South Carolina Books

I've spent a majority of my life not too far west of Charlotte, North Carolina, but I never really knew much about the big city itself. When I was a kid, we could never manage to get the Charlotte stations to come in perfectly clear with our antenna, but we weren't about to miss Fred Kirby & Uncle Jim, the Gospel Jubilee every Sunday morning, and - for my mother, at least - Betty Feezor's cooking show. Beyond television, I saw Charlotte as an obstacle between home and parts east of the Queen City (Charlotte was named for the wife of King George III). As an adult, I still don't know a lot about the city because Charlotte traffic can be a nightmare, leaving me perfectly happy to cruise through the city on I-85 rather than tackle its busy streets. Nowadays, of course, Charlotte is an important and well-known city, the banking capital of the South, the home of several professional sports teams, and of course the very heart of NASCAR. Clearly, the Queen City has a story to tell, even to those of us born and raised in the North Carolina Piedmont.

In this gorgeous coffee table book, Historic Photos of Charlotte, Ryan L. Sumner takes you through the progression of the city from its humble origins to its modern-day glory, using over two hundred carefully researched, vintage black and white photos (many of them never seen before by anyone but archivists). These vivid snapshots of history offer a fascinating look at the many changes Charlotte has seen over the course of its history - economically, culturally, technologically, etc. You'll see important people and places in Charlotte's history, as well as a number of perspective shots looking down various streets as they evolved over time. Informative captions help place each photograph in its proper historical context.

The book is divided into four main sections. The first one features historical photos from the late nineteenth century, when Charlotte was in its infancy. The city didn't really start booming until the years following the War Between the States, when its location made it a perfect hub for the burgeoning industrialization finally taking root in the South. With financial stalwarts like D.A. Tompkins leading the way, this central stop on the Southern Railway between Washington, D.C. and New Orleans became the center of a booming business in textile manufacturing during the second era covered in this book (roughly 1900-1920). The next historical era, 1920-1950, was one of great ups and downs. Profits from the textile industry led to the creation of large banks (and, because North Carolina was one of the few states allowing for the creation of statewide banks at that time, those that survived the Great Depression helped make Charlotte the prominent banking center that it is today). The advent of the automobile also played a huge part in the city's development. As Model T's and Model A's rolled out of Charlotte-based factories, new businesses were formed to support the nascent auto industry, and streetcars gradually yielded way to buses as the primary means of transportation. Additionally, a number of speed records were set on the 40 degree banks of the original Charlotte Speedway in the mid-1920s. The Great Depression hit Charlotte hard, but the city eventually rebounded, with New Deal programs helping to build such important infrastructure as Charlotte Memorial Hospital. Finally, the book takes a look at Charlotte after 1950.

My personal favorite picture in this collection features a class at the Charlotte Open Air School, with the kids all bundled up in winter coats, toboggans, etc. The caption informs us that this unusual school was an experimental one, intended to test the 1920s belief by some that cold air was beneficial for students. I think we can safely assume that this belief was proven wrong pretty quickly, as these poor kids look like they're freezing to death in the picture.

At over two hundred pages, Historic Photos of Charlotte opens quite a wondrous historical window into the past of this Southern jewel. The book really brings home the incredible pace at which the city has developed, adapting over time to grow stronger every year. Most Charlotteans won't even recognize many of the historical views down prominent streets of yesteryear, while many of the city's most beautiful historic buildings can be seen only here, having fallen victim to fires or wrecking balls over the intervening years. Anyone with a personal interest in Charlotte - especially those who have migrated to the Queen City during the last few decades - or any interest in Southern industrialization and history should find Historic Photos of Charlotte to be a most welcome addition to his/her library or, even more appropriately, coffee table.

This book has a long history of being THE book to consult when researching the families of Marion County South Carolina. This book has been invaluable to my own research and to many others. Mr. Sellars was born in the early part of the 19th Century and lived until just after the turn of 20th Century. His knowledge of the area and it's people was phenomenal. Exhaustive lists of Civil War rosters are also included and would be a great help to anyone searching for clues about their Confederate ancestors from the area. This book is expensive but it's well worth the price.

A must-read for anyone interested in the history of the South.

The work at hand is the sequel to Mr. Landrum's Colonial and Revolutionary History of Upper South Carolina, which treated the pre-Revolutionary War history of the territory that became Spartanburg County. The author deftly captures the key political developments in Spartanburg County for the century following the Revolution. Special chapters are also devoted to the issues of religion, temperance, education, and, of course, secession. Landrum's real concern, however, is with the people of Spartanburg County; indeed the final 500 pages of the book are devoted to biographical and genealogical sketches of its families and luminaries. The essays are frequently accompanied by photographs of the principals and references to the individuals' participation, if any, in the Confederate cause. Also included is a list of Spartanburg County legislators and other officials and Spartanburg's heroes of the Civil War.

The following is a list of the main families discussed in the sketches: Allen, Amos, Anderson, Archer, Ballenger, Barry, Benson, Berwick, Bishop, Blake, Blassingame, Bomar, Bowden, Brockman, Brown, Burke, Burnett, Caldwell, Calvert, Camp, Cannon, Carlisle, Carpenter, Chapman, Choice, Clarke, Cleveland, Cofield, Compton, Crocker, Dean, Douglass, Drummond, Duncan, Earle, Edwards, Elford, Evins, Ezell, Farley, Farrow, Fielder, Fleming, Foster, Griffith, Hampton, Harris, Henneman, High, James, Jordan, Judd, Kennedy, Kilgore, Lake, Lanford, Landrum, Lee, Legg, Lipscomb, Martin, Mason, McCullough, McDowell, McMillen, Monk, Montgomery, Moore, Nesbitt, Nicholls, Oeland, Pendleton, Petty, Poole, Reid, Richardson, Rowland, Rudisail, Russell, Sloan, Smith, Snoddy, Switzer, Thomas, Thompson, Trimmier, Tucker, Turner, Vernon, Walker, Westmoreland, Wilkins, Wilmot, Wilson, Wingo, Winsmith, Wofford, Wood, Woodruff, and Zimmerman.

We all know it is here. Now, how did it get here? Book goes down memory lane to the early days. Enough pictures of the old players who would have certainly been playing in a 30 team NHL, but not quite good enough to play in a 6 / 12 team NHL. Plus the book got here supper fast!

When you pick up this little book, be prepared to keep turning the pages until you're finished. This is the fourth one of Smith's books that I've read cover to cover. I've enjoyed them all [especially STONO], but this one resonates and relates to today's world. The creation of racial stereotypes by white Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries has echoes in the racial profiling of suspected terrorists today. The amount of research that went into this book is incredible, but it is not "weighty" or dull. Smith's writing is engaging and thoughtful. There can be little doubt that this fine young scholar is THE rising star [some would say he's already THE star] of Southern historians.

Fisher explicates the power and subtlety of narration as the basis for communication. This book should be of interest to those in the fields of communication, rhetoric, and journalism in particular, and those more broadly who have an interest in the workings of language.

Reading "Hungry for Home" is a delightful experience - like visiting the Carolinas without paying for airfare and hotels, meeting many new people (the contributors of the recipes), and pleasing the taste buds without putting on the extra weight. I don't live in the Carolinas and I don't even eat shellfish, but this book has me looking for an opportunity to get there asap and experience some of the touching dimensions of this land. Not to mention get a bite of some of these dishes. The book offers a surprising global sampling from Vietnamese to Creole, West Afrian and Jewish. Author Amy Rogers has made a noble effort to address the urgency of hunger as a tragic reality of American life without robbing the reader of the joy she obviously takes in preparing and exploring foods of the region. Her dedication to representing the poignant and often funny voices and traditions of the truly diverse people of the Carolinas is also commendable -- from descendants of slaves to recent Asian immigrants, you'd be surprised! Of course, there are the expected down-home offerings like ham and fried chicken. But with this book, the food is just one-third the story. The other two-thirds come with the imaginative evocation of region and the individuals you meet in essays provided (by contributors) along with their recipes. The reader really feels the social connections offered by sharing selected dishes with others. After reading this book, I feel I have met a whole crowd of Carolinians. Next time I visit my sister in Charlotte, I will feel right at home.

An excellent insight into the heart of the sportsman and the South's transition to the 20th century. If you are a hunter, you will appreciate how Mr. Ruthledge brings the excitement of the hunt to the reader. If you are a Southerner, you will better understand the critical time when the South shook off the long-standing burdens of the Reconstruction and joined America's march into the 20th century. Today's reader may be shocked by the way that Mr. Ruthledge describes the interactions between whites and blacks during the early part of the 20th century. It is certainly politically incorrect by today's standards. But it does reveal a much deeper and respectful interaction between the races, despite the caste system of the day. All in all an excellent book about hunting in the South.

Edmund Lee Drago does a good job in his use of primary sources to create what is essentiually a docmuentary history of the Black Red Shirts.

To novices-The "Red Shirts" of South Carolina formed after the KKK was outlawed as the terrorist schock troops desgined to get the (mostly Black) Republicans out of power during the Reconstruction era. Sadly, it worked. Dr. Drago disscusses the littel-known fact that a number of these men were actually Black! He explains why this has not been publicized over the years (and not JUST for the obvious reasons) and provides us with transcripts of trial testimonies of the political violence of Reconstruction-era South Carolina as well as WPA Slave Narrative interviews with ex-slaves in the 1930s who rode with the Red Shirts in their youth. Since the latter two come from the own words of the participants, it adds to the value as I am personally quite fond of books that use documentary histories and books of obscure history.

As is the case of Larry Koger's "Black Slaveowners" and a book I once read (whose title I forget) about men of remote Jewish ancestry who served as Nazis, this goes to show that history does not always follow nice neat lines of logic.