakdown in all areas of the German war economy.

We'll never know what would have happened if the railyards serving the Ruhr's coal fields had been hit starting in 1940, but Mierzejewski makes a good case that it would have seriously weakened Germany much sooner, and quite possibly ended the war in 1944.

This is a very good study, well worth reading and thinking about. I recommend it to all my fellow armchair strategists.

First published in 1963, this book is a must-have item for the serious colonial North Carolina family history researcher. Many of the deeds recorded in Colonial Bertie were for second, third and fourth generation descendants of Southside Virginia immigrants. Compare the surnames with those found in Surry, Isle of Wight, James City, Southampton, Brunswick Cos., VA and you'll see the beginning of a westward trek in search of land and prosperity.

This volume is a companion to the series of deed abstracts by Margaret H. Hoffman and can be used to compliment her various books.