North Carolina State Books

Glenn Eskew has detailed the history of the civil rights movement in Birmingham from 1945 to almost the current time. His account is a detailed view of the struggle within the African-American community to find a way to confront segregation that was regnant in Birmingham. He has told a story riveting in its details and close observations. I lived through the period covered as a white liberal in a city undergoing enormous change. I knew many of the players who stride across these pages--Fred Shutttlesworth, Eugene T. "Bull" Connor, Abraham Woods, C. Herbert Oliver,Police Chief E.H. Brown Lucius Pitts, James A. Head, David Vann, Erskine Smith,James Bevels, Tommy Wrenn, Meatball Dothard, John and Addine Drew,Tom King,James Mills,and James A. Simpson. Culiminating in the 1963 marches lead by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr., Eskew shows the interaction of the local civil rights movement impacted by a national movement. Before King ever came to Birmingham the struggle for civil rights was carried on by local people who deserve to be valorized. Eskew does not do this. His careful and balanced interpretations make this history at its best. If you want to know how a city becomes captive to an ideology (segregation of the races) in a way that permeates all of social, political, educational and cultural life it is revealed here. You will see how dissenters are rejected and punished. You will see how newspapers, churches, pastors, businessmen--indeed every segment of society--is made to bow down to the God of Segregation. Eskew is all balance and historical objectivity. I fault his account in only one way, which is subject to argument and interpretation. He misses the fact that "vigilante activity," the blowing up of houses, the beating of rebels against segregation, and the general terror that held segregation in place was "governmentally sponsored." The Klansmen who bombed, whipped, cut, tortured and attacked were protected by the police and approved in the community generally. This is a fine study and a wonderful corrective for a generation who think that Martin Luther King was the civil rights movement. It was an indigeous protest movement and different in every community in the South. Eskew tells Birmingham's bloody story, in a fine prose and sense of drama, that brings that old struggle to life.--W. Edward Harris

Dr. Ausband's elegant, easy, affable writing style (threaded with humor and just a hint of the bawdy) mirrors that of his subject, and reading this book is very much like listening in on a conversation between two men sharing their thoughts, observations, and tall tales about their adventures in a land they both love, while warming their hands around a steaming mug of coffee before an autumn campfire. The fact that they are separated by three centuries of "progress" is no barrier to their camaraderie, and because the book is so well written, the reader becomes a member of Byrd's expedition team, too, as Ausband does---without having to clean the mud off his or her boots, or cut through the brush in the Dismal Swamp. Almost incidentally, he or she also gets an education in botany, ornithology, and zoology along the imaginary line that separates Virginia from North Carolina, the descriptions of the animals, plants, and people Byrd encountered (and Ausband revisits) as colorful as the Carolina parakeet that once overran the area--and nowhere to be found is the cloying smell of leather elbow patches and tweed the one might expect such a book to exude.

It's a skillful piece of work, written by a master storyteller, and will be of interest to anyone who is a student of Byrd of Westover, a resident of the geographic area, a fisherman or hunter or hiker, or a bibliophile unable to resist the lure of an exceptionally well-wrought book.

Who was Christian Frederick Martin? By the time you finish reading "C.F. Martin and His Guitars 1976-1873," you'll have a keen appreciation of and better understanding about the German immigrant, cabinetmaker's son, craftsman, entrepreneur, and guitar maker. Because C. F. Martin left virtually no personal writings, you may not learn much about his personal life, but you will be presented with a fascinating view of American business during the first half of the 19th century.

Philip Gura, historian and Professor of English and American Studies at the University of North Carolina, has a lot of zeal for the history and culture of America's music industry. Gura's interest in the subject was explored in his 1999 award-winning book, "America's Instrument: The Banjo in the Nineteenth Century." Since then, Dr. Gura spent over a year reading and digesting Martin's letters, account books, inventories, and other unique archival documents that had not been previously examined in any thorough manner. Gura sets the stage by explaining the importance of music to antebellum Americans, along with the concomitant public infatuation ("guitarmania") with the guitar and guitarists. Early photographic processes documented the instrument and its players, and this book portrays many excellent illustrations of how Americans embraced the guitar. In fact, the book has 175 illustrations, many in color. Before the mid-1830s, there were few guitar makers in the U.S., and none had contributed significantly to the instrument's development. This changed when 37-year-old C.F. Martin arrived in New York in 1833 to find his opportunity under a free market system without restrictions.

Martin had learned the trade, in the European guild system, by studying for 14 years with Austrian guitar maker, Johann Georg Stauffer. During the 1830s in New York, Martin was a craftsman, importer, repairman, and merchant. It's interesting to read about the custom instruments he built, his business dealings, the kinds of items he stocked, his sources of income, and his expenses. Some of his employees and business acquaintances are also profiled. Martin was an astute and successful businessman, and he moved to Nazareth, Pennsylvania in 1839 to concentrate solely on guitar making. Unfortunately, his first decade in Pennsylvania is not well documented, but author Gura was able to find accounting journals and business letters from about 1850 on. There are interesting anecdotes about such characters as Ossian Dodge and Martin's guitar displayed at the Crystal Palace Exhibition which opened in 1853.

Gura writes about Martin's standardization of his instruments and how the guitar maker adapted to economic conditions and industrialization. By the late 1840s, for example, a steam engine ran Martin's equipment for sawing and shaping lumber. I found it fascinating to read about Martin's emphasis on quality hand craftsmanship and business independence, while other makers (like James Ashborn and William B. Tilton) used other approaches. Another well-researched chapter in Martin's history is the importance of C.A. Zoebisch & Sons, who eventually became Martin's wholesaler for his guitars. The author points out that some unscrupulous people even attempted to build forgeries of Martin's guitars during his lifetime. By the time of his death in 1873, C.F. Martin had built an excellent reputation as a master, and the company continued to successfully thrive under the direction of Martin's son. Today, the company still produces some of the best guitars in the world....under the able direction and oversight of C.F. Martin IV.

There are other fine books that deal with the guitars themselves. Philip Gura, however, has successfully painted an insightful portrait of C.F. Martin, a man with vision and keen business acumen. If only more of Martin's personal letters survived, we would've been given a very unique glimpse at that side of the expert craftsman. There is little offered about his family, pets, hobbies, interests and beliefs. While some biographical information is presented, this book's central theme is a historical one about music business and culture in 19th Century America, as illustrated by one seminal man's involvement in it. Philip Gura's charming book is well-researched, thoughtfully written, beautifully illustrated, and professionally executed.
There is still considerable mystique about C.F. Martin, his instruments and the company he built, but this historical perspective captures the American spirit of this legendary merchant and artisan. (Joe Ross, staff writer, Bluegrass Now)

Cape Hatteras: America's Lighthouse is a treasure to all of us who love what is arguably the most famous lighthouse in the world. The authors should be commended for writing not only a fascinating look into the past and future of this great beacon, but also a damn fine tale of passion, perseverance, intrigue, romance, grand schemes, utter calamities, and vast heroism.

This is an important bit of American history but it is not a dry text. This book is a real page-turner, one that will illuminate your mind as surely as the Hatteras lighthouse on a frightening, dark sea. Like the mariners which once depended on the light to skirt a dangerous coast, after you finish reading this book, you will be grateful for the experience.

Tom Fowler's Carolina Journeys: Exploring The Trails Of The Carolinas Both Real And Imagined is an engaging and rather unique compilation of commentaries on locations and landmarks of the Carolinas as observed by a Carolina expert with years of little-known knowledge enhancing the book as a greater map of the Carolinas then any other standard travel guide. Carolina Journeys informs the reader of such occurrences and places as the tales of Tom Dooley, Hernando de Soto, the shad fish, the Great Indian Trading Path, and grand old trees and rock carvings that still dot the Carolina landscape. Carolina Journeys is very strongly recommended to all visitors, residents, natives and aspiring visitors of the Carolina area, as it is a fun and eclectic collection of Carolinas' most intriguing stories and locations. If you are traveling the Carolina's for fun or business, don't leave home without your own personal copy of Carolina Journeys!

While compiling a listing of North Carolina wineries, I stumbled across Pamela Watson's book in a local library. With the wealth of history on grapes and winemaking in the Tarheel State, I bought an autographed copy for my personal library. I found it perfect for the day tripper, as this paperback fits nicely in a picnic basket or the door map pocket of my van. Extensive interviews with winery owners, lots of history, precise driving directions, wine listings, food pairings, and other sites of interest near each winery (including chambers of commerce, lodging information, and recommendations for local eateries). Well researched and complete for both North and South Carolina and their burgeoning wine industry. Contains telephone numbers, web sites (if available), and suggested winery groupings for day tours. Would that all winery guides be this complete!

Although I haven't read all of this book, the contribution of Robert Krick, entitled "The Smoothbore Volley that Doomed the Confederacy" is such that it alone, at least to me, makes this an invalualbe book for students of both Jackson and Chancellorsville. For anyone who has been fascinated with the precise reconstruction of a historical event taking place at a defined place, Krick's writing will prove fascinating. No biography of Jackson that I have encountered, even Robertson's, provides as much detail on the circumstances surrounding this tragic occurence. As he points out and is generally known, the monument at Chancellorsville which purports to mark the spot where Jackson was shot on that May, 1863 moonless night is incorreclty placed. Read and take this book with you when visiting the area as the map included will prove of great help.

Dr. McLaughlin presents a wonderfully constructed portrait of the modern woman. As we are launched into the information age, the role of women throughout society is going to change dramatically. McLaughlin captures the beginning of this wonderful change. This is a book I will keep on my shelves for years and years.

If you're serious about navigating the crazy streets of Charlotte and the rest of the Great State of Mecklenburg, you owe it to yourself to pick up this book. It is EXTREMELY detailed and very up-to-date. The indexing system makes life simple, and there are several pages with blown-up maps of important landmarks (like Douglas International Airport). Paramedics and EMTs use this book exclusively - we like it so much that our dispatchers send us the page number and grid square for emergency calls! It'll serve you well.

This collection of nine essays, edited by Thad W. Tate and David L. Ammerman, examine various aspects of the development of Anglo-American culture in the Chesapeake colonies, Maryland and Virginia. The studies provide a detailed and informative consideration of life in the seventeenth-century Chesapeake.

The scholars writing in this volume have published various works on the colonial Chesapeake. James Horn, who authored the essay on servant emigration to the Chesapeake, has written Adapting to a New World: English Society in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake. Lorena S. Walsh, who herein examines marriage and family life in colonial Maryland, has written From Calabar to Carter's Grove: The History of a Virginia Slave Community. Darrett B. and Anita H. Rutman provide a startling and compelling portrait of family fragmentation and reformation due to early parental death and successive remarriage. The two also cowrote the study, A Place in Time: Middlesex County, Virginia, 1650-1750, a detailed reconstruction of life in a Virginia county, for masters and farmers and servants and slaves.

The emergence of an American-born elite is considered in Virginia by Carole Shammas, author of Inheritance in America, and in Maryland by David W. Jordan, author of Foundations of Representative Government in Maryland, 1632-1715. Carville V. Earle, author of Evolution of a Tidewater Settlement System, presents a study of disease and death rates in early Virginia. Kevin P. Kelly studies the dispersed settlement patterns in Surry County, Virginia. Kelly authored The Economic and Social Development of Seventeenth-Century Surry County, Virginia. Lois Green Carr and Russell R. Menard, who have authrored and edited a number of studies on the Chesapeake, present in this book a study of the economic opportunities of freed indentured servants in Maryland.

The essays presented in this work should interest anyone researching Chesapeake history or Southern genealogy.

Africans and African-Americans were present in Virginia from early in the seventeenth century, but the essays herein concentrate on the early Anglo-American presence. The book by Rutman and Rutman, as well as the work by Walsh, should be consulted for African-American life in the early Chesapeake. See also Wesley Frank Craven, White, Red, and Black: The Seventeenth-Century Virginian. White, Red, and Black is a tremendous but succinct study of the white, Indian and African presence in early colonial Virginia. Gerald Mullin, Flight and Rebellion: Slave Resistance in Eighteenth-Century Virginia, as well as works by Mechal Sobel, illuminate black colonial experience in a later period.