North Carolina Books

I use this excellent documentary source with success in a storytelling class I've taught periodically over the past 10 years. Jack tales are a rarified regional tradition as well as a type of folk hero tale with many connections to other North American and global oral traditions. Their geneology is here traced and illustrated by phonetic transcriptions of a number of performances by different generations of Jack tale tellers from the central Appalachians, each accompanied by an introductory essay. It's a useful case study of how a particular tale type entered the country and spread among a small localized and often related group of tellers, migrated into text form and then out again, and became in one sense the archtypal tale type of the American storytelling revival, thanks to the late Ray Hicks of Beech Mountain, who leads off the bunch and headlined the first decade or so of national festivals in Jonesborough, Tennessee.

Last fall after the festival I had the good fortune to visit my uncle's church in Banner Elk, at the foot of Beech Mountain, where I met a couple of Marshall Ward's former students, who remembered him telling Jack tales to assembled students every Friday after school.

Available elsewhere are audio versions of these Jack tales by at least some of the tellers included in this book: Ray Hicks, Marshall Ward, and Donald Davis.

Whether you are a history buff, a political junkie, or just have an interest in North Carolina, you will love this book. Tracing the life and career of Jim Hunt through turbulent times in this Bible Belt state, A North Carolina Progressive will give you hope and inspiration. This book reminds us that not everyone in NC was eatin' moon pies, burnin' crosses, and votin' for Jessie Helms. And, that taking the high road in politics does not have to mean losing the race. Careful readers will see a blueprint for the kind of candidate that will take back the White House in '08.

Vernon Wharton's THE NEGRO IN MISSISSIPPI, 1865-1890 is an important work, greatly aiding in the understanding of that period of Southern history which we call Reconstruction. It is an excellent example of scholarship, dealing with wider issues than is indicated by the book's title. It is well-written, insightful, and valuable to anyone interested in the post-bellum South. Wharton's finest opus should be read by all students interested in history and race relations in the United States.

The personalities, prejudices and courage of the Founding Fathers come alive in the give and take of the debates of the Continental Congress. We, who can see the results, can little doubt what each of them knew, that they were inspired by a higher power. I feel greatful to be a descendent. Dewey F. Brignone

I found myself somewhat amazed at how much Sheridan is able to teach with so few words.

Charles Wiltse's the Jeffersonian Tradition in American Democracy is a very good account of the intellectual background and philosophy of Thomas Jefferson. Wiltse starts out with the intellectual background for Enlightenment thought in Great Britian and France. It is shown how the philosophy of republicanism and libertarian thought progressed from the mid 17th century to the time of Jefferson.

Next Jefferson's intellectual background is explored. Locke, Bacon, Newton, Sidney, and Lord Kames are shown to be the main influences on our greatest founder. It then moves to Jefferson's progressive philosophy of liberty and republican thought. Public education, religious freedom, the abolition of slavery, ending primogenture and entail, and a republican constitution consume the mind of Jefferson.

Wiltse also goes into Jefferson's philosophy for "ward republics",a form of grass roots democracy. He details Jefferson's passion for ward republics to be the "salvation of the republic" as he called it. The main thing that makes this work so good id that it lacks the anti-intellectual postmodern "deconstruction" of Jefferson. No political correctness or extreme "presentism" viewpoint. A really good book for a Jeffersonian education.

This book was published first in 1835 but as 19th century novels go I found it fairly well-done, and holding my interest. There is a lot of melodrama, and the Indians are portrayed with some balance. There are some racist-like views, and a silly scene where Hector, a slave, begs his good master not to set him free. But the account is fast-moving and event follows rapidly on event. The scene is 1715 in South Carolina, and involves an Indian insurrection which actually happened, tho it is pretty hard to find much about it in history sources. Some of the speeches put in the mouths of characters in the extremely stressful situations in which they find themselves are not without humor to today's reader. It is said this is the best of Simms' novels, and knowing that makes me think some of his other novels might be fun to read--this one is.

Far more is written about Christian missionaries from the North, especially New England, than from the South. The author attempts to redress some of this imbalance with this story of the Jiangyin Mission Station of the Southern Presbyterian Church near Shanghai, China. The home church of the Station was in Wilmington, NC which may make the book of especial interest to Carolinians.

The author has turned out a good academic history of the Station and the American missionaries who staffed it. Jiangyin began life with an anti-Christian riot -- the missionaries were accused of killng children to take their organs for medicine, an echo of the common rumors around the world today that Westerners kill children to steal their organs for transplant. Over the years the Mission was accepted by many in the Chinese community -- although converts were few and far between. The author includes maps and photos plus a lot of detail about how missionaries lived and worked. An especially good chapter details the trials and tribulations of the missionaries when Japan invaded the region in 1937 and, finally, forced the closing of Jiangyin on December 8, 1941. The Church opened Jiangyin after WW II, but it was closed permanently by the Chinese Communists in 1951. The history of Jiangyin is pretty typical of hundreds of Mission stations in China.

Well, this is a subject with a limited readership and -- however well done this book -- I have to wonder why academic books of such limited sales potential are not simply published on the web as ebooks and made available free to the general public. The author surely does not get rich off the royalties.

Smallchief

Having been the state's Commissioner of Agriculture for 36 years, Jim Graham knows more about North Carolina food than anyone else. During these past 36 years the state has moved from a land of small family farms to one dominated by industrial and technologically advanced cities. This gave Mr. Graham the idea of publishing a book of recipes of the cherished country cooking from the state's past for the NC urban dwellers of today.

The recipes were gathered from all over the state by NC Cooperative Extension and the NC Farm Bureau as a tribute to this great man and his contribution to the rural residents of North Carolina. The true authors are the residents of the state who submitted their favorite recipes. Jim Graham wrote the Introduction and submitted one recipe to the anthology, his mom's Brunswick Stew. Many of the entries include notes by the contributors that give them a truly personal touch. Proceeds from the book's sales go to the James A. Graham Scholars Endowment at N.C. State University.

If you have one North Carolina cookbook in your kitchen, this should be it. Now that the small towns of the state are hosts to fast food restaurants, and rural citizens spend hours commuting to city jobs, this book will long preserve a fading heritage for future generations. It is a labor of love to be cherished by anyone who loves North Carolina foods.

I have just finished reading Catherine Edmondston's journal of her life during the Civil War.

I am so grateful to "Kate" for making the effort to record each day, 1860 to 1866 as she experienced it. She recorded the reports, rumors, and her vitriolic response to the hated Yankee depredations. She also found time to record the ebb and flow of the plantation work her personal joys and sorrows. I feel she shared her life with me, a woman of different circumstance in 2008.

It is a hefty book, weighty in both substance and size. Many a night in bed I struggled to hold it upright at an angle harmonious with my bifocals. Reading it from beginning to end is a task of persistence and devotion. I feel rewarded by the effort.

The story offers the opportunity to travel back in time, to be immersed in the thinking and social fabric of the secessionist south.

At times I became impatient with her favorite themes, the gentlemanliness of the Confederate Officers contrasted with the "ill bread" Yankees, her acerbic abuse of Lincoln. Still what would you expect? Do you want social realism or some sanitized romantic novel?

The last entries, after Lee's surrender, made the whole reading worth while. Catherine and her husband Patrick had three properties and about eighty-six slaves. She continues her entries for another year as they struggle, former master and former slave to work out a new social contract.

Catherine excoriates the "Freeman's Bureau", their meddling, rules and general mischief. It is frustration and miscommunication on all sides. The dysfunctional family that was the Plantation hierarchy falls apart before the reader's eyes. There is a redistribution of power, misread on both sides as the model shifts from Master and Slave to Labor and Management. Kate has a wonderful ear for dialect and dialogue. You can hear the speech and see the participants confronting each other both uncomfortable and on unsure ground. It is the beginning of the transition period in race relations that may devolve into the Presidency of Barack Obama.