Southern Conference Books

Ella Baker must be the most underrated figure in U.S. history. There are plenty of Presidents who have done less to shape their own times than Ella Baker. She decisively shaped two of the most important national civil rights organizations--the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference--and was the single most decisive figure in a third--the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Only Martin Luther King Jr. can be considered a rival in importance to the African American freedom movement, and yet most Americans have never even heard of Ella Baker. This exhaustively researched and well written biography should go a long way toward filling that gap.

This is a thoughful, analytical, and well-told story about a uniquely important American political life. It is a work of central importance in United States history and especially the history of the African American freedom movement. It is a cutting edge work of black women's history, too. I plan to buy a stack of them for Christmas presents, and to assign this book to my students for many years to come.

This was a great book. Ella Baker was ahead of het time.This is a great read if you like the history of the civil right movement.Ms. Baker I hope to meet you in heaven.

Dr. Ransby provides a well-structured and insightful biography of one of the most important, yet least well-known, leaders of the civil rights movement in the United States. This book is strongly recommended for any student of modern U.S. history.

Chris Warner has compiled the most comprehensive collection of SEC Sports History ever. If you know a die-hard SEC fan surprise them with this set for their next birthday. They will love you forever for it. The collector's box is really neat and you do get a 20% cost savings by burying the set. Highly recommended is this one.

I have the set and loveit!

Dr. Sullivan presents a fascinating account of an important--but often overlooked--era in the American Civil Rights movement. Days of Hope is an authoritative account of the roots of the civil rights struggle. The book is interesting, comprehensive, and impeccably sourced and researched. A must for any student of the movement.

I'm always searching through Amazon looking for the latest sports book. I bought this one based on some solid reviews I had read for it. I wasn't prepared for how much this book made me laugh. One time, I had to put the book down and walk away from because I couldn't control how hard I was laughing (one of those where you have trouble catching your breath). You can't have thin skin and read this, much like a South Park episode everything is fair game to be goofed on. But this author does everything in a smart and creative way, so I had no problem laughing along even when he made of the Big 10 (I'm a PSU grad).
It's one of the best sports I've ever read, and no book, sports related or otherwise, has ever made me laugh more.

his book is a wonderful adventure through the various stadiums of the SEC Conference. One man, who is a passionate University of Tennessee fan travels across the South to visit every stadium. He takes part in all the festivities like the tailgate party, the after party, and any particular tradition that the home team has. He is a superb writer as the narrative flows with ever easiness and comical breath. This man who is a Vanderbilt law school graduate invites friends, family, and his wife along for the adventure. He logs hundreds of miles throughout the South in his search for college football. If you love college football, and especially the SEC this book is a joy to read. As I love going to Knoxville to watch the Vols, as I survey the field before the stadium fills, and as I hit the hands of the players on the Vol walk, I love as Clay Travis loves, the college football experience.

I loved this book alot. It really made me miss home and my alma mater, the Vols. Hits all the right notes in looking at fandom in the SEC from both the critical light, while still being written by a dyed-in-the-wool fan of the greatest conference in the NCAA.

I purchased this book as a Christmas gift for a friend with whom I go to University of Georgia games. I was unaware that he bought the same book for me as a Christmas gift. I enjoyed the book a great deal. It is written by a Tennessee Vols fan but I thought the book was as unbiased as any book can be when written by a huge fan from an opposing school. I thought it was a very easy read and would recommend it for any college football fan.

This is a good book even if you don't like football. If you wonder why your boyfriend, husband or anyone is so crazy about football, especially SEC football, read this book and find out. Its not just the game, but the places, the people and the camaraderie that surround this southern tradition. Entertaining, easy read.

Certainly it was the definitive biography; although there was something troubling about his use of illegally gathered materials that the FBI collected to damn Martin, the picture painted is a real picture of a real life. Certainly Martin was always an inspiration to me, and I felt that I knew him better as a man after this biography, more so than after earlier ones.

My one major criticism is that Garrow uses a possibly mythical "night in the kitchen" as the spiritual turning point for Martin--I think it more likely that if any night mattered it was that in a jail, perhaps Selma. (Though I don't accept the idea that he chickened out for the Selma-Montgomery march--he had no reason to expect the brutal response that occurred.) Because a night in jail can really make you think about what your values are, whether it is worth suffering for truth, and whether others really WANT the truth. One of the things I think I learned from Martin is that people may not be ready for the truth now, but it is only a matter of time.

I also learned something that seems obvious, but wasn't to many of us. It is one thing to violate an unjust law publicly--and let other people see you unjustly punished. It is another to violate an unjust law privately, for even if you are in the right, when you are punished, this injustice is unlikely to draw the outrage of the citizenry, and you find yourself alone.

Of course, at the time that Martin and the SCLC were active, the courts were basically on our side--the side of the little guy. Now, as far as I can see, the law really only exists to protect large companies. Why, if Martin were to do this now, he'd be sued out of existence for "defaming" and "slandering" the good name of the great state of Alabama! If he couldn't "prove" that America really had given his people a blank check...why then, HE'D be in the wrong. And if he really let the law proceed in its own way, he'd have spent a lot more than one or two nights in jail, I can tell you that!

And from Garrow's book, I believe he still would have done it. He wasn't the initiator, but when fate knocked on his door, he opened it up and invited fate in. And that should be an inspiration to us all. [9]

There are so many positive things to say about this comprehensive book on Dr. King and the civil rights movement. Garrow's research and story-telling are both outstanding, leading to a book that I couldn't put down and one that provided me with so much information.

One reason I love the book is that I would neither call it an overly sympathetic nor critical portrayal of King. Garrow simply presents the facts in an easily understandable fashion, allowing the reader to make his/her own conclusions. Positive and negative aspects of King's personal life and movement leadership are pointed out; it's up to us to determine his legacy. And in my mind, his legacy is as strong as ever. King sacrificed himself to the cause, and not only in his premature death, but also in living a modest life with virtually no relaxation or leisure. And what he endured at the hands of the FBI just broke my heart.

I was also impressed with the way King and the other movement leaders were humanized. Garrow didn't only list the facts about their achievements and tactical errors, but he also provided great insight into the lives of these men and women.

Here are my two gripes that, in my mind, keep the book just a hair shy of 5 stars. One, I would have liked to have learned more about King the husband and father. I know he wasn't home much, but there was very little information about the type of father he was. And two, the book ends so abruptly. How did Coretta receive and react to the news? How did America react? What was the story behind the assassination? What was his funeral like? How did the movement proceed in the immediate aftermath of his murder? These were things I wanted to learn about.

Despite that, I am so thrilled that I chose to read this book, and I would recommend it to anyone.

BEARING THE CROSS is a very detailed book on the life and times of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., American hero, civil rights activist, preacher and admirer of Ghandi and his nonviolent approach to social change. King came to the forefront of the mid-century civil rights movement when Rosa Parks, a seamstress, refused to move from her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. It wasn't the first time a black woman had been tossed out of her seat in the Black section of the bus when a white customer needed a seat. Along with the removal usually went insults and threats and Ms. Parks just wasn't having it that time. The local activists asked King, a new preacher at Dexter Baptist Church, if he would take on the responsibility. Reluctantly, he agreed to do so and thus began the legend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Over the years, Dr. King has taken on an almost mythical position in the civil rights movement. Those who were present at the time find themselves wondering if the Dr. King they remember is the same man that is now raised in the American consciousness. He is frequently given a saintly aura that leads children reading about him in history books to believe there was never anyone like him before and that there can never be another like him again. David J. Garrow dispels those myths as he lets us in on the life of the man who led this country to reconsider its segregationist behavior. We see Dr. King when he is depressed and feeling unworthy of his position in the movement, when he is being a chauvinist about his wife, those moments when he smokes and drinks too much and Garrow gives credence to the rampant rumors that he had women in his life other than Coretta.

In addition to the very humanness of King, we also get to witness the foibles of the United States as it dealt with its Black citizens. We get to know the actions of three presidents of the United States, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson, as they vacillated about the civil rights movement. None of them wanted to upset the Southern voting population so they tended to send mixed messages: on one hand they knew that Blacks were being treated unfairly but to offer help through legislation, federal troop protection for besieged nonviolent marchers or verbal support for the movement was beyond where they wanted to go. The levels to which the FBI stooped to discredit King are by themselves, phenomenal. Each of the presidents was definitely aware that King's rights as a citizen of this country were being abused as his home, his phones, his motels, hotels and friends were wiretapped. The agency also used the illegally acquired information to terrorize and blackmail Dr. King. Not one of them objected to this horrendous invasion of privacy.

BEARING THE CROSS is a definite must read for every caring citizen of the United States who has a desire to understand and appreciate the civil rights movement, the life and times of Dr. King and the role that the country has played in keeping some of its citizens in bondage. I would also recommend it as a reference book for the civil rights movement.

Reviewed by alice Holman
of the RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

This Pulitzer Prize winning biography proves to be superbly reseached and well written (although bit dry for some) account of the great civil right leader. However, the book seem to be geared around his public life and his involvment with the Civil Rights movement of SCLC. Although this part of his life seem to be well documented and covered, the book don't tell us much about King's private life, his relationship with his family, or his sexual indiscretions and his own relationship on the personal level with so many of his fellowers, friends and rivials.

But its a superb coverage of King's Civil Rights involvement and actually tell a sad story of man who was definitely over reaching the limits of his own personal, mental and physical endurance. A good example would be how MLK's venture in the Vietnam War which definitely overextended his reach when so much still needed to be done on the Civil Rights front. This distraction also cost him friends and allies who could have helped him on that issue which should have been the main focus of MLK. I guess he lost focus in the end. I am bit surprised that the book didn't make any commentary on the legacy of MLK or anything like that. The book stopped with his death which almost sound like a blessing for MLK who seem at the end of his life, an unhappy man, totally stress out and overwhelmed by his burdens.

But as biography goes, I thought this book was honest and interesting picture of a man. And thats good in my opinion, MLK was a man with combination of greatness and flaw that the book clearly points out with a great deal of objectivity. I thought it was kind of an ironic statement when the author stated that the only people who really knew MLK were his closest friends and the FBI who wiretapped him.

I should note that this may not be an ideal chocie for first time reader of MLK since there are overwhelming amount of material in this book which may create an information overload for some people.

My paperback book didn't have any photos which I thought to be bit strange. Book like this need photos. But overall, this is the best biography I have read on MLK regarding his public life. Will there ever be one of his private life??

You must have to really work to turn a life so packed full of meaning and world-changing events into a snoozer of a book. I have no idea how "Bearing the Cross" received a Pulitzer Prize -- certainly not on the basis of its prose. While the author undoubtedly did an enormous amount of research, the book reads like a high school history essay; i.e. a monotonously linear string of events -- "Then King did this; then he did that; then they had an SCLC meeting; blah, blah, blah...". The book virtually no character development; in fact everyone but King are merely names on a page. It took a herculean effort to slog through the 600+ pages, but perhaps the book wasn't meant to be read straight through. Maybe this is one of those research tomes meant for reference by historians -- check out the ample index for the names, places and events you're interested in at the moment and read only snippets at a sitting.

Despite being far too long, the book has a couple major oversights. First, there are no photographs whatsoever -- for someone as widely seen on TV and newspapers as King, couldn't they have sprung for a few pages showing historical events? Second, the book abruptly ends with the assassination -- when King dies so does the book -- nothing on the national reaction to his death, nothing on Ray or the motivation for/theories around the killing.

In sum, great research, poor writing. Perhaps Taylor Branch can edit his multi-volume set into a readable single-volume account. Until then, look elsewhere for a good King biography.

What a disgrace to the country's finest football conference. Ernsberger may as well be cheeseburger...Calling Kevin Faulk "Marshall" doesn't give this book much credibility. Besides, it reads like a TN alum wrote it. If you're into the SEC like I am try "A Tailgater's Guide To SEC Football". It's a good read on the entire SEC. Again, Ernsbeger should be drawn and quartered for this sacrilege. Go Gamecocks!

I cannot believe the typos and errors in this waste of time book. The writer apparently can`t distinguish Ole Miss from Mississippi State and I still wonder how he flew in and out of "Hartsville Airport". Hartsville, SC is a rather small town in Eastern SC and during my last trip through I failed to notice an International Airport.I have been attending SEC football games since the 50`s and find the lack of research that went into this nonwork very offensive. Readers would do better to spend their time reading "Southern Fried Football".

If you're already a fan of SEC football, most of what you read will not come as particularly insightful; although it is interesting to read passages regarding Alabama's recruitment of Albert Means, which may have played a part in the NCAA's investigation. There are some factual discrepancies here and there, but if you're looking for an introduction to SEC football, this is a great place to start...for those of you that are already big fans, there may not be much here for you.

To the guy in Bradenton: Before you start ranting about the author's lack of geographic knowledge, you might want to do some fact finding of your own. Hartsfield (not Hartsville) is the name of Atlanta's (international) airport.

Ernsberger might as well have written about women's volleyball in the SEC since he's got at the very least 10 factual errors that I uncovered. Calling Kevin Faulk "Marshall" Faulk twice and Nick Saban "Lou" is unforgivable and that is why he gets a big NEGATIVE from me. I am a big Bama supporter as well and I found his commentary regarding the Capstone to be orange-biased.
Maybe Mr. Ernsberger should be wearing convict orange on the cover? Don't bother folks. Save the $ for tickets.

The author, and many others, will argue that the SEC is *the* conference for college football. It is a conference of strong rivalries and tough attitude. It's also, as Ernsberger looks at, a conference of athletes who happen to be students, rather than the collegiate student-athlete. He brings up the warts - problems with recruiting, low graduation rates, questionable ethics with athletic departments overseeing athlete tutoring. But these are more of a bookend to the story - a story of rivalry, of politics, of winning above everything else. This is where the heart of the book is, and where Ernsberger comes across as the privelaged observer, rather than someone with an axe to grind. He's not in awe of everything, but he's not out to rip back the veneer of college football either.

Arguably, the book does have it's leanings. Only about half the conference is really explored with many of the schools getting the short shrift and barely a mention. But if you have never been to a big SEC rivalry game, he tries to capture the mood both inside and outside the stadium. You see the lead up to the Auburn-Alabama game (though strangely, he never seems to refer to it by it's common moniker of the Iron Bowl), and the Cocktail Party (Georgia vs. Florida). One of the strengths of the book is that he spends time with all level of participants in this spectacle - the players themselves, the caching staff, the boosters, the administration, the fans and the alumni. The picture drawn shows that everyone is partially to blame for the state the conference is in.

As a passive spectator of the SEC especially after moving to Atlanta, Ernsberger drew together a lot of what swirls around into a coherent package. Everything you need to know? No. A damning expose? No. An interesting overview - yes. This is why you want to read the book.

`Under the Duvet' is a collection of journalism by Marian Keyes, some of it published previously in papers such as Irish Tatler, other pieces which are making their debut. The subjects Marian writes about cover everything that young, middle-aged women want to read about: career, relationships, weight, etc in a light-humoured way. Each `piece' is completely unrelated to the rest which means you can start reading anywhere in the book, although I found myself going from start to end just to be methodical.

I was not really sure what to expect when I first opened the pages of `Under the Duvet' but luckily the author had the foresight to include a brief introduction to explain the approach she had taken. I found the style of writing easy to read and quickly got through half the book in one evening. The articles seemed a bit abrupt and while I appreciate that they were originally intended as newspaper articles, perhaps the writer could have modified them slightly so that the reader was left feeling more satisfied.

The autobiographical way of writing made it feel like I was reading someone's diary and even though the writer is Irish (I'm not) and older, I was able to relate easily to her troubles and thoughts. There were a number of hilarious articles which were highly original, however I felt that others were merely written from a general expectation of women in this day and age. In these stereotypical sections I got a sense of deja vue and realised that I had read something very similar in another book or even seen it played out on shows such as `Sex and the City'.
A light-hearted, brainless piece of writing that will keep you momentarily entertained. Having said that I do not think I would pay to buy this book a second time round.

I had never read a Marian Keyes book before......Under the Duvet was a gift with magazine purchase. She is hilarious! This book is a collection of short stories and anecdotes that every woman can relate to - it will have you laughing out loud. You won't be able to put it down. I am off to order more of her books - I am hooked!

This is a collection of Marian Keyes's journalism and a few previously unpublished non-fiction pieces. Just as funny and self-deprecating as her novels, it offers a personal glimpse into the life of one of Ireland's most-loved authors. You can't help but come away with the impression that it would be lovely to have a girlfriend like her.

It is good to see that there is a compilation of essays on Hans Christian Andersen. The bibliographic references, alone, make this an important volume of scholarship. I liked some of the pieces of writing. There are fine essays in a section that deals with translations of Andersen's stories and poems in other languages. I also gained good insights by reading about Andersen's work in relation to the historical and political contexts of 19th Century Denmark. There is a range of quality in the overall texts, however, and some of the pieces are simply not compelling reading.

Some of the stuff in here I've never even heard so I don't even know if it's true or not. I was very disappointed in this book. Try "A Tailgater's Guide To SEC Football". It makes a much better SEC companion than this thing. The book seems like it was put together in a weekend or something. No organization and a lot of obscure stuff in there. Weird actually.

This is an embarassment to a great conference. Save your cash.

I have found some inaccurate information in this book and i have not found anyone to contact with the correct answers.I am a tickler for telling the truth and though it may seem like a small thing to print wrong info,i wish to see it corrected.They have no number to report wrong answers,but as a whole this book has alot of usefull info

Don't bother wasting your money on this article. It is less than a page and doesn't offer any insight!