North Carolina State Books

I can't believe the other rave reviews. After about 50 pages I began to think of this book as the efforts of a not very talented high school student. The characters are paper-thin, the plot trite and predictible, and the writing plodding. I'm shocked that the author is teaching writing at a quality university.

I just finished reading my first novel in a very long while--The Road from Chapel Hill. And, like the last two novels by Joanna Catherine Scott, it is just a wonder! Because of her library research and because of her not being steeped in Civil War "voices," expectations, and mythology her whole life--Scott is Australian, and because of her considerable gifts for putting the reader in a place, credibly so, this is fresh and new. I felt as if I were seeing the countryside of North Carolina, the time, the "furniture" of their lives in a totally new way, and of course the plot is also very fresh. I admire how the author resists the conventional ending and has Eugenia turn toward Wilmington at the end of the War and a search for mother and maybe brother; that felt right to my unconscious. Scott does not spend a lot of time awash in ambiguities for her, either; Miss Genie turns that way and it feels right to her. And that sensible/sensitive turning makes us see how successfully this character has matured over the spoiled little girl of early 1861. And then at that very end, the title begins to reflect her story too, "the road from Chapel Hill," not just "the road" of Tom or Clyde, the other main characters--who have textured, fascinating stories of their own in this novel. Very curious perspective, our Australian author's. But very cool--an entirely fresh view of the well known American tragedy, our Civil War.

I was fascinated by how strong a sense of place I got from The Road from Chapel Hill. I've never been in the South, and my image of it was based on cliches, antebellum mansions falling down, Spanish moss on soggy trees, and I'm sure all that is true, or it wouldn't be a cliche, but Scott's South has a tangible reality that has stayed with me. The character of Tom is the most amazing part of the book. To write about a figure burdened with horrible injustice, to write without anger or political intention, but by simply observing and reporting the situation, gives an even more profoundly horrifying view of life in slavery in those times. That's what makes the novel so powerful.

The Road From Chapel Hill is one very fine book! After reading it I see why it is getting such well deserved attention. Joanna Catherine Scott is a master storyteller who writes like the poet she is. As a former journalist who always enjoyed the research as much as the writing (if not more than), I'm impressed with her attention to detail. I can hardly wait to read the sequel. Bravo!

War stories can be both stimulating and daunting. This story of the American Civil War with its graphic, sometimes tender, sometimes violent, encounters highlights an aspect of war that portrays the emotional side of battle and conflict without glorifying the actions. As an Australian I found much of the rationale contemplative and I appreciated gaining an understanding of an alternative view of slavery and events of the time that led to the Civil War. As an aside, it was intriguing to read the fleeting reference to the copper miners chasing new wealth and settling in Australia at Kapunda.

A touching christmas story, about the devotion of a little boy who tries to give his four year old polio cripple sister an angel doll as a christmas gift.
The story is narrated by his best friend and paper-route partner.

This is a simple story about devotion and love... Good read.

We've known Jerry and Linda just over a year as neighbors. While our interactions with them were somehow special as Jerry walks his dog past our home each day, reading The Angel Doll opened an entirely new journey deep into the heart of the person we knew only casually. Aside from the fact that it is an "easy read" for anyone, the book opened the soul of what we have come to love about the people of the Blue Ridge Country. It epitomizes all that is so genuine and real about those who touch us on a daily basis. As you step each step with Jerry through the lives of those involved in his story, it also takes you through the world in which he lives. Mountain people have always been an interesting study, but somehow the people of the Blue Ridge are different and Jerry has enabled those people to absolutely come to life.

It has a universal appeal to both women and men, children and adults and puts a mirror in front of all of us. There are stories scattered throughout the book to which all of us can relate in our own little worlds. I would strongly advise anyone contemplating ordering the book to go ahead and order the sequel since the two are inseparable and the sequel is a true continuum of the first.

I am amazed at the diversity with which Jerry is so talented and skilled.

Thanks so much, Jerry and Linda for not only the book but your friendship! Also, on a personal note, thanks Linda for the delicious chocolate pie you brought, it was yummy and we could literally taste the love!

Big Huggggzzzzzzz

The Angel Doll is a quick read and one to surely bring tears toyour eyes. It is a beautiful story, (definitely one for the holidayseason), set in the South in the 50's. This is the kind of story thatone would want to read to their children each and every Christmas.With the "me" generation is full force, this tale will bringhome, in full force, the power of love and caring and friendship.This tale will leave its full impression on your heart and leave youwondering about the mystery of the dolls. I just discovered on ...,that there is a sequel to this lovely tale and can hardly wait to readit! Uplifting tale for the entire family and I strongly encourageparents to have their children read it!

Whitey Black has a chronically ill younger sister Sandy and all she wants is a Christmas angel doll. It is the 1950's and Whitey and his friend are working together on a paper route. The setting is the rural south and friendship is at the center of this wonderful story.

This is the premise to a blessed event that will fill the lives of many sick children for years to come. It is a story of remembrance and benevolence. It is a heartrending tale of a young boys love for his sister. For those of you who enjoy THE CHRISTMAS ANGEL there is a sequel titled, A GIFT OF ANGELS. This is a superb pair of books with appeal for the whole family, a Christmas tradition. Kelsana@yahoo.com 12/25/01

This is one of the best books I've ever read. It's sad that the boys sister is sick, but glad because he cares so much for her, he wants to by her a book called THE ANGEL DOLL. After he reads her the book she wants an Angel Doll for Christmas. In order to figure out what happens in the story, you have to read the book. I would reccomend this book to anyone who likes Christmas stories, and to anyone who likes sad and happy stories.

A great read. Could have been titled The Wagon Master. It was the efforts of troops led by people like Morgan that held off the British long enough for Greene to 'succeed' and for the French fleet to arrive.

One can hardly pick up a book that has anything to do with the Revolutionary War without reading something ranging from a tidbit to several chapters on General Daniel Morgan. The significance Morgan played in the war for American independence cannot be overstated. And yet, only two biographies have been published on this heroic figure that played such an integral part in American history. This book DANIEL MORGAN: REVOLUTIONARY RIFLEMAN, by Don Higginbotham, being one of them.

It borders on travesty that General Morgan is a virtual unknown in American society and certainly unknown among anyone lacking basic knowledge of American history. Higginbotham accurately portrays Morgan as a man among men; a portrait of the rugged individualism that characterized so many of our founding generation.

Morgan, perhaps as much as Washington himself, I believe, had as much to do with winning the war for independence as any single individual. Many might disagree with that statement, but consider the outcome if Cornwallis' southern campaign had been successful. Consider the consequences if the southern revolutionary army had been annihilated. It is more than likely that there would have been a different outcome at Yorktown had it not been for the commanding leadership and battle tactics of the "Old Wagoner". It can certainly be argued that Morgan's actions at Cowpens, where he soundly gave Tarleton's light infantry a `Devil of a Whoopin', turned the tide in the south. And though he missed action at Guilford Courthouse due to illness, his same battle tactics were employed with success.

This is not one of the best books you will ever read, but considering the lack of choices on Morgan, this is a must read for knowledge on the General's life and accomplishments. Perhaps in the near future, one of today's acclaimed historians will render an updated version, but until then, put Higginbotham's book on your reading list. The book is brief, but concise, and will lend a candid look at a somewhat forgotten, and often overlooked American hero.

Monty Rainey
[...]

Dan Morgan epitomizes the rough-and-ready individualist who made America.

A frontiersman from the Shennandoah Valley, Morgan knew a hard early life that steeled him for the physical challenges of his Revolutionary War service. A wagoneer in Gen. Braddock's Expedition, Morgan endured 400 lashes after tangling with a British soldier (he claimed only 399 and loved to regale listeners with the fact that he still owed the British one miscounted lash).

His physical endurance and prowess was combined with the ability to lead men and a superior ability to plan and manage battlefield tactics. He has been described as one of the Revolution's best battlefield commanders and this book gives plenty of examples to support that claim.

Morgan's service to our Republic was remarkable. Although a failure, his part in the Quebec expedition helped make possible one of the most grueling campaigns military history. Traveling overland through the spine of backwoods Maine, Morgan helped lead outnumbered American forces to a wintry showdown that could have produced a fourteenth colony in revolt against the Crown. In fact, Morgan stood at the moment of victory; had his desire to keep driving into the city after breaching its under-defended backside been followed, the city could have been captured. As it was, hesitancy on the part of other American commanders led to defeat and Morgan's capture. He had to endure a period of imprisonment until paroled.

That parole was a costly one for the British. It allowed Morgan, when exchanged, to play his decisive roles at Saratoga and Cowpens.

Morgan's ability to lead riflemen and read the battlefield was crucial to Gate's success at Saratoga (which led to French recognition, support and the resources to chance complete independence). Morgan's later brilliance at Cowpens, site of the famed double envelopment of Tarleton's British Legion, led to the series of events that ended with Cornwallis being pinned against the James at Yorktown. Cowpens, arguably the most decisive American victory of the war, was brilliant. Morgan, as the American commander, threaded strategic understanding, leadership (he had to persuade bayonetless American militia that they had a crucial role to fulfill in the battle and would be allowed to retire once fulfilling it), battlefield planning and tactical control to produce a victory that is rightly studied to this day.

A character, Morgan is one of the men who made the Revolution a success. This highly readable account develops the man, his character and his military personae in introducing the modern reader to a historic figure who needs to be more widely appreciated for his great effect on the success of our founding.

Higginbotham does a credible job of revealing Morgan's personality, character and genius as a military leader, particularly since there is little if anything known about Morgan before he appears in Winschester VA at the age of 18. The book reads fairly easily and describes the elements of the Revolution's Southern Campaign in which Morgan participated, but Higganbotham seems to have a penchant for defending Horatio Gates in a positive light I have not seen before. He seems to gloss over most of Gates's personality flaws and military errors to render him more effective than he probably was. This treatment of Gates raises the issue that face many biographers; i.e. they take a liking (or disliking)to a character and sometimes use literary license to make their points. This is the first biography I've read on Daniel Morgan, who is portrayed as a classic American hero, rising from nowhere to have a major impact on history. My interpretation of Higginbotham's characterization has me believing that without Morgan the Revolution may have been lost because Morgan's victory at the Cowpens effectively set the stage for Nathaneal Greene to later drive Cornwallis from South Carolina to Yorktown where Washington and the French conducted the final battle of the war. Stuff I love to read and talk about: unheralded heroes and certainly Morgan appears to be one of the most important in America's fight for freedom. But I have to wonder whether Higginbotham has skewed the facts about Morgan as he seemed to do with Gates. I hope not.

A terrific telling of one of America's first heroes. Dan Morgan and his kind are the ones who helped birth America. Higginbotham's writing is slightly dry, but the content more than makes up for it.

A simply outstanding story!

Everyone has there own style of doing things. To me, it's just another cookbook, not anything significant.

If, you're not able to cook at all. By all means, purchase Mama Dip!

Just can't say enough about Mama Dips cook books. If you buy one you should buy the other ( Mama Dips kitchen.)I am a misplaced southern girl, living in the mid-west, and you don't find much soul food in our parts. She has all the recipes I grew up on with my grandma's good ole southern food. Lots of the things I had stored in my memory bank, but there were so many more. I am so glad I found these two books! Believe me you will be also!

Mama Dip is a legend in NC. Her recipes are wonderful. This was a gift for my brother-in-law in who lives in the Pacific Northwest, but loves Southern cooking. His family will certainly benefit from some TRUE Southern recipes from a TRUE Southern cook.

I WAS VERY DISAPOINTED IN THE FAMILY COOKBOOK ,I WAS EXPECTING GREAT RECIPES LIKE HER OTHER BOOK MAMA DIP KITCHEN IT WAS FOOD REAL CAROLINA PEOPLE COOKED.

As in the first book, this also is fun reading and even more fun making the recipes. Definitely recommend this for you all if you want to make things like your mom or grandmom did!

A great book, we have used the book to plan our trip, from the UK to Asheville, we are now looking forward to the trip, and experiencing sights and tastes of north carolina,

Not having been to North Carolina previously, we are heavilly dependant on research material, of which this book is great.

Another review will be made after testing the book out, but if Asheville is as good as the book, then we should have no worries.

Pantas' guide book offers a wide range of topics to suit every interest: outdoor/indoor team sports, camping, antiquing, historic walks and driving tours, kid activities, drama, music, food, lodging....the list goes on. The guide tackles Asheville & Hendersonville - the largest WNC cities - and also includes the major surronding attractions like the Great Smokies National Park, Cherokee, Maggie Valley, etc.

The accompanying drawings, made by Pantas, in pen and ink are exquisite and make this tome as much an art book as an information source.

Whenever available, Pantas includes websites and/or email addresses to suit virtual trip planners such as myself. These resources even make it an excellent tool for the local that wants to find out more about what's just down the road in their own WNC communities.

The only failing of the book is that it doesn't cover surronding areas of Asheville/Hendersonville very well in the accommodations and dining sections. The counties in which these cities are situated have many fine accomodations and restaurants all within a short drive of their county seats (15 miles or less). He should also consider including restaurants and accomodations near the outlying attractions so that people taking a day trip to one of the places he suggests that is not so close to Asheville will know where to eat or where to stay if they're too tired to drive back the same day.

One other small thing is Otherwise, the book is beyond reproach.

Pantas lists activities, events, galleries, antique shops, kid stuff, historic info, architectural tour info, and so much more....There is something for everyone in this tome. And, though it focuses on Asheville and Hendersonville, this book touches on the major attractions in surrounding areas as well--perfect for day trips or even longer side excursions.

My only complaint is that, if readers do choose to tour outside the book's focus, they'll have to look elsewhere for dining and lodging options as this text only includes that information in for Asheville and Hendersonville.

My wife and I had bought several books about Western North Carolina before we found Mr. Pantas'. After spending the last week reading over the information inside the book, all I can say is that we did ourselves a dis-service in purchasing all of the other books. I have never seen a more comphehensive and detailed outline, before this book, about a place I was scheduled to visit and potentially relocate too. The "pictures" are great and I hope to see more of his works of art while in Western North Carolina. The Ultimate Guide is a an extraordinarily valuable research tool.

Much too much information to be really useful, because most of it is pretty superficial. How can it be otherwise, when the author has crammed every possible thing he can think of into a book that can't accommodate so much information? The book is also poorly organized/structured, and with such a large amount of material, good organization is critical. The multitude of cross-references is extremely annoying -- the reader shouldn't have to keep flipping around the book to find information on one subject. The author's drawings are very nice, but on the whole the book looks like it was not professionally produced (just looking at the cover gives me a headache.) If you want a book on Asheville, you're much better off with something less comprehensive that has more depth. (E.g., a lengthy list of attractions or restaurants or other things that provides little or no description doesn't do me any good . . . ) Try "The Underground Asheville Guide" as an alternative -- it's a little too cute, but ultimately more helpful . . .

Although we know that armies march on their bellies and that the search for food has played a crucial role in building societies, the writing of history has often neglected this important subject. Only recently has food history taken its place alongside more conventional approaches to history-writing. This book is a fine example of the new interest in food history.

What impressed me as I read it was how little I had known before, and how much I was learning about what New Englanders ate throughout the region's history. We've all heard about Boston baked beans and Indian pudding, but I didn't know about the gingerbread that colonial militamen nibbled on muster days. Nor did I know that bear was considered even better eating than venison by the Massachusetts Bay colonists. One nineteenth-century writer asserted that cod fish was to New England what roast beef was to England. What struck me most, however, was how the authors discuss the colonial revival of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and how that period shaped our ideas of "historic" New England. What we think of as New England's historic foods--the "first" Thanksgiving meal, those Boston baked beans--were partly based in fact but were mostly the invention of the colonial revivial.

The ways that people use their traditional foods to represent their culture are described in fascinating detail in America's Founding Food. There's a wealth of detail here, but also a great story about what food meant, from the settlement of New England to the revival of the region as a destination for those interested in America's roots. This is a substantial, thoughtful book.

This is a fascinating story that uses food to debunk many of the myths about New England that we learned in school. Here you will find the real story behind the English reliance on Indian corn, the origins of chowder, and the ways dishes such as baked beans were used to promote one social group over others. This is history at its best--fun, factual, thoughtful, coherent, and readable.

Yes, a scholarly book, with illustrations. Yawn. If you seek anything more than research and the occasional black and white illustration, look elsewhere. I'm sure the authors are being "celebrated" within their communities, but the hype is just that; hype. The cover of the book is the only colorful, exciting thing about it.

Not that I was expecting a cookbook, but it does not appeal to a wide range of people, and that is a flaw. The authors therefore come across as if they must be glad to be part of such an "elite" group of people who "get it," while the rest of us are simply ignorant.

Also, this is definitely not for the foodies.

My New England bookshelf groans under the weight of historical studies focusing on the politics, theology, intellectual life, industry, and notable people of the region. These are all worthy if well-worn subjects. Then there's the New England tourism industry, selling "ye olde" Boston baked beans, clam chowder, and Indian pudding as vaunted, almost sacred, symbols of the region. Here, finally, is a book that explains the connection between the two, taking both the history and the food seriously.

There are many surprises here, for instance that turkeys were often boiled and garnished with oyster sauce when served for special feasts, and that the first English to settle the region grew corn because their wheat crops mostly failed. This is a careful, food-oriented story, with lots of detail on what people ate, and how it was processed and preserved as well as cooked. It's also interesting to learn what average families wanted to eat when they were dining on their daily pottage.

The authors use memoirs, letters, and novels as well as cookbooks to uncover what New Englanders thought about the foods they ate. This is a compelling account and a detailed study, with lots of good stories to leaven the Boston Brown Bread. Whether you're interested in the ways gingerbread recipes changed from the court kitchens of the Middle Ages to the farm kitchens of New England, or in the reasons why a wallflower cuisine like New England cooking became enshrined as American food, there's something here for you.

Americans still think particular New England foods and menus, like Thanksgiving dinner, Boston Baked Beans, and boiled Maine lobster, are important parts of our American identity. This highly informative book tells us why these and other New England dishes were important to many generations of Americans, and continue to be part of our American heritage.

With wit and erudition, the authors separate fact from fiction through careful analysis of some hoary traditions. Along the way, they left me chuckling over such food-lore gems as the Adams-Jefferson dispute on when to serve pudding and the controversy concerning the "authentic" way to make Rhode Island Jonny cakes, with one side declaring that the other's was "hick feed."

There's something here for just about everyone interested in American history or the history of food. From a discussion of the economic motivation for setting up those quaint New England fishing villages to the environmental implications of animal husbandry (which the English colonists introduced into New England), we learn to think somewhat differently about New England's past. Along the way, we get a glimpse of American home life as it was lived, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries, in New England--the houswife who worries that she's too late bottling her plums and the little boy whose mother's "fire-cake" is such a treat. This book makes you feel like you are in those kithcens. Boiling a hundred oysters to make Oyster Ketchup, helping to butcher a 280-pound hog, these New England cooks were really something!

While it is a history and not a cookbook, this book gives both cooks and history buffs the solid information we need to separate the wheat from the chaff in terms of New England food lore. It offers a chance to see what New Englanders ate, and why, and most tellingly, what they thought about their food.

I bought this book for a graduate class I was taking and while it was a little dry at times it still contained a wealth of information on the Appalachian region and their struggles and hardships. It gives you a good perspective into the lives of a people who are normally looked down upon for being viewed as little more than "backwoods hillbillies" and lets you see these truly remarkable people for the hard workers and cultured beings that they are.

An expansive work that contains many insightful views into one of the most studied, but misunderstood American regions. While the book is titled "A history", it is as much a history of "how" Appalachia is studied as it is a straight history of the area.

The author's central theory is that Appalachia was, and is, an internal colony of the United States, with its natural resources of coal and timber shipped out, and almost all finished goods shipped in. Few of the factories and industry that use Appalachia's coal and timber are within its borders. As a result its economic system closely resembles a colony, with northern interests reaping the benefits of Appalachia's riches.

The author claims that Appalachia's identity was largely constructed by outsiders who wanted to either exploit or save its people. While the book is extensively researched, most of the analysis and history are the author's thoughts or those of other academics. The voice of the Appalachian people is strangely absent. In addition, the history of the area post-1970 is pretty thin and is more about the people who study Appalachia, than the regions itself. The 1980s-present is barely covered at all.

Be aware, the author has little good to say about private corporations, free markets, or the wealthy. The U.S. Government, the TVA, and the Park Service are also painted in a poor light. Everything that is wrong with Appalachia appears to be somebody else's fault. Once I realized his views, I was able to dive into the books theories and constructs, which were well worth the effort.

Despite a few quirks, I learned much about a region of America that I realized I knew little about, and what I knew was wrong and invented by outsiders. The author's love for the region is evident.

It took me a while to read this book:

a. because I found what he was writing about so interesting that I kept going back to the footnotes to see where his information came from, and

b. because so much of what he writes about I know to be true from my own experience, my own reading or from the experiences of friends and family.

It just rings true to me.

I don't know if every person who grows up in Appalachia thinks about what it means to be Appalachian, but as soon as he or she leaves the mountains (in my case I only had to go to college in Lexington, VA), it's going to mean something to everybody else. Particularly if that person is from West Virginia, where just saying what state you're from betrays your hillbilly status.

I spent the first 20 years of my life being ashamed of being from West Virginia and trying to leave it. I spent the next 20 years not only making peace with it, but coming to love it.

Througout Williams' history, he questions the notion of Appalachian "otherness," and the reader may think him agnostic on the subject, or perhaps a holder of the belief that its otherness never existed. But by the end of the book, it appears he fears for its survival as an "other" -- surely a view we share.

My fascination with Appalachia's terrain and people has been growing for years, but I was finally prompted to read this book at a music festival in the western mountains of Virginia. When I asked a local woman to show me how to do a kind of clog-dancing common in the region, she answered (very sweetly) "I'm not sure I could teach it to you -- it's a mountain thing."

This book might be the best single way to explore the historical depths of what that "mountain thing" is. It takes us from the original Cherokee (and other) residents and their sorrowful history; through the first settlement by Europeans; through the very complicated Civil War period; through the pillage of the region by coal companies. logging companies and others; and into our own time, with Appalachia imagined on one extreme as America's Third World, and on the other as a folk paradise of folk-music, woodcraft and quilt-making.

The sections on the Civil War era were especially enlightening for me. I grew up thinking of central Appalachia as just another part of The South, hence rebel territory. More recently, I was taught that Appalachia was an island of Unionism, or at least neutrality, in the midst of the Confederacy. The reality is much more complicated and sadder. Williams carefully reveals the many warring sentiments that made mountain life a true 'civil war', with neighbors fighting neighbors, towns preyed on in alternation by Confederate and Federal troops, bands of free-lance marauders, and guerilla armies of every variety. More than one young mountain man was drafted into both the Confederate and Union armies in succession. A gruesome story, one that makes the violence of 'Cold Mountain' seem almost tame.

I close with a small complaint: this book could use more, and better, MAPS. John Alexander Williams very nicely explains how the region's layout has affected its entire history -- but to follow what he was saying I found myself running to the atlas many times. Several good, detailed, relief maps would have made a big difference.

This book is a must for anyone tracing their forebears or just wanting to understand the unique cultures of this area. I am most pleased with this book.

The Best Hikes of Pisgah National Forest by C. Franklin Goldsmith, III, Shannon E. G. Hamrick, and H. James Hamrick, Jr. is only slightly above average as far as trail related hiking books go. I do appreciate how the book is organized, especially at the end of the book when the hikes are organized as Loop Trails, Hikes for Children and the Elderly (easy), Half-Day (or less) Hikes, Full Day Hikes, and Trails Accessible from the Blue Ridge Parkway. This feature is, in my opinion the single most helpful element of this book. I do appreciate the GPS coordinates when they're provided.

What this book is lacking are good maps. The maps provided are small, and if you need reading glasses may cause you problems. As another reviewer pointed out, finding the exact location of some of the hikes may be problematic if you're unfamiliar with the area. The authors do provide the USGS map quadrant name, but it would take much to provide decent maps in the book. I'd be willing to pay a premium to get a package.

Despite these negatives, I still have found The Best Hikes of Pisgah National Forest to be above average.

This is an execellent book that provides helpful descriptions of each trail and how to find them. Especially helpful that it uses USGS maps instead of printing their own. I highly recommend this book.

Cutting a long, diagonal swath through the mountains of western North Carolina, Pisgah National Forest offers some of the finest mountain hiking in the eastern United States. Covering the entire national forest, this guide will help you find a great trail to hike regardless of what your definition of great is.

This guide describes 112 national forest trails ranging from a flat, easy 0.5 mile loop to a rugged 12-mile hike one-way through Linville Gorge. The guide is organized around the major hiking areas in the national forest including Black Balsam Knob, Max Patch, Mt. Mitchell, Davidson River Valley, Linville Gorge, and Avery Creek. Each area features an excellent, detailed map copied from a USGS Topo map, driving directions (including landmarks) to the trailheads, and a detailed description of the trail. Additionally, the authors of this guide give GPS coordinates to designate trailheads, major intersections, and points of interest. With the increased popularity and availability of GPS navigation systems on the trail, the GPS coordinates add a nice touch that most guides still do not offer. This feature places this guide on the cutting edge of all hiking guides.

Perhaps the strongest point of this guide is its versatility. In addition to the GPS feature mentioned above, this guide describes both individual trails and possible routes for loop hikes. These day loop hikes are given in addition to descriptions of the longer backpack trails in the forest, namely the Mountains-to-Sea Trail and the Art Loeb Trail. Hikes located near the Blue Ridge Parkway are listed separately along with a list of hikes suitable for children and a list of easier trails suitable for the elderly. All of these features and the pocket-small size of the book add up to a guide that can be used by everyone no matter what kind of hike you desire in the Pisgah National Forest.

In summary, I have a bookshelf full of hiking guides, and this guide is perhaps the best guide I have ever encountered. If you are planning a hiking trip to western North Carolina, this is the guide you want in your pocket or in your backpack.

I think that the other reviews on this book are a little over inflated. Pros on this guide: good trail descriptions and the GPS coordinates are a definite plus (although not all the hikes in book include GPS coordinates).
Cons: 1)- Numbering the hikes and giving them a quality rating would be nice (1 to 5 stars). 2)- Putting a key map with their hike number at the front of the book would greatly speed up the process of figuring out where the trails are. I am not from NC and it took me quite a bit of time to figure out where on my trails illustrated map the hikes in this book were located.

The national forest's trails and wonders are revealed by authors who've hiked the trails most of their lives. 100 of the most scenic, strenuous hikes are described in a guide which requires strong walking skills and access to North Carolina wilderness region.

Kars' work is an extremely well-argued and well-defended book that offers through look into the larger trends behind the North Carolina Regulator Movement in the 1760s and 1770s. Her analysis and through research give, what historians call "agency," to the Piedmont farmers and their families. She demonstrates that they were not passive or simple reactionary entities, but in fact, were deeply involved and active capitalists and political entities. This is a prime example of social history, and a easy read, especially for those interested in Southern or North Carolina History. As Kars argues near the end of her work, the themes discussed in the book are essential to understanding similar movements throughout the Southern and Western states for the next 200 years, particularly in the Antebellum period in the south.

Incredible portrayal of true activisism and a better understanding of
Pre-Revolutionary history in North Carolina and the Regulator movement.
I truly believe that this was definitely the first Revolutionary War uprising and history should accept it as what it was.
What devoted people Herman Husband and the Regulators were who truly believed in wanting their fair rights and to have all the people recognized not just those privileged few at the top.
This book really helped open my eyes as to what just a few, who believe in truth and justice, can do.

The only reason I bought this book was because it is required for one of my classes taught by Dr. Bouton, who is mentioned in the acknowledgements. Dr. Kars is a professor, here at UMBC.

Had to read this book for my Founding of an American Nation history class, its actually not boring and is interesting. If anyone is wondering why so many farmers were pissed off and what fueled the revolutionary idea's, then this is a good book for you :)

The "War" of the Regulation in NC has long cried out for an in-depth history, one that avoids the romanticism (First Battle of the Revolution!) and the innacuracies (Regulators vs. the British!).

The truth of the matter is that neither side in the conflict wore white hats. While the colonial government, like all British-styled colonial governments, supported "court house rings" and was not responsive to the justifiable complaints of its under-represented citizenry, the Regulators were, by any standard, insurrectionists. They took up arms against their governnment, destroyed property, endagered public officials and threatened to march on the capitol at New Bern. It is difficult to imagine any government threatened by such a situation not taking up arms to curtail it. There was much blame due each side.

Ms. Kars comes down early on the side of Regulators, missing the balance that such a history deserves. She gives far too much weight to her belief that the dissent in the backcountry was linked to a religious upswelling, ignoring that the Carolina backcountry was noted by many sources as being nearly totally irreligious.

Her work does contain an accounting of the period and its major events; but the reader should consider that the account she presents is slanted toward the Regulators.

Trotter's book is a detailed study of the most horrific murdering, plundering and pillaging of the mountain communities of western North Carolina during the state's darkest hour--the American Civil War. Commonly referred to as Southern Appalachia, the North Carolina and East Tennessee mountains witnessed divided loyalties in its bushwhackers and guerrilla units. These so-called "bushwhackers" even used the conflict to settle old feuds and scores, which, in some cases, continued well after the war ended.

Some bushwhackers were highly organized `fighting guerrilla units' while others were a motley group of deserters and outliers, and, since most of them were residents of the region, they were familiar with the terrain and made for a "very formidable foe." In this work, Trotter does a great job on covering the many facets of the bushwhackers, including their: battles, skirmishes, raids, activities, motives, the outcome, and even the aftermath.

Matthew D. Parker

The books of Trotter's trilogy, "The Civil War in North Carolina" (the other volumes are "Silk Flags and Cold Steel: The Piedmont" and "Ironclads and Columbiads: The Coast") were published as independent works and can be enjoyed that way. But one can't get a good understanding of the war in the Old North State by reading about a single region. I strongly suggest that serious students of the war, or of North Carolina, take time to read the entire trilogy.

Aside from John G. Barrett's "The Civil War in North Carolina," Trotter's trilogy is the only modern comprehensive account of the war in the Tar Heel state. (See also my review of Barrett's book at Amazon.com.) Unlike Barrett's rather academic, formal approach, Trotter is as concerned with telling some good stories as he is with documenting North Carolina's role in the war. He includes a fairly extensive bibliography in each volume, but apparently he relied mainly on published sources, and the footnotes are very sparse. This is not to say that his work is inaccurate or invalid, but it is hardly the ultimate account of the war in North Carolina.

His geographical division of the three volumes also presents some problems. Much information about the state's entry into the war and about its political aspects is found in the volume on the Piedmont, "Silk Flags and Cold Steel," but the most important battles in the first three years of the war -- which had an influence on these political events -- are covered in the "Ironclads and Columbiads" volume about the coastal war. These two volumes also contain many later events that "interact," for example, the closing battles in March and April of 1865. And some events in "Bushwhackers" - most notably, Stoneman's cavalry raid in the final weeks of the war - also lap over in to Piedmont. Again, a full understanding requires reading all three of these books. Trotter, while adopting a mildly pro-Confederate tone like Barrett's, doesn't do as good a job of tying events in North Carolina to those of the wider war.

"Bushwhackers" stands best on its own among the three volumes; here Trotter does a vastly superior job to Barrett in portraying both the nastiness of the mountain conflict and the difficulties the Confederates had in defending the western area of the state, especially in the latter part of the war. Much of "Bushwhackers" focuses on Thomas's North Carolina Highland Legion, a unit made up partly of Cherokee Indians, which fought throughout the war and gained a fearsome reputation in Great Smokies area. Trotter also spends much space here on Confederate deserters and draft dodgers who flocked to the mountains to hide out (shades of "Cold Mountain!"). (In his other volumes, Trotter also devotes ample time to draft resisters and Unionist guerrillas in the Piedmont and Chowan River regions.) However, his account of the war in the mountains is more episodic and less cohesive than the accounts of the other two books, perhaps because the North Carolina mountain war was more diverse and source materials about it rather scarce and sometimes apocryphal.

One failing that Trotter shares with Barrett is the poor quality of his maps ("Bushwhackers" has no maps at all!) and the lack of description of battle sites, roads, and other places in modern terms. It took me a while to figure out that the town known in 1861 as "Warm Springs," on the French Broad River, is named "Hot Springs" on modern maps; and I never did figure out if "Quallatown" is the same place as the present-day Cherokee, North Carolina. (If not, it must be very close by.) A copy of DeLorme's "North Carolina Atlas and Gazetteer" is a vital supplement to these three books; modern place names and locations of battles and other events should have been located using modern landmarks, included as footnotes.

Trotter's trilogy is "popular" history, entertainingly related and highly readable. He doesn't hesitate to have occasional fun with purple prose- "The obsidian mountain night engulfed them like wraiths" -but the writing usually is lively and flows well. There may be more recent and more thorough books about various aspects of the Civil War in North Carolina, but Trotter's trilogy presents an introductory survey in a convenient package.

Bushwhackers; The Civil War in North Carolina The Mountains written by William R. Trotter is an epic backrop for the great military war that occured behind the scenes in the Mountainous regions of the western North Carolina Appalachian's. The book attempts to document much of the voilence that did take place such as Fratricidal Raiding and Bushwhacking skirmishes that took place amid small bands of men whom operated under no regular military command. There was no Official Reports filed on most of this fighting. Major connections to East Tennessee, as well, this book is a pleasure and more a treasure for anyone interested in history and genealogical findings on their ancestors that traveled thru the southern states to freedom.

Bushwackers is a reader friendly account of the civil war in the mountains of North Carolina. Besides the historical accounts, Trotter includes stories that have been passed down and are rich fodder for storytellers. Trotter has a creative non-fiction style that brings this time and place alive. :)Mary Z. Cox

Not much has been written on the Civil War in the Appalachians, where, as William Trotter so eloquently puts it: "The killers had names, the victims had kin, and everybody had a gun." Bushwhackers is the best-researched, most thorough account of the mountain war that I have found. When I was researching "Ghost Riders", my novel about the Civil War in the mountains, I found that Mr. Trotter's book was the most useful guide to the chronology of events and their significance. In addition to primary source material and histories, I consulted his book at every turn to make sure that my narrative on Zebulon Vance and Malinda Blalock agreed with the historical record. When other authors disagreed on some point of information, and I had to chose whom to believe, I always chose Trotter. This book is a distinguished piece of scholarship, and an invaluable resource to the Appalachian historian. Highly recommended!