Georgia Books

Secret Yankees: The Union Circle In Confederate America by Thomas G. Dyer (Professor of Higher Education and History, University of Georgia) is a superbly presented historical study of pro-Union sympathizers in Atlanta, Georgia. These are Civil War participants who have been largely overlooked and ignored in both traditional civil war studies texts and popular culture movies such as "Gone With the Wind." Dramatic and personal, with special emphasis on the life and struggles of Vermont native and Unionist Cyrena Stone, Secret Yankees is an incredible insight into a little-known aspect of America's deadliest war. Secret Yankees is a seminal and significant contribution to the growing library of Civil War literature and highly recommended for Civil War Studies supplemental reading lists and academic reference collections.

Professor Thomas G. Dyer's book is a highly important and enjoyable work. All readers can benefit from this excellent work; however, for those with an interest in literary mysteries, Dyer's work offers a special treat. Who was "Miss Abby," the author of a "diary" dated at Atlanta, Georgia, 1 January through 22 July 1864? No one knew. In 1976, the University of Georgia library purchased the manuscript "diary" from a book/manuscript peddler without demanding its provenance, a decision soon to be regretted. The question of authorship was daunting indeed. Faced with a fictitious name and the swollen population of Atlanta toward the end of the Civil War, most writers would have surrendered--not so, this 20th century Sherlock. One would have thought that any stray Yankees in Atlanta would have fled like scalded rats with the first booming from Sumter, or that those remaining were securely confined in the local asylum. Not so, Dyer informs us. Yankees...in Atlanta! Aunt Pittypat would be appalled. In the early stages of his work, Professor Dyer was rightly concerned that the manuscript "diary" could be part of a published work. At an early stage he was also aware that, at best, the "diary" in the collection of the University of Georgia library was perhaps only a transcription of an unknown original document, which he yet thinks was a diary written by Cyrena Bailey Stone. After a careful search of all standard reference, and even rare sources, he found no evidence whatever that the "diary" had been published. However, as is often the case when doing original literary work, Professor Dyer's neck was stretched nicely across scholarship's bloody block. The ax fell. Well into the project, the manuscript "diary" in the University of Georgia library proved to be part of a 1903 novel, "Goldie's Inheritance/A Story of the Siege of Atlanta," by Louisa M. Whitney. To add insult to injury, there were three copies of the novel in the Georgia Room, University of Georgia (where Dyer is Professor of Higher Education and History), as is the manuscript "diary." In the words of a Confederate song writer to President Lincoln, it was "Root Hog, or Die!" Die, Dyer did not. As with Lincoln, he goes on to prove his worth by providing his readers with a new thought provoking view of Atlanta, the home of "Gone With The Wind," during the Civil War. Concerning this work, the following facts are most regrettable. Professor Dyer was not able to locate the supposed original diary of Cyrena Bailey Stone, nor was he able to locate a single example of her handwriting; hence, the manuscript "diary" in the University of Georgia library must remain in doubt, its provenance unknown. The fact that the heroine of this story, Cyrena Bailey Stone, the supposed author of the "diary," was a loyal Atlanta Yankee slave owner, and that other loyal Atlanta Yankees in her nest were also slave owners, would seem sufficient to undermine the basic premise of Professor Dyer's work. This may be so, at least in part. However, Professor Dyer's important contribution does not rest on the faults of the characters which infest his work, nor does it rely on the authenticity of the manuscript "diary" in the University of Georgia library. The thoughtful reader of Professor Dyer's superb work will soon learn why this is so. Working under the burdens I have outlined, Professor Dyer has produced an important seminal work. This work is a must for all readers of southern history.

I agree with the other reviewer in preferring Mr. Bernard's work to that of Mr. Cooper. Bernard brings Talleyrand to life - through the use of the erstwhile bishop's own memoirs & those of his friends - and even his enemies. What came through most was the fabled Talleyrand charm. A modern reader can clearly see why he was as influential as he is reputed to be. As Casimir de Montrond replied to his mistress upon being asked why he liked Talleyrand so much, "My dear madam, who can help loving someone with so many vices?"

With all due respect to Duff Cooper I suspect this is the best English biography of Talleyrand about; it tracks his youth (including his fabled meeting with Voltaire), his involuntary admission to the priesthood, his Revolutionary activities (including his successful bid to strip away church assets), ihs exile in America, his affair with de Stahl, his team-up with and subsequent falling-out with Napoleon, his afterlife as the star of the Congress of Vienna and Louis XVIII's prime-minister and his long retirement (including his role as kingmaker in the 1830 revolution). Napoleon once said that Talleyrand was "filth in a silk stocking"; certainly many of Talleyrand's financial goings-on would qualify as corruption by modern standards but, as Barnard reveals, his foreign policy was generally a peaceful one, and his general approach to governmance sought to reduce civil discord through building a legitimate basis for the government of the day - be it Republican, Bonapartist, Bourbon or Orleanist. Even his so-called womanizing is explained in these terms: on his death bed his primary goal was to legitimize his long term mistress and to return to orthodox Catholicism. A great portrait of one of Europe's most influential and entertaining minds.

As Ron Green writes: "Take away every sports event, but one. I'll Keep the Masters. I'm a hopeless fan, and I make no apologies...." Nor should he...The Masters is a one of a kind sporting event..the last sporting event that has not sold itself to altar of almighty greed. Sportsmanship, grace, beauty, and hospitality still matter at Augusta National and golf is all the better for it.

Combined with his latest book,"The Masters--101 Reasons to Love the World's Greatest Golf Tournament," this is Ron Green, Sr.'s loving and lasting tribute to the event, to the spirit he loves best, the spirit of Bobby Jones, Clifford Roberts, to golf itself, and to the spirit of Augusta.

If Journalism is history in a hurry, this book, "Shouting at Amen Corner" is good history--no, great history. It starts with Snead and Hogan, passes reverently to Palmer, Nicklaus, Player and Watson and on through to Tiger, Phil and others of the current era. Green writes about history as it happens, and, as the young lions become old lions and give way to a new generation, he writes about that, too, lovingly, caringly, but also candidly--most candidly.

This, as you might imagine, is a collection of his best coverage of the Masters beginining in 1955 and continuing through 1999. After brief introductory material for perspective, each chapter, each year, proceeds immediately into his coverage of the event....history as it happned, told by one who understands it, respects the participants, and appreciates their efforts, their agony and their ectasy.

This is a book, as he writes in the introduction, about "moments of greatness and moments of dreadful failure," all told from a deeply human perspective.

If you love golf, especially the Masters, or know someone who does, this book is a must. As was said of the ole Lone Ranger, "Return With Us Now to those Thrilling Days of Yesteryear...." That's what this book is all about, the wonderful days of yesteryear at Augusta and the men who made them wonderful.

A very nice book on a very beautiful subject for golf purists. Ausgusta National is ruled by a bunch of stiff ole grey men in green jackets. But the course and the annual tournament are stuff of legends.

I can't believe it. He saw my worst nightmare five times over every day.

I believe this book is a very inspiring book that tells you how one lives its life. It gives me a very vivid picture of what the author is writing about, It is like a book come alive, and it's like a movie in some way. I am very proud of this man who sees an opporunity and takes it and achieves it. I can see a deaf man who can do anything, Not even blood stops this man. Death overflows this book, I can see the smoke of the dark cloud come out of this book and it feels scary but is also a very inspirating book which is full of true scenes that happened to him. I recommend anyone to read this book. It may encourage young kids to achieve their dreams and not to let anything stop them. Who can be an Emt like this man and face alot of discrimation? I wonder who can stand this much?
Read this book!

OK... This hits close to home. The author grew up in my home town. I dated Arcola Girls too... Two of them to be exact. The author, grew up and graduated high school with my mom so I can almost taste and smell these stories in my mind. On the verge of another "Cola War", I always love to read these stories. Central Illinois is wonderful place to grow up. Deaver captures what it is to grow up and flourish in the flat lands of the Embrass River valley. He can tell the tale and make me feel just like I am there. I have driven those same roads.... American Grafitti for the Midwest!

Ingrum

In Silent Retreats, Philip Deaver shows us what so few writers can: the sometimes delicate, sometimes harrowing, shifting of real emotion beneath the everyday. With deft turns of phrase and a sharp eye for telling detail, Deaver's haunted runners, love-struck teens, and overstressed businessmen seeking serenity reflect to us things about ourselves we have always known, but never stated. In the early-60s, small Illinois town setting of "Arcola Girls", an O Henry Award winning story, Deaver depicts with tenderness teenage love, longing, and loss. Why this book is out of print is beyond me.

For those interested in the history of the music they play or listen to - specifically country, bluegrass and old time - Singing Cowboys and Musical Mountaineers is a detailed and lively introduction to the beginnings of popular American music.

Subtitled, "Southern Culture and the Roots of Country Music," Singing Cowboys analyzes American musical currents across three centuries. Beginning in pre-Colonial America, the book moves rapidly forward to the "industrialization" of country music in the 1920's that reached its apogee in contemporary Nashville.

By demonstrating how rural and urban Americans entertained themselves musically, author Bill C. Malone deftly debunks stubborn linear-inheritance theories of musical transmission. Using countless examples, he shows how American popular music has always had multiple influences.

Favorite tunes like "Coo Coo" or "Shortnin' Bread" did not descend in a straight, "pure" line from slavery. Instead, Malone underscores the significance of close-quarters housing and labor among poor whites and blacks in the 19th century. Despite overt racism, such proximity was particularly common in the south, and forged an active and ongoing interchange of style and repertoire among both groups.

The author also makes a strong case for how music was routinely "traded" between these groups and the professional minstrel troupes performing throughout the big cities and backwaters of 19th century America.

For those who feel that many of our reels and hornpipes remain intact from the British Isles of earlier centuries, this book suggests amalgamating factors not commonly addressed in theories of Celtic or Anglo-Saxon musical influences on American southern music.

Of particular importance to the perpetuation of American folk musical traditions was the Civil War. Men from all over the country circulated songs and playing styles - especially fiddle and 5-string banjo. When soldiers returned home after the war, they brought these musical influences with them.

Underscoring the role of war in cultural transmission, the author points out that American men also went to war in 1775, 1812, 1846, 1898 and 1917.

Where the book really shines, though, is in its analysis of the transition of rural music, performed largely by amateurs and "part-timers," into a multibillion dollar industry. Pivotal to this change was technology. Radio and tape recording were critical factors without which no popular music could have grown to the degree that country music did in the 1930's.

Unfortunately for posterity, there are no eyewitness descriptions of actual playing technique and tunings from earlier centuries. And of course no recordings were made until the first decade of this century. However, banjo players like "Uncle" Dave Macon, born in the 19th century, may have represented somewhat accurate glimpses of these earlier styles in their performances.

Field recordings of rural musicians were made primarily in the American southeast - and most often in the Appalachians. This seeming regional bias was primarily one of convenience: This region was easily accessible from large eastern metropolitan centers -- New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta - that housed the academics who ventured out with tape recorders to "discover" rural music and musicians.

Malone's thoughtful annotations to each chapter of Singing Cowboys and Musical Mountaineers are a Who's Who listing the significant contributions of ethnomusicologists, historians and field recordists to music preservation. Some of those early pioneers mentioned include Bascom Lamar Lunsford, John and Alan Lomax, Cecil Sharp, and Francis Child and, more recently, Ralph Rinzler, Mike Seeger, Norm Cohen and others.

Other musical forms discussed include shape note singing, Child ballads, Tex-Mex conjunto music, German fiddling, Scottish fiddle and bagpipers, the banjo craze of the 1890s, Bill Monroe's inspired creation of bluegrass and the phenomenon of singing cowboys.

Much attention is paid throughout to the powerful role of minstrelsy in transmitting music from rural "amateurs" to professionals and back again. Pop music, after all, has always influenced rural players' musical choices and styles just as much as "mountain music" affected professional performers.

One amusing anecdote from the book highlights the frequent confusion of "genuine" traditional music with commercial recordings:

"At a conference on traditional music held in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in April 1989, ballad singer Doug Wallin presented a short program of songs he had learned growing up in that citadel of old time music, Madison County, North Carolina, where Cecil Sharp had found his richest repository of traditional ballads.

"After reverently announcing that he would perform a song he learned from his mother, Berzilla, Wallin...launched into 'After the Ball,' the monster pop hit from 1896 written by Charles K. Harris. The story and lyrics were basically as Harris had written them, but the modal melody and style were Wallin's. Some of the eminent folklorists in attendance sat in embarrassed or stunned silence." [END OF BOOK QUOTE]

Ultimately, the commercialization of country music created its own influences. Song pluggers and the media would help sustain powerful fantasies, created in the 18th and 19th centuries, of rugged individuals, hillbillies, rubes, singing cowboys and lone mountaineers as enduring American cultural stereotypes.

This book is divided into three chapters : 1) Southern Rural Music in the 19th Century 2) Popular Culture and the Music of the South 3) Mountaineers and Cowboys: Country Music's Search For Identity.

The first two chapters are largely devoted to explaining one of Malone's central ideas - that old time country music did not appear as a pure descendent of an Anglo-Saxon/Celtic heritage. But was rather, like nearly all American music, a product of multiple influences. These included German hymns, French cotillions and, perhaps most importantly, black blues and gospel songs. Also the early country classics of the Carter Family and others weren't always pure folk songs. Malone explains how, much to my disappointment, many came from Northern Tin Pan Alley commercial songwriters. For instance, "Mid The Green Fields of Virginia" was actually written by a New Yorker who had never even set foot in Virginia. Other popular entertainment, such as the minstrel shows and the travelling medicine shows, also played a major role in providing new material to rural Southern musicians.

The third chapter deals with country music's fascination with two types of cultural symbols - the cowboy and the mountaineer. The first big stars of country music were Jimmy Rodgers and the Carter Family. Rodger's adopted the image of the cowboy - a tough, masculine rounder who rambled about in search of wild women and good times. The Carter Family, in contrast, were seen as wholesome mountain folks who embodied the traditional virtues of home and hearth. These country musicians were popular not only with their fellow Southerners but also with urban Northerners who liked to romanticize America's rapidly vanishing days of simple family farms and wide open frontiers. Malone goes on to describe many other cowboy icons, from Bob Wills to Willie Nelson, and how they came to symbolize freedom and independence to the American public. The mountaineer influence also remained strong, with a multitude of Appalachian born perfomers such as Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton and Ricky Skaggs. But while the cowboy hat and boots remained in fashion. The mountainer's image as a hillbilly in overalls tended to become the subject of cornpone humor such as on the Hee Haw television show.

Malone has a top flight knowledge of country's musical and cultural roots. This book is a terrific read for anyone wanting to learn more on the subject

An absolute classic that has withstood the test of time. It will remain essential reading for those interested in the responsible design of stairways.

I have just purchased my third copy of The Staircase. My previous copies were never returned to me by the borrows but still found their way to our towns' school libraries. John Templer,previously a professor of Architecture at Georgia Tech is emminently qualified to write about all aspects of the staircase. The evolution,history and trivial facts of the staircase are fascintating reading for all ages. The pictures will draw you to continue reading. The topic was so intriguing, I found myself wading into the engineering specifications, hazards (including famous people who died on a staircase)and safety issues. I never ascend or descend a staircase without considering the depth of the tread and the height of the rise, the height of the handrail. What a terrific school project appropriate for the 12 year old and over set. I can see them measuring the dimensions of the stairs in their towns' public buildings, gathering statistics on accident and injuries on these stairs and asking the town fathers why this is so!

This book is a must-read by writers, those who would write, and those interested in human studies. It is particularly empowering for writers who struggle for time to write, the required solitude of the writer's life, the pervasive lack of attention by culture to poetry and literature, and the lack of sympathy or empathy from family and acquaintances. These varied essays are also testimonies for the human spirit. An uplifting as well as educational read.

I highly recommend this book as a collection of strong, creative women's writing. Essential for lovers of literature.

This is a fantastic interactive book for those interested in learning or really advancing their skills, quickly!. Georgia Cobb is certainly one of the elite creative talents, and this series of tutorials will enable anyone to create fantastic and amazing images literally in just hours.
All of a sudden everyone I know thinks I am a expert photoshop artist(after 1 week), and it feels really great. It is very easy to use as you just select a tutorial, then she talks you through and you simply follow the moving mouse. It is high paced and realplayer allows you to pause and scramble back and fourth to easily understand everthing.
I would recommend this to first time beginners and real advanced users alike, as the techniques you learn and images she has you create are totally amazing. Then you do the same thing to your images and photos and wham! you are creating incredible expert level material. I feel like a new person...

This product is perfect for those who lack the time or patients to sit and read a program book for hours on end. You play the cd-rom on your computer and work right along with the author as she teaches the lessons. I was up and running with PhotoShop in minutes. The best part was that you can just rewind and watch if you missed how she did a step. Brilliant!!

This book was so good. It had passion, drama, suspense and a whole lot more. I feel like I am in the story with the characters when I am reading Monique Gilmore's books. She has a way of drawaing you into the story. I could hardly put the book down. Definately a good read.

Yvonne Taylor never thought she would fall in love again after the betrayal of her fiancee Desmond.

She decided to go to LA to start a new life. Her cousin Adrianne seemed to be living the life as an accountant, or so Yvonne thought.

Yvonne unexpectantly met the handsome Sean Germaine on her flight to LA. She kept telling herself not to let her guard down regarding this hunk of a man. To say the least Sean got under her skin. Yvonne and Sean were drawn to each other.

Yvonne's cousin Adrianne was definitely another story. I thought Soul Deep was a excellent book. It was definitely power packed and had alot of intrigue. I admire Ms. Gilmore and love the way she writes. This was a wonderful story about making your dreams come true. Learning to move on after a devasting life experience is definitely explored in this book.