North Carolina Books

Professor Robinson uses the bowler hat (or Derby) as the medium in understanding modernism and the modern world. Introduced in 1950 (see MR LOCK OF ST. JAMES STREET below) the hat had rather significant meaning to the emerging middle class. If Wilcox (THE MODE IN HATS AND HEADDRESS) had it right when she wrote "head attire in both sexes have from prehistoric times served to establish the individual's rank or position in society, to impress the lowly and to challenge the enemy" then Robinson's thesis of the bowler hat's profound meanings may have validity in understanding modern Western man. He furthermore explores the hat's resonance in art and literature.

Excellent book. Every Southerner--no, every American--should read this book. Smith has done us a great favor. Southern baby boomers will especially appreciate the best explanation I've read of why things are the way they are in the South today. Smith makes history an enjoyable read.

I ordered this book for my 11 year daughter. She inhaled it! She described it as the "best book, I've EVER read!" Since she's an avid reader, that is surely a compliment. She is begging for the second volume now. It is fortunate to know that there are still some wholesome, engaging materials out there for preteens. We are looking forward to more!

Escott has written a well-research, scholarly study of how ordinary people in North Carolina, white and black, interacted with the political and social institutions of the day. This is an important social history worth the time of anyone interested in Southern history after the Civil War. Escott focuses in particular on five counties but his study is more broad-based than this indictes. He uses statistics but the human story predominates.

As a retired Marine First Sergeant (white) who was very familiar with the history of the Montford Point Marines, my eyes were opened to a more telling story that needed to be told. Although most books, articles and movies focus on the confrontational pressure cooker of black vs. white in a few dramatic examples, this book was the first one that allowed me to actually feel the emotions of oppression during their routine daily life. I have read many books, articles and seen several movies on the subject of racism but I have never been enthralled like I have during my reading of this book.

What I found very commendable was the neutrality of the writer. The mixture of good stories of genuine helpful whites was balanced with an equal number of examples of racism. Because the book is 90 percent actual stories from Montford Point Marines and 10 percent framing the content for each chapter, you feel as though you are visiting with these special Marines on their front porch as they tell their story.

I commend the writer on his method of creating chapters in the book. Each Chapter has a unique focus that is very specific for that chapter. This will make for an excellent method of research when seeking specific information for public speaking or citation in future articles to be written.

Semper Fi!

First Sergeant John E. Crouch (ret)

I have an old book by Mark Catesby. Half is in French and half in English, it is supposed to one of two volumes, it is not in very good shape,and most of the plates are missing. Do you have any thing more you could tell me about this book?

This is an incredibly insightful, well argued, and superbly
interesting study of male desire and its effects on Victorian
culture. A major part of the focus of this study concerns
the interacting awarenesses, defenses, attacks, and
deflections of male same-sex attraction AND desire,
and the various responses to those two factors
in relation to the classical Greek writings and art
as they influenced the thoughts and creativity of
Victorian male lives, especially in the academic
centers of Cambridge and Oxford Universities.
This study is very readable, even though the
first paragraph of the "Introduction" sounds too
"academic," the rest of the Introduction explains
the focus. The author of this work, Richard Dellamora,
is working with or against various ideas
expressed in the writings of Michel Foucault [History of
Sex: Vol. 1 An Introduction; Vol. _The Use of Pleasure_],
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick [_Between Men: English Literature and
Male Homosocial Desire_], Elaine Showalter [_The Female
Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980_;
_A Literature of Their Own_]and other writers on sexuality
and gender, dealing with the Victorian period.
But this is no "he says; she says..." study. It is
truly a remarkable and incredibly insightful and
interesting, well focused and clearly presented work.
It is a very important source of knowledge and study
in its own right--this author has well studied and
knows the people, their works, and the issues and
arguments involved. He clearly and inspiringly explains
the meanings of the works, their major ideas, and the
counter ideas, and where each is focused
in its arguments. But the work is not dry reading.
Dellamora deals with male desire as it is
expressed in the works of both those male writers
whose affections and interests are focused on the male
exclusively, as well as with those males who have
sought the expression of their life association and

sexuality with women,but who have nonetheless been
aware of, been participants in, and been celebrators
of profound male bonding desire,
even if not of a sexual nature. Indeed, Dellamora's
main argument is that the history of the presentation
of male desire in the 19th century English cultural
context transcends the limitation imposed by the idea
that only "homosexuals" would be aware of, feel,
or desire such male oriented caring. That idea breaks
the stereotype and opens up (liberates) the cultural
strictures and impositions that sadly still dominate
willingness to talk of male desire and sexuality in
some academic writings, especially in the United States.
Mr. Dellamora is professor of English and Cultural Studies
at Trent University in Ontario [according to the back cover].
The chapter titles help to show the range and excellent
areas of analysis by the author, who knows and uses the
writings, letters, and sources extremely well. The titles
are: Introduction-Masculine Desire and the Question of the
Subject; (1) Tennyson, the Apostles, and _In Memoriam_; (2)
"Spousal Love" in the Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins; (3)
[Walter]Pater at Oxford in 1864--Old Mortality and
"Diaphaneite"; (4) Poetic Perversities of A. C. Swinburne;
Excursus--Hopkins, Swinburne, and the Whitmanian Signifier;
(5) [Matthew]Arnold, Winckelmann, and [Walter] Pater;
(6) John Ruskin and the Character of Male Genius; (7)
Leonardo, Medusa, and the Wish to be Woman; (8) "The New
Chivalry" and Oxford Politics (the contest to elect a new
Professor of Poetry at Oxford; the influences of Walter
Pater, John Addington Symonds, and Jowett);
9)Theorizing Homophobia--Analysis of Myth in Pater;
(10) Homosexual Scandal and Compulsory Heterosexuality
in the 1890s; Afterword--The Subject of Sexual (In)difference.
The Bibliography at the back of this book is
exceptional, interesting, and informative (in terms of
future sources that one might wish to consult or
purchase for one's own use). It is filled with both
essay and book entries, but all of a highly
intellectual and culturally stimulating kind.
Dellamora presents here a thorough, well studied,
well analyzed, and totally enlightening work. It is
well worth the purchase by any reader interested in
the subjects of male desire, cultural impact, and
artistic expression.
His exceptional gift in this work is to use letters
and journals to show the range of feelings and

expressions -- the letters between Arthur Hallam
to Richard Milnes and the expressions between
Tennyson and Hallam are incredibly interesting
(as well as being something one would not be
able to easily access from other sources). The other
personages inovlved in the Apostles and
their interests and expressions and doings
provide great insight also in understanding
more fully the context of the cultural and personal
interactions that were going on at both Cambridge
and Oxford in the 1800s.
[Byron and Tennyson attended Cambridge;
Pater, Hopkins (tutored by Pater), Symonds,
Ruskin, and Wilde attended Oxford.]
Notice: Dellamora uses the words which
the writers of the works and the letters use --
both Latinate and common. The words have both
to do with bodily parts and sexual acts, so the
general reader should be aware. But none of
this is presented in a sensationalist fashion, rather
as an enlightening insight into the thoughts and ideas
that motivated, influenced, and found expression (or
repression) in the lives of the experiencers. This is
NOT a book about sex or about sex acts -- it is about
ideas and desires and their influences on personal
motivations, strivings, and artistic expressions.

Enjoyed the detailed consideration to the pilots & their way of life. I was able to put together parts of my family past from the descriptions of the Burriss & Craig families. Many inputs credited compiled to explain moments in my family tree.

Hands down, this is the best text on MCH programs and policy. A must read for every public health professional in the field of Maternal and Child Health.

Mary Shelley's story has been suppressed for over a century, because it treats a taboo subject: incest.

When Mathilda is being courted by a young man her father becomes violently jealous. He can't control his overwhelming passion -'My daughter,I love you' - and flees.
From being her God, her father becomes Matilda's nightmare: 'infamy and guilt was mingled with my portion; unlawful and detestable passion has poured its poison into my ears and changed all my blood (in) a cold fountain of bitterness.'
The lovers are doomed for the attraction is stronger than life: 'I am in love with death; no maiden ever took more pleasure in the contemplation of her bridal attirement than I in fancying my limbs already enwrapped in their shroud: is it not my married dress? Alone it will unite me to my father when in an eternal union we shall never part.'

Although sometimes too sentimental, 'Matilda' is a strong psychological portrait, brilliantly written by an intelligent and very well read author: 'more lovely than a sunbeam, slighter, quicker than the waving plumage of a bird, dazzling as lightning and like it giving day to night,yet mild and faint, that smile came.'

The story treats an important human conflict, partly resolved by evolution (C. Lumsden, E.O.Wilson - Promethean Fire).

Highly recommended.