North Carolina Books

This book was published first in 1835 but as 19th century novels go I found it fairly well-done, and holding my interest. There is a lot of melodrama, and the Indians are portrayed with some balance. There are some racist-like views, and a silly scene where Hector, a slave, begs his good master not to set him free. But the account is fast-moving and event follows rapidly on event. The scene is 1715 in South Carolina, and involves an Indian insurrection which actually happened, tho it is pretty hard to find much about it in history sources. Some of the speeches put in the mouths of characters in the extremely stressful situations in which they find themselves are not without humor to today's reader. It is said this is the best of Simms' novels, and knowing that makes me think some of his other novels might be fun to read--this one is.

Far more is written about Christian missionaries from the North, especially New England, than from the South. The author attempts to redress some of this imbalance with this story of the Jiangyin Mission Station of the Southern Presbyterian Church near Shanghai, China. The home church of the Station was in Wilmington, NC which may make the book of especial interest to Carolinians.

The author has turned out a good academic history of the Station and the American missionaries who staffed it. Jiangyin began life with an anti-Christian riot -- the missionaries were accused of killng children to take their organs for medicine, an echo of the common rumors around the world today that Westerners kill children to steal their organs for transplant. Over the years the Mission was accepted by many in the Chinese community -- although converts were few and far between. The author includes maps and photos plus a lot of detail about how missionaries lived and worked. An especially good chapter details the trials and tribulations of the missionaries when Japan invaded the region in 1937 and, finally, forced the closing of Jiangyin on December 8, 1941. The Church opened Jiangyin after WW II, but it was closed permanently by the Chinese Communists in 1951. The history of Jiangyin is pretty typical of hundreds of Mission stations in China.

Well, this is a subject with a limited readership and -- however well done this book -- I have to wonder why academic books of such limited sales potential are not simply published on the web as ebooks and made available free to the general public. The author surely does not get rich off the royalties.

Smallchief

Having been the state's Commissioner of Agriculture for 36 years, Jim Graham knows more about North Carolina food than anyone else. During these past 36 years the state has moved from a land of small family farms to one dominated by industrial and technologically advanced cities. This gave Mr. Graham the idea of publishing a book of recipes of the cherished country cooking from the state's past for the NC urban dwellers of today.

The recipes were gathered from all over the state by NC Cooperative Extension and the NC Farm Bureau as a tribute to this great man and his contribution to the rural residents of North Carolina. The true authors are the residents of the state who submitted their favorite recipes. Jim Graham wrote the Introduction and submitted one recipe to the anthology, his mom's Brunswick Stew. Many of the entries include notes by the contributors that give them a truly personal touch. Proceeds from the book's sales go to the James A. Graham Scholars Endowment at N.C. State University.

If you have one North Carolina cookbook in your kitchen, this should be it. Now that the small towns of the state are hosts to fast food restaurants, and rural citizens spend hours commuting to city jobs, this book will long preserve a fading heritage for future generations. It is a labor of love to be cherished by anyone who loves North Carolina foods.

I have just finished reading Catherine Edmondston's journal of her life during the Civil War.

I am so grateful to "Kate" for making the effort to record each day, 1860 to 1866 as she experienced it. She recorded the reports, rumors, and her vitriolic response to the hated Yankee depredations. She also found time to record the ebb and flow of the plantation work her personal joys and sorrows. I feel she shared her life with me, a woman of different circumstance in 2008.

It is a hefty book, weighty in both substance and size. Many a night in bed I struggled to hold it upright at an angle harmonious with my bifocals. Reading it from beginning to end is a task of persistence and devotion. I feel rewarded by the effort.

The story offers the opportunity to travel back in time, to be immersed in the thinking and social fabric of the secessionist south.

At times I became impatient with her favorite themes, the gentlemanliness of the Confederate Officers contrasted with the "ill bread" Yankees, her acerbic abuse of Lincoln. Still what would you expect? Do you want social realism or some sanitized romantic novel?

The last entries, after Lee's surrender, made the whole reading worth while. Catherine and her husband Patrick had three properties and about eighty-six slaves. She continues her entries for another year as they struggle, former master and former slave to work out a new social contract.

Catherine excoriates the "Freeman's Bureau", their meddling, rules and general mischief. It is frustration and miscommunication on all sides. The dysfunctional family that was the Plantation hierarchy falls apart before the reader's eyes. There is a redistribution of power, misread on both sides as the model shifts from Master and Slave to Labor and Management. Kate has a wonderful ear for dialect and dialogue. You can hear the speech and see the participants confronting each other both uncomfortable and on unsure ground. It is the beginning of the transition period in race relations that may devolve into the Presidency of Barack Obama.

Those who read and enjoy James Joyce will appreciate the learned illumination within this commentary by Kershner.

While it does not specifically address its chapter headings to the later novels, it does take in the entire opus while considering technique and meaning and thus tangentially though deeply refers to Ulysses and Finnegans Wake in a manner most helpful.

As I am one most interested in the novel Ulysses, I was disappointed not to find chapters specifically dedicated to that novel of novels, but my frustrations were quieted to discover the novel as well as the Wake adequately considered in the comprehensive context of the works. In fact many valuable insights not found elsewhere are available here.

Specifically the chapter headings are dedicated to each of the tales of the Dubliners collection, and to Portrait, with strong consideration of the proto-Portrait Stephen Hero fragment. It is rare to find the Dubliners series so carefully considered and commented, and a delight to discover hidden treasure with the able and clear help of Kershner. Nevertheless, one cannot help but notice a few lacks of insight; for instance in the direct discussion in the subchapter dedicated to The Sisters, she mentions only that the adults at the boy's foster home speak in banal triteness, concealing there real meaning. Only later does she in passing indicate that hidden unspoken meaning is the gossip of pederasty which they dare not mention in the boy's presence. Certainly this is neither banal nor trite. And the boy uses silence and disguise as he lives involuntarily in a rather unloving foster home, which wishes to introduce him to "boxing his own corner" and the wonders of "faints and worms" of the brewery, whereas he would prefer not to drown his brain cells in alcohol but in deep thought.

And as mentioned above the profound reflections on Ulysses and the Wake are of course not only icing on the cake but a meal in themselves (does that adequately though not tritely mix a delicious metaphor?).

In an area of literary study noted for its incomprehensible jargon, it is truly a delight to encounter the clarity with which Kershner writes, reflecting the precision and well-developed depth of her research and thought. Joycean commentary can be filled with the insubstantial fruit of associate professor's "publish or perish" desperation, or with the competitions in micturation (to adapt the more vulgar phrase) by higher academics, but Kershner has something useful to say and says it well. Her definitions of terms, although common to the specialist, are clearly presented. I am especially grateful for this, as I admit this to be my first full-length and in-depth introduction to Bakhtin's thought, and I appreciate very much this author's careful and clear accompaniement. In fact this is the majoy work relating Bakhtin to Joyce, and might incidentally serve as a general introduction to Bakhtin, as other Joyce commentary does for Lacanian philosophy. Joyce prophetically foresaw how busy his writing would keep the future generations of scholars, as demonstrated here in the fullness of its ramifications.

Highly recommended for the intermediate reader of Joyce's early works, with strong indications and perceptions for those like myself most interested by his later work.

A valuable addition, with clarity, wit and substance, to any shelf already well laden by Joycean commentary. If you do notice the rough spots in this book, and there are indeed some bumps in the road, as well as the yawning lagunas in the commentary where some insight is missing, then you are ready and able to advance to further and more challenging explorations, such as Joyce's Messianism, etc., which comes HIGHLY recommended for any budding Joyce scholar.

William Bosch offers a unique study of the Nuremberg Trial. He examines the attitudes of various groups in America regarding such subjects as the legality of the trial, its purpose, and its predicted legacy. The book includes a tremendous amount of research with many lengthy footnotes and an exhaustive bibliography of books, periodicals, newspapers, documents, and letters. The groups considered were: American policy makers, international and domestic attorneys, congressional leaders, religious leaders, historians, foreign affairs writers, military officers, behavioral scientists, and the American public at large. His results are valuable albeit not terribly surprising.

In addition, Bosch also extends his research to the Vietnam war. He examines whether or not Nuremberg principles should be used in the trials of Vietnam soldiers who disobey supreme commands or if two American pilots captured in northern Vietnam should be tried for war crimes by Ho Chi Minh's court. By noting the relationship between Nuremberg and Vietnam, Bosch demonstrates that the Nuremberg Trial was not just an event left to the past but is an event that has a significant influence on present and future issues regarding international military law.

If you are interested in this subject, I highly recommend seeking out this book. It is very well written and contains a mountain of valuable information on American attitudes toward the Nuremberg Trial (the trial being undoubtedly dominated by American ideals). I have written several college papers on the Nuremberg Trial and this book has proved an invaluable source.

This is an excellent book for anyone searching their geneology for connections to American Indian Nations in North Carolina. It is a well written history book that is interesting to read. I have trouble putting it down and wait anxiously to pick it up again.

Mr.Dorfner took the time,energy and patience to retrace Jack Kerouac's footprints left in North Carolina and the result is a VERY imformative and enjoyable book. For me,it has answered ALL the impending questions regarding Jack's journey/stay's with his sister(Nin). Once I closed the last page, I found myself aching to head out to North Carolina to find a little piece of Jack left behind by someone who had no idea of the mark he has left for us all. One of the best parts is where Mr.Dorfner actually locates the famous trees/woods Jack spoke so fondly of in his masterpiece, "The dharma bum's". If you are a SERIOUS fan of Kerouac then this book is DEFINITELY worth reading.Congrat's goes out to Mr. Dorfner for his research in finding out Jack's life in North Carolina.

This is really a fascinating and well written book. Oriard looks at every angle in deconstructing how and why football became America's Game by 1960. Great illustrations accompany very readable text. It's a social history as much as a football history, but it speaks volumes about the sporting heritage of America and how race, class, and ethnicity are reflected in the game - and indeed how the game has forced us to confront some of the less savory facets of American society, particularly race. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of football and American popular culture.

H. Trevor Colbourn writes that the college-educated colonists received a heavy dose of the Greek and Roman classics. This classical education would make it easy for them to assimilate into their own character the virtues embodied in Cato the Younger. Many of these men, such as Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Nathan Hale, and others, would quote from the play in many of their writings and speeches. Colbourn asserts that in the years leading up to the American Revolution, and especially after the Stamp Act crisis in 1765, the play "Cato" served as the epitome of resistance to tyrannical British rule for many colonists.

It is indicative of the Age of Enlightenment, which educated leaders such as America's Founding Fathers, to select their models of heroic virtue from Greco-Roman history instead of from the Bible. Plays, such as Addison's "Cato" social and philosophical message was clear to any Enlightenment audience because it was Roman moral virtues and not Christian morality that Enlightenment audiences most embraced. Cato's self-reliance caused his actions; not his reliance on God. This notion of men acting outside the sphere of religious bonds was an important lesson that was certainly not lost on our Founders, especially since many of them were such devoted disciples to Enlightenment ideals. In fact, one could stipulate that "Cato" is part of a genre of plays that replaced the Christian morality plays that had been so popular for centuries in Europe.

The revolutionary generation immersed themselves in the classics, which enabled them to be on the look out for examples of distant tyrannical rule. The Founding Fathers believed that in order for a new nation to survive as a republic, they would need to remake men in the mold of Cato as portrayed in Addison's play, and as other heroic men found in "Plutarch's Lives." Cato was first and foremost a patriot. He would not have sullied himself by becoming embroiled in party politics. Thus, the Founders learned from his example and understood that they too had to be especially diligent in guarding against men forming political factions and the misuse of political power for their own self-interest. This is why Founders, such as Thomas Jefferson, placed such high hopes for raising a virtuous body of citizens through education, which became one of his motivating factors for founding the University of Virginia. Aside from Addison's flowery prose and powerful imagery on stage, "Cato's" most important and enduring role in the American colonies was its political message; fighting to the death, if necessary, for freedom from tyranny.


I read this book for a graduate Humanities class. Recommended for people interested in literature, history, philosophy, and the founding of America.