North Carolina State Books

With the immediacy of his own words. Gripping. Exciting. A super read.

The definitive work on Smith's writing is Barbour's three volume set, which is expensive and difficult to find (special order on Amazon - $250). That said, Kupperman's work is a useful introduction, arranged in themes she perceives in his works: life and legend, leader of Jamestown, relations with the Indians, interpreter of environment, and advocate of a concept of colonialization. As such the reader does not progress through Smith's writings in the chronological order in which he created them, but there is a cohesiveness which might otherwise be lost if she clung to the actual timeline. No volume of this size could encompass all aspects of this complex, albeit difficult, man, but Kupperman puts the limited space to effective use. I found her introductory essay on Smith to be among the best material I have read on him. If someone had time to read only one thing about Smith, I would recommend these 23 pages. There are some things about the book I wish were better. Kupperman helps the reader with some of the more arcane lingustic artifacts of Tudor English, but I wish she had explained more about the context and references than she did. I also wish she had said more about Smith as a cartographer. His map of the Chesapeake was the definitive map of the region for about 60 years and was copied by the most famous names in cartographic history. His map of the coast of New England were instrumental to further English settlement there, inc. that of the Pilgrims and Puritans. She touches on this but I would like to have heard more. These points aside, however, I found this to be a useful and well written volume.

This book provides a good look at Captain John Smith. Smith, a complex man, led an interesting life -- including neing sold as a slave in Turkey. This book illuminates his tough demeanor, which helped the early colonists survive, but also led to quarrels with them. For those of you who want to know the real Smith -- not the Disney version - this is the place to look.

With attempts by our current President to allow federal funds to go to religious charities, a better understanding of the history and meaning of the First Amendment is desparately needed. One could hardly be better qualified to give us such an education than Leonard W. Levy in his book on the Establishment Clause.

In his book, Levy refutes the nonpreferentialists' claim that the First Amendment clause, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," merely prohibits Congress from providing preferential aid to one church. If "an establishment of religion" meant only single-church establishments, Congress would only be prohibited from exclusively benefiting one church but not prohibited from aiding religion impartially. But, as Levy points out, history does not support the nonpreferentialists' interpretation.

Although the five southern colonies did have exclusive Anglical establishments, the colonies of New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire came to have multiple religious establishments, and, indeed, the colonies of Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey never had establishments of any kind. After the Revolution, opposition to establishments increased, resulting in states having to replace their exclusive or dual establishments or even ending their establishments altogether. Thus, the historical fact of multiple establishments of religion contradicts the nonpreferentialists' interpretation that "an establishment of religion" referred only to single-church establishments, and, therefore, does not support their claim that the establishment clause only prohibits Congress from making laws preferring one church. Nor is their interpretation supported by the debates between the Federalists and Anti-federalists.

Anti-federalists feared loss of liberty and pressured Federalists to accept recommendations for amendments to the new Constitution, which included protection of religious liberty. But Federalists countered that such amendments were superfluous because, as Levy succinctly restates the argument, "[T]he unamended Constitution vests no power over religion." Moreover, Madison stated in an October 17, 1788 letter to Jefferson that these amendments ought to be "so framed as not to imply powers not meant to be included in the enumeration." Thus, Levy concludes, "To argue, as the nonpreferentialists do, that the establishment clause should be construed to permit nondiscriminatory aid to religion leads to the impossible conclusion that the First Amendment added to the powers of Congress even though it was framed to restrict Congress. It is not only an impossible conclusion; it is ridiculous."

From his demolition of the nonpreferentialists' interpretation of the establishment clause and his statement in the Preface that his "sympathies are clearly with the separationists," one might conclude that Levy is a strict advocate of an impregnable wall of separation between church and state. However, he is not. Of zealous separationists who interpret every crack in the wall as disaster, Levy says, "[They are] like Chicken Little, screaming, 'The wall is falling, the wall is falling.' It really is not and will not, so long as it leaks just a little at the seams. If it did not leak a little, pressure on the wall might generate enough force to break it."

Examples of leaks which Levy feels need not be repaired are the Supreme Court beginning its sessions with "God save this honorable Court," the money motto "In God We Trust," the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, tax-supported chaplains for military and legislative bodies, etc. Although Levy is aware of the concern of separationists that "big oaks grow from small acorns," he invokes for "trivial" leaks an aphorism which was also advocated by Madison: "De minimis non curat lex" ("The law does not bother with trifles"). A more controversial leak, however, is Levy's advocacy of tax aid for parochial schools.

Although he agrees that the "claim of 'double taxation' is a misnomer," he asserts that the Supreme Court "ought to relieve the burden of so called double taxation on those who pay to send their children to private school." He also says, "If proper restraints exist on the funds for parochial schools so that tax monies are not spent for religious purposes, and the aid rendered is comparable to the value of the secular education provided by the schools, fairness seems to be on the accomodationist side." To say the least, Levy's leaky wall is problematic. It is impossible that parochial school aid would not set free additional dollars for sectarian indoctrination, and the idea that, with "proper restraints," taxpayers' dollars could be secure from misuse is too good to be true.

In the course of discussing establishment-clause cases, Levy amuses his reader with some pot shots at the High Court. He says, for example, that "the Court has managed to unite those who stand at polar opposites on the results that the Court reaches: a strict separationist and zealous accommodationist are likely to agree that the Supreme Court would not recognize an establishment of religion if it took life and bit the Justices."

Levy obviously writes with passion, and his scholarship is as good as his views are controversial. Notwithstanding my disagreement with him over parochial school aid, I found his book both provoking and educational.

The confrontation between religious and secular values is one of the hottest issues that will confront the Supreme Court in the twenty-first century. Surprisingly, few Americans are schooled in the origins of the First Amendment and the thinking of James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and other founding founders in including this clause as part of the Bill of Rights. A good portion of the volume discusses this extremely relevant topic. We learn that Madison was instrumental in the passage of the Establishment Clause. He saw it as a limitation on the power of Congress to coerce individuals to worship God in any manner inconsistent with their conscience, indeed to enact any law that involved religious topics.

The book continues its discussion of efforts to promote prayer and religious doctrine through government backing by examining leading 19th and 20th century Supreme Court cases. I learned that the celebrated liberal Justice William O. Douglas wrote opinions that weakened the wall of separation; he authored conservative decisions that called for the encouragement of religion by the state...(I expected the opposite). Every informed citizen probably should read this book to discover why the establishment clause is an essential pillar of American liberty.

This is a relatively short book by the noted legal historian and constitutional scholar Leonard Levy. Somewhat polemical in nature, this book is concerned primarily with rebutting the 'original intention' approach to the establishment clause of the First Amendment. Written originally in response to Reagan era claims that the establishment clause permitted non-preferential aid to religion, this book maintains its relevance as this claims continue to be made by a variety of conservative politicians and legal theorists. The non-preferentialist approach states that the establishment clause authorizes federal aid to religion so long as it is not preferential and specifically avoids a single church. The opposite, separationist approach, advocates the so-called "wall" between church and state with the federal government prohibited from aiding religion. Levy systemically examines the nature of religous establishments at the time of the formulation of the constitution, the attitudes of the Framers towards separation, the rationale for seperation, and the basic logic of the Bill of Rights (a subject on which Levy is an established authority). The result is a devastating critique of non-preferentialism based on original intent. Levy shows well that religous establishments in several colonies/states were plural in nature, so establishment can't refer just to favoring one religion. In line with a great deal of other scholarship, he shows that the framers were definitely separationist in orientation. With other scholars, Levy stresses that separationism was advocated by a coaltion of relatively secular intellectuals like Madison and Jefferson and a group of devout churchmen like the Baptists Isaac Backus and John Leland, all of whom felt that separation was necessary to safeguard religion. Finally, he scornfully but correctly exposes the basic weakness of arguing that the establishment clause authorizes non-preferential aid by pointing out that the basic thrust of the Bill of Rights is to constrain Federal power, not to enumerate its powers. Levy's arguments are presented well and are convincing. While non-preferentialism may one day be a viable policy, its advocates will have to search elsewhere for a constitutional justification.
The last couple of chapters of the book are devoted to related topics. Levy has an effective chapter on the inconsistencies of Supreme Court rulings on the establishment clause. He characterizes well the confusion engendered by these often unclear rulings and makes a very good point that the contradictory rulings and often poorly argued decisions are contributing factors to social discord on this issue. Part of this chapter, however, is a bit confusing because Levy wanders into a general discussion of originalist interpretation. This prefigures one of his later books but is not strictly germane to the topic of this book.
Levy also has some interesting comments on his attitude towards separation. While the logic of his arguments leads to strict separationism, he reveals himself to be a modest accomodationist with considerable respect for religion and its important place in American life.

I loved this book! It really opened my eyes about the way women were able to act politically in an age when they could not vote. Pierson tells great stories about the way reformers tried to change the system. He looks at many newspaper and fictional sources, showing us how the stories that people read every day shaped their perceptions of family, and the roles of men and women. These perceptions about northern life also shaped the way people looked at slavery, as a system to be abolished. The section on Jessie Benton Fremont was great -- a fantastic lady that I had never heard of -- but who could have been first lady. This book is also thoroughly researched, with a wide-ranging source base that shows us innovative ways to interpet evidence about the past.

A clear and comprehensive account of how political parties are always out to get your vote by pushing your hottest buttons. This book shows how northern politicians before the Civil War tried to win over voters by appealing to their best and worst instincts about what men and women ought to be doing and how families should work. The section on Mary Todd Lincoln and the 1860 campaign is great, and the Democrats are so piggish! It's scholarly, but also funny at times.

I gave him more than 1 star because I think that a lot of good time and research went into this book. It was a subject that interested me originally, but by about page 80 I was sick of it. Mostly it is an account of Northern women before the Civil War, and how the woman's rights movement corresponded with the anti-slavery movement (for how can a woman urge emancipation for herself without feeling bad for others as well). Sounds interesting enough. That's why I bought it. I was wrong. There were a lot of quotes from Uncle Tom's Cabin and I started to think that if I wanted Harriet Beecher Stowe's comments about anti-slavery politics than I would read her books (the author goes on to quote another one of her books, Dred). There would be no reason to read or purchase this book unless it was to aid your research about the role of gender in the 1850s. Otherwise I recommend to stay away and read something with more personality so as to not bore you.

Progressing from his study of slaveholding in Western North Carolina (Mountain Masters) and other explorations of Southern Appalachian History, John Inscoe has teamed up with Gordon B. McKinney, the editor of the microfilm version of the Zebulon B. Vance Papers and author of Southern Mountain Republicans to produce the first scholarly synthesis of the Civil War in Western North Carolina. The book breaks new ground in relying on the scholarship of the past twenty years to revise the portrait of a part of North Carolina that was considered to be staunchly Unionist. It explores mountaineers attitudes toward slavery, secession, and the war in general in very broad strokes; these insights are fleshed out with details from specific locales. From the historian's point of view, the authors have not met the rigorous burden of proof in many cases, choosing to base their conclusions on just one or two primary sources; in some cases, they are forced to draw from examples outside of the region (such as Tennessee) which would fail to satisfy the most demanding of those who want conclusive evidence. However, the book is a wonderful tale and in many cases shows the myriad of responses to what has been described as the most influential historical event in United States History.

A few pages into this book it occurred to me that it must be written by a college professor since it was text-book dry. Sure enough, not one, but two of them.
Having said that, it is loaded with an insightful peek into a specific region of our country during a very specific time. A good read for anybody interested in the history of the mountains of North Caroilina.

If one is looking for a detailed study of the skirmishes and battles of western North Carolina in the American Civil War, this is not the research. Inscoe and McKinney may only reflect on the skirmishes and battles, however, they skillfully present the detailed sociopolitical and geopolitical "tone" of western North Carolina and the American Civil War. To embrace western North Carolina's entry and struggle during the Civil War, East Tennessee and western North Carolina must be studied.

Equal examinations of the two regions allow a balanced view. Moreover, as border states, East Tennessee had a strong pro-Unionist sentiment. Tennessee and North Carolina were also the last two states to secede, and, with several North Carolina highlander regiments fighting numerous skirmishes and battles in East Tennessee, both states are examined. The Heart of Confederate Appalachia: Western North Carolina in the Civil War provides the reader with the war's "prelude to the aftermath" in Southern Appalachia. There are 368 pages, with 67 pages dedicated to accurate and detailed primary and secondary sources. It is considered a "must have" addition for the student and scholar of Southern Appalachia during the so-called War Between the States.

Matthew D. Parker

I read this book after reading Russell Kelly's book about tithing. Local church support in the US was once funded locally as a collective responsibility via taxes. The local denomination depended on the colony. Pew rental and the all member canvass followed. It was interesting to me that into the 20th century some churches kept non-members waiting outside until all paid up members were seated. Tithing was discovered later but even in denominations that teach a version of tithing a minority of members contribute 10% of their income. Overall, support for activities outside the local church has been falling in recent decades with a growing proportion of spending allocated toward local church activities. An interesting book. I hadn't realized that the current funding crisis is nothing new at all. This book doesn't discuss the scriptural basis for or against tithing in any detail.

As a denominational stewardship leader at the Conference level, I found this book extremely helpful in understanding our history of financing Protestant churches. It brings to mind the wisdom that "there is nothing new under the sun".

A Book Review by Russell Earl Kelly

Having completed my Ph. D. on the subject of tithing, I thought this book complements mine. Each book fills in the holes which the other does not discuss.

This book points out that before 1870 tithing was not a subject of any importance in the Protestant churches in the USA. However, by 1890 it was the most important theme for church support at least from professional educated ministers. It took longer for the laity to begin accepting it. It would take several more decades before pew rentals and other fund-raising schemes were replaced.

The book is very helpful to understand the methodology of church support and the surprisingly high salaries received in the upper scale churches. It does not go into what I thought was the farmer-merchant-preacher of the plains states and the wild West who I thought were mostly self-supporting.

I was impressed how the 1791 Bill of Rights removed state and local supported taxes from the churches and forced them to search for other means of support.

The book agrees with my conclusions that tithing has not always been a doctrine in the established churches either inside or outside of the U. S. until around 1900 and beyond.

Don't expect biblical arguments of every tithing text in this book. That is not its purpose.

Russell Earl Kelly, Author of Should the Church Teach Tithing? A Theologian's Conclusions about a Taboo Doctrine.

Dr. Couto says, "Mediating structures are a prerequisite to democracy. They preserve the liberty of citizens to act on public matters apart form government. They permit their members representation and participation in the sociopolitical arrangements of the neighborhood, community. nation, or state....The test for the democratic nature of mediating structures involves the stringent test of all three elements--liberty, equality, and political action--not only one of the three." With examples drawn from the Appalachia region, community social capital, in his view, are often adequate to meet local decision-making and problem-solving needs, but must be supplemented by outside resources to ensure adequate long-term solutions.

This book furthers the general understanding of social capital, civil society, democracy, nonprofit organizations, voluntary action and, to a limited extent, philanthropy.

A primary contribution of this book is a resurrection and development of a different conception of social capital than what Robert Putnam has articulated. Couto elaborates on Robert A. Nisbet's 1962 conception of social capital as including a material base as well as the moral or value base about which Putnam writes.

According to Couto, "Nisbet relates the failure of intermediate associations (family, community, church, and the whole network of informal interpersonal relationships) to provide the psychological and symbolic functions of social capital -- that is, its moral element -- directly to their diminished capacity to perform the material and economic functions of social capital" (identified as "mutual aid, welfare, education, recreation, and economic production and distribution") (p.53).

Borrowing also on Julian Wolpert, Couto says, "People have different amounts of social capital depending on the actual or potential resources, the size of the network to which they are linked, and the amount of economic and cultural capital the members of that network have." And citing Pierre Bourdieu, Couto adds, "Social capital is never independent of the other forms of capital..." (p.62).

The book then proceeds to narrate the stories of 23 community-based "mediating structures" in Appalachia and discuss how they contribute to social capital, civil society and democracy from a regional economic base that is among the poorest in the country.

At first blush, this seems to contradict the theory above. How can this economically impoverished area produce mediating structures that can succeed in adding to social capital (both moral and material)?

And how do the mediating structures promote democracy?

Recognizing that Nisbet, Wolpert and Bourdieu are correct, nevertheless, Couto demonstrates that increases in social capital and democracy are possible through the interventions of mediating structures even in the most economically devastated and politically corrupt areas of our country.

These Appalachian mediating structures ranged from very local organizations -- such as Dungannon Development Commission (VA), Brumley Gap Concerned Citizens (VA) and Bumpass Cove Citizens Group (TN) -- to statewide and regional organizations -- such as West Virginia Primary Care Association, Virginia Black Lung Association and Southern Empowerment Project (TN). They were organized to deal with economic development, environment, health, families and children, housing, human resources, culture and the arts, organizational and leadership development, and broad public policy.

A key factor in the mediating structures' successes (though not all the nonprofit organizations were successful in everything they conceived or undertook) was the ability of the organizations to extract material assistance from local, regional, state and federal governments and occasionally from for-profit businesses.

Sometimes they developed non-controversial partnerships with governments and businesses to add to the material basis of their communities. Sometimes they undertook controversial direct action to challenge unfair corporate or government policies. And sometimes organizations did both. Couto maintains that the dichotomy between "community development" -- which is usually non-controversial partnering -- and "community organizing" -- which is often associated with controversial direct action -- is a false one when considering the activities and achievements of these 23 Appalachian mediating structures.

Viewing these Appalachian nonprofit organizations from another perspective, many of them delivered services to their constituencies. Many advocated for changes in public policies at both the bureaucratic and the legislative levels. And many did both. Couto demonstrates through his narratives about the 23 organizations that the services and advocacy dichotomy is just as false as the community organizing-community development one.

Couto says, "Community-based mediating structures spend a considerable portion of their effort mitigating the worst consequences of a market economy predicated on rugged individualism and unadaptive capitalism. (They) promote the democratic prospect in places where public social welfare policies are most desperately needed" (p.299).

They promote democracy by building self-esteem in individuals who are often patronized for their poverty, illiteracy and poor health. They promote democracy by teasing out larger visions of how the world could be better against a backdrop of corporate rapaciousness and governmental indifference. They deliver services to their members and others in the community which help recruit people to participate in collective action. They promote democracy by organizing the individuals and their visions into collective action -- whether it be community development or direct action. Even when they fail, or when they succeed then fall apart, they promote democracy by having built self-esteem, enabled vision, and gave birth to concepts of collective action, community development and direct action which frequently translate into new organizations and action that are frequently more effective than the earlier incarnations. Everyone who participated in these Appalachian mediating structures was more aware of the possibilities -- and difficulties -- of democracy after their participation.

But at the same time, Couto suggests that these "mediating structures only supplement efforts to redress market failures." (p. 300) They might provide some help in alleviating the problems associated with workers' injuries or stopping the constant destruction of the enviroment by the coal companies, but they cannot make up for the short supply of public goods and services that might provide full recompense for such situations.

Nevertheless, the rich histories of these community-based organizations in Couto's book demonstrate a complex set of political, social and economic roles. In their political roles, the community-based organizations assist their members and their communities to discover the historical, social and economic origins of their conditions and to develop methods of redress. In their social roles, the organizations create the networks that Putnam and others suggest are critical to building social capital. Finally, in their economic roles, the organizations "weave government programs into these networks far more than limited-government advocates understand." (p.299)

While social theorists portray these local organizations as defenses against government intrusion, which they are, they do more than that by leveraging government money to provide goods and services otherwise in short supply, an essential ingredient to their organizational members and communities to both create and expand key social capital networks.

Robert Bothwell is President Emeritus/Senior Fellow of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, Washington, DC, USA

As the title indicates, this work builds upon (but independant from) Robert Putnum's "Making Democracy Work." In a book both approprate for univeristy level study and laymen alike, Couto presents the subject in three parts. First, Couto provides a well versed lesson in the civic sphere and mediating structures. The middle provides a virtual overkill of sucessfull mediating structures as examples. These examples help the reader understand that the civic sphere isn't some intangable ideal discussed by high-minded professor types, but rather a vital active (and very real) aspect of democracy. The examples lead the reader into the third part where Couto argues that a true and healthy democracy can only be achieved through citizen participation.

Couto focuses upon the central and southern Applachian regions in this work. He shows that if these people historically oppressed by industrial greed, political corruptness and belittling cultural sterotypes can stand up to the tide of Corporate globalism and demand demorcatic justice, then everybody can also. Couto doesn't break new ground, but rather expands upon this very important subject. These are issues addressed by Tocqueville and expanded upon by many great minds since then. Couto has futhered the intellectual pursuit of this concept.

The biggest disapointment is that Greer does not write about the most interesting parts of the Monitor's history: the trip down to Hampton roads and the battle with the Virginia. It is about his shipboard life which details his illnesses and money making schemes to augment his pay which was not paid out to him in full causing financial hardship at home. Mostly of interest for its insights into a sailor's life, less so for info on the Monitor. It's a decent book to supplement other info on the Monitor but not the book to get if you get only one.

The Mariner's Museum has done a commendable job in putting together such an attractive collection of letters from Monitor sailor George Geer to his wife. Through his eyes, we see a more human perspective on the Civil War and the famous battle between the Monitor and the C.S.S. Virginia than is available through most other sources. However, at times this perspective is altogether too human, as Geer devotes page after page of his letters to more mundane esoterica such as selling merchandise to his fellow crew members. The Mariner's Museum also used the needlessly repetitive and districting format style of putting some of the very same passages from Geer's letters in text, in bold, oversize text, and/or in actual illustrations of Geer's letters -- as a result, the reader constantly finds himself/herself reading duplicate passages. I also felt a little short-changed by the brevity of the discussion on the current state of the Monitor wreck and the plans for its future recovery and conservation. A few more illustrations of the wreck itself, and a few less of Geer's letters, would have been welcome. Other than these quibbles, it was a very enjoyable and informative look at a revolutionary ship through the eyes of someone who was there when history was made at Hampton Roads.

An interesting information source for life aboard the Monitor. There aren't alot of books out there about the ship, and I think this book was very interesting and needed. Also George Geer's actual letters are very interesting to read, as he tells everything that happened aboard the ship.

North Carolina Bird Watching: A Year-Round Guide I was very pleased with this book. The pictures were very clear. They were a little smaller than I expected. But overall it was a great help in indentifying the species.

Beautiful pictures and very informative about the habits and sounds of the birds

I have recently moved to the mountains of North Carolina. So I was excited to see a book just for me. It is not too large and it has clear and lovely photos. It begins and ends with a lot of basic bird care, feeding housing, attracting, etc. and landscape information.
Alas, almost every time I turn to this book to identify a bird at my feeder or along a drive into town, that particular bird is not there. The birds that are included in this book are common to North Carolina, but there are so many more that are also common. Where are they?
I think there could have been less "padding" (such as, how to build a birdhouse) at the beginning and end of the book and more actual bird information to have made it a useful tool.

In erudite and responsible fashion, Greene establishes his thesis by first laying out the nature of the Chesapeake and New England colonies. Virginia, he states, was the result of profit-driven members of The Virginia Company, and therefore a commercial colony from the beginning. It furthermore was an individualist colony and only accepted the idea of a community after realizing it otherwise would not succeed. By contrast, New England was a religious colony wholly devoted to the community, where not until later was any individualism expressed. Having laid that foundation, he then proceeds to criticize the declension model of New England and to propose a developmental model for the Chesapeake.

His criticism of the declension model rests principally in that it assumes a deterioration of New England culture and quality of life. As such, it cannot properly address the demographic and economic changes occurring in those colonies beginning around 1660. Having thus assessed the validity of the declension model, he then proposes his own developmental model for the Chesapeake region. That model states, in essence, that permanent civilization grew out of temporary colonies by virtue of the change from strictly individual, go-it-alone pursuits to the much more practical individual-within-a-greater-community approach. That latter phenomenon, he demonstrates, is a reflection of life and the socioeconomic situation in Great Britain itself, thereby proving that not only does the declension model fail to hold for the Chesapeake colonies, it was never representative of the Old World either.

He then goes on to describe the socioeconomic nature of the colonies in Ireland, the Middle Colonies around New York along with the Lower Southern colonies beneath the Chesapeake, and the island colonies in the Atlantic and Caribbean. In each case, he ultimately asserts their strong similarity to the Chesapeake colonies and the legitimacy of his developmental model theory. In his final chapter, he brings all the colonies together to explain the creation and development of an American society, and the colonial move from separate and distinct colonies to united and similar states.

The style of Greene's argument is very satisfactory; he makes no assumptions, or at least pretends not to, and fully and somewhat repetitively explains how each colony is similar to the Chesapeake and dissimilar to New England. It is constructed, therefore, so the scholarly reader can jump to the colonies of interest to him/her, skip over the others, and still fully understand the argument.

The argument itself is highly intriguing, and well grounded within the evidence he presents. One cannot help but see the merit to what he writes. That said, there are a few points of caution for the academic reader. First, Greene pays no attention whatsoever to Indians, and less attention than he should to slaves. On Indians, he acknowledges as much in his introduction; however, with the exception of Ireland, settler-Indian relations were pivotal to colonial development. What does he have to say of Bacon's Rebellion, for example, or any of a number of such conflicts? What about the fact that the settlers initially survived on Indian-grown corn, later established a considerable trading system, and even acquired land from them? One might also ask about the social development of the Indians themselves. How did colonization affect them? Greene ignores that entirely. Perhaps he considers Indians' happiness irrelevant to the overall American pursuit of happiness. Perhaps it was simply an oversight, or maybe historiography has not progressed so far as to include the Indians. Does that issue or any settler-Indian issues weaken Greene's model? Perhaps not enough to invalidate it (or to enhance it, for that matter), but enough to have merited discussion.

As to slavery, Robert Olwell writes in Masters, Slaves, and Subjects that slaves too had a social structure that changed over time. Yet, Greene says nothing about it. He discusses slavery only as far as it influenced white settlers' social development. Furthermore, the descendents of these slaves still make up a relevant percentage of the American population; thus, one cannot discuss the "formation of American culture" without addressing the slaves. Again, perhaps the social development of blacks would have had no impact on the relevancy of his model; all the same, he still should have considered it.

A second point of caution is his assertion that the wretched civilization in the Chesapeake ultimately brought about the republican virtues inherent in American government. Perhaps, but as New England scholars have long demonstrated, republicanism was intrinsic to Puritan social philosophy, and declension or no, was well-established a full century and a half before the Chesapeake adopted it.

A last point concerns the central argument Stephen Innes makes in his book, Creating the Commonwealth: The Economic Culture of Puritan New England; namely, that Puritan philosophy ushered in capitalism. Whereas the Chesapeake adopted repressive measures to stifle the overall economy in favor of elite wealth, New England largely allowed its economy to grow unhindered. Having titled his book "Pursuits of Happiness," Greene utterly fails to discuss the capitalistic nature of the foundation of that happiness: American culture, economy, and government.

Greene tackles an enormous subject and gives it a specific label - his developmental model - that by its very size is certain to have a few holes, most notably the cautions described above. Despite these three points of caution, however, Pursuits of Happiness is an extremely worthwhile book. It lends itself well to discussion of New England declension and colonial development, and certainly, Jack Greene is a historian of established and deserved repute. One may not agree with any or all of the points of his thesis, but even the most devoted student of Bernard Bailyn would do well to consider them.

Greene is on a mission to show that the South (especially the Chesapeake) represents the "normative" model of American development-not the New England model. To do so, he decries the standard "declension" model, based on the history of Puritan New England, and produces a "developmental" model that he proves was normative for all British New World colonies--here New England represents the exception, not the rule. He seeks to analyze three points. First, to analyze the assumptions that have emphasized the preeminence or normative character of the Orthodox Puritan colonies of New England in the early modern social development and formation of American culture. Second, to evaluate and compare among the experiences of other societies in the early modern British Empire and to formulate a model of colonial social development that made be more broadly applicable than the heretofore used declension model of British colonial history. Finally, to delineate the process by which the general American culture began to emerge out of several regional cultures during the century after 1660 and identifying the most important elements in that emerging culture. Colonial historians have used the declension model to explain the early experiences of the Orthodox European colonies of Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut. Greene proposes a developmental model which looks at historical change in new societies as a movement from the simple to the complex. The Chesapeake, being the oldest settle the region, experienced this model first and the others followed - except the New England region, which was atypical from all other British colonies. Green does not discuss Native Americans, and only superficially covers slaves. However, he admits to pursuing his argument with three assumptions: 1) the focus of the book is upon social development and religious, political, and economic developments are considered only as far as their social dimensions are concerned; 2) focus is upon European and African immigrants and their descendants - excludes Native Americans; and 3) attempts to avoid the "idol of origins" which assumes how an area appeared later in time was equivalent to how it began (concerns the subject specially of slavery in the South). An excellent book for any student of American history, it is well written and thoroughly researched. It discusses the major historians and arguments concerning colonial American history.

In Pursuits of Happiness, Jack Greene's objective is to examine the social development and economic change in Great Britain's colonies from 1660 to 1760, and to observe the development of American culture emerging at the end of the American Revolution. He uses an overarching, macro-historical framework in which he looks at the British colonies in the Caribbean, mainland North America and Ireland and classifies each in to one of two models: a developmental pattern represented most clearly by the Chesapeake region, and a declension pattern, exemplified exclusively by the New England colonies "around which much British colonial history has been organized." (xi) Greene's developmental model is one in which settlements move from loosely organized, primitive ventures to economically highly elaborated, institutionally stable and socially mature provinces; in other words, they become "more settled, cohesive, and coherent." (81) He focuses almost exclusively upon refuting the conviction that New England was representative of British pre-Revolutionary colonization attempts, and maintains instead that the Chesapeake region was not only far more similar to early modern Britain than was New England, but that every other colony (including Ireland) mirrored the Chesapeake settlements. Although he offers a concluding chapter in which he describes the various mainland settlements as "becoming increasingly alike" (170) as the American Revolution approached, for the most part, Greene's New England is emphatically anomalous in the overall picture of Britain's colonies. To paint this historiographical portrait, however, Greene chooses a selective definition and application of "declension," ignores contradictory evidence, and reaches his foreordained conclusions based on what are obviously rigidly held assumptions. Perhaps it is Greene's relentless determination to debunk the traditional interpretation of early America in which New England is held to be "normative" (5) of Britain's colonial settlement that leads one to question his approach to this question and to cast some doubt as to the credibility of his argument. As one reviewer notes, Greene "resents the central position that New England has held" over the years in colonial historiography and "never relents in his quest for an alternative explanation." While it is of course perfectly legitimate and appropriate to search for such an alternative, Greene's decision to ignore some evidence and patterns that do not fit his model is to a large extent disingenuous. His selective handling of facts, woven into a conclusion so at odds with prior interpretations and so neatly packaged summon forth Professor Robert Berkhofer's admonition: "You should examine the author's main points, how they went about explicating them and the sets of assumptions that made for their works being exactly the way they are." This is not to object to Greene's refusal to conclude that colonial New England is the model for social development and that the Chesapeake is a deviant example of British colonization. Rather, we can look deeper in to Pursuits of Happiness and learn much from what we read and what we do not read, and consider Greene's assumptions and main points as Berkhofer recommends that we do. Greene's desire to see order, stability, and social maturation in the colonies he describes allows him to minimize and dehumanize slavery, and much else that is unpleasant, disorganized or objectionable in Britain's colonial provinces. Institutions and structures to him are aesthetically desirable, meaningful and define a modern society. He looks from the top down. Greene's use of this approach is why we do not "see" people in the book-slaves in particular are missing, but so too are New England farmers, women, American Indians, and others. This lack of human subjects is somewhat ironic, in that Greene's goal was to "formulate a model of social development." (xi, italics mine) Pursuits of Happiness is fundamentally a reactionary survey, aimed squarely at refuting those studies that have emphasized the typicality of the New England experience. Greene assumed preemptively that the Chesapeake was more reflective of early modern Britain, and more typical of her colonies. By emphasizing declension in New England and defining it in his own terms, Greene of course found what he was looking for: a Chesapeake model more modern and developed than New England, one that all other British colonies resembled. Only by ignoring contradictory experiences and discontinuities, as Cronon holds that all narratives do, does Greene succeed in finding his settled, cohesive, and coherent colonies.

"The doctors tell me I will die, but I mustn't. I have too much to live for-- a husband who loves me and two children I adore. They say nothing can save me, nothing but a miracle." Ottawa native Catherine Donohue wrote those words and more from her bed to the Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church in Chicago in the mid-1930s. She asked for a novena to bring her a miracle. She had to write the words for she could not speak them. Her teeth and a large portion of her jawbone were gone. Cancer was eating away at her bone marrow. The doomed young mother weighed only 65 pounds. Catherine Donohue was a charter member of the nonexistent organization, "The Society of the Living Dead," so called because members had two things in common: all worked at the Radium Dial Company in Ottawa, Illinois and all eventually suffered an agonizing death from radium radiation poison. More than 30 of these area co-workers (among others in dialpainting plants across the country), each of whom painted a radium-laced solution onto clock faces, watch dials and military equipment so they would glow in the dark, found that the simple habit of licking their brushes into a fine point eventually gave them terminal head and bone cancer. The tragedy, which became a major news story of the 1930s, evolved to a classic text book workplace hazard case that continues to generate controversy and affects city residents in the 1990s. These luminous paint workers and their struggle to have their mysterious symptoms recognized as an industrial disease is told in finely researched detail within the new book, Radium Girls: Women and Industrial Health Reform, 1910-1935 by Central Michigan University historian Claudia Clark. Besides the promise of decent work for decent pay, Clark writes, part of what must have made dial painting an attractive job was working with such a sensational product, glow-in-the-dark paint. Assured that the radium-laced compound was completely safe, even digestible, the young women painted their dress buttons, fingernails, eyelids and even their teeth for fun. When they went home from work, they thrilled their families and friends with glowing clothes, fingers and hair. The book explains that the greatest exposure to radium was in the mouth and jaw area of these women. Dialpainters were instructed in the technique of lippointing to perform their finely detailed work. Mixing the dry, luminous paint powder with paste and thinner, the workers drew their small brush to a point with their lips before dipping it in the paint, and then meticulously filled in the numbers or other marks on clockfaces or other equipment before repeating the process. In great minutiae, Clark retraces the steps that these dying dialpainters took to uncover exactly what was killing them in an era where most workers, especially women employees, had very little power. The author explains their frustration as they discovered alarming facts about the danger which were withheld by their employers, government officials and medical researchers who were just beginning to learn about radium poisoning. The famous scientist, Marie Curie, credited with the discovery of the element radium, died 100 years ago after long exposure to the new substance. However, Clark insists the pioneering Curie understood and accepted the risk of the working with the unknown, unlike the "radium girls" who were completely uninformed about the dangers and died long before the health problem was entirely recognized.. Well documented, the publication details the extensive efforts of the sick dialpainters and their families to obtain proper compensation for their medical bills and suffering. Clark chronicles how these brave, ordinary people were also instrumental in demanding reforms which changed an entire industry forever. This solemn book is important to Ottawa in that it reminds area residents that the "radium problem" was not solely a local situation. Other such factories existed in New Jersey and Connecticut whose workers experienced similar luminous paint poisoning problems. On the positive side, the radium cases sparked much needed legislation concerning occupational diseases and workers compensation laws throughout the country. Steve Stout Utica,Il

This book is fascinating--It is readable, non-technical, and covers an intriguing and little-known subject. It describes an episode of women's activism on health issues before activism was considered the proper province of women. During and after World War I, hundreds of women, mostly young and unmarried, were employed to paint the dials of watches with self-illuminating paint containing Radium. Some of the women began to fear for the job's effects on their health, but had great difficulty in getting any action taken. This book describes their efforts to have these hazards corrected, and the problems they had dealing with uncaring factory management, inept government officials, skeptical members of the medical community, and eventually with the courts. It is disturbing, yet fascinating! Highly recommended

I hope I am savy enough to put this review in two places for this book and Deadly Glow Deadly Glow: The Radium Dial Worker Tragedy Both books are good and cover the tragedy of many young women who painted dials with radium paint on glow in the dark watches and dials and guages before there was a good appreciation of the hazards. Unfortuntately the companies involved in the producing glow in the dark watch and other faces refused to accept the hazards much like the tobacco industry refused to accept the hazards of smoking. Only in this case the effects were much more certain and lethal. This book Radium Girl... is actually adapted from a college thesis and is rigorously referenced. It is also somewhat dry as one might expect but it is worth while reading especially if one is interested in industrial health and safety at that period in time. The book, Deadly Glow... is a much easier read and enjoyable to boot. I'd have to rate it above the former for the average reader. I am a Health Physicist, a Radiation Safety Specialist that is and of course that is why I read both books.
There was information in Deadly flow which was not mentioned in Radium Girls, one specific is that apparently the practice of painting watch dials started with expensive watches in Switzerland befor it occured in this country.