No comments about More Marylanders to Carolina: Migration of Marylanders to North Carolina and South Carolina Prior to 1800.

3 comments about De León, a Tejano Family History.

1. Every now and then you luck into a beautifully produced book which changes your frame of reference. "De Leon" is as close to telling us about who we are and what made our nation as any I've read.
   You don't have to be an historian or a scholar or someone with a particular interest in Mexican American history to realize that the De Leon story, in Crimm's telling, is as engaging, exciting, and moving as any part of our American story. "De Leon" offers an understanding not just of a piece of family history but of a whole landscape, storied but unfamiliar to many of us. Highly recommended!



2. This book was a quick and interesting read. The use of the De Leon family to tell the story of Tejanos gave the history a personal and narrative feel.



3. I bought this as a required book for a workshop but really enjoyed it. It reads like a novel but is still supported by in-depth research. I especially enjoyed it because it gives multiple perspectives about the settlement of Texas and the Texas Revolution.

4 comments about The Outer Banks of North Carolina, 1584-1958.

1. This is the premier history of the Outer Banks area, written by the region's premier historian. It begins in the 16th Century, when European explorers first touched the sandy barrier islands. It carefully traces the course of human and environmental events through the modern era, with special emphasis on the Revolutionary War and Civil War. This is a truly remarkable piece of work that will enlighten anyone interested in Carolina history.



2. To discover the unique beauty and history of the Outer Banks, David Stick is THE author to read. His lovely blend of history and legend, written in great style, is the perfect book to learn about the lighthouses, people (and horses!) of the Banks.



3. We recently took a vacation to the 'Banks, and bought this book because we were simply fascinated by the history of the area. It offers a very nice comprehensive history by someone who has lived in the area for many years. Excellent for the vacationer or casual visitor, it covers all the "hot spots" I wanted more information on, like the Roanoke settlement, Revolutionary War, Civil War, lighthouses, horses, shifting inlets and in general how tourism got started. Offers enough detail to whet your appetite without bogging you down with unnecessary details. My only beef is that the book was published in 1958 and a lot has happened in the last 50 years. This oversight on my part was overshadowed by the fact that it's actually entertaining to catch references to the area before "commercialization" really set in or before the Bonner bridge was built (oddly, the author refers to a bridge over the inlet as "inevitable"). Highly recommended for anyone with the Banks on their "to do" list. Just be smarter than I was and read this before you go, because we'd have gotten much more out of our trip if I had known all the history first!



4. New paperback reprint of a book originally published in 1958, with no editorial updates, works as both a history of the Outer Banks, and as a piece of history itself. The 50 years since Stick's original writing have seen the realization of the Outer Banks real estate boom that Stick witnessed birthing, but have also seen the passing away and obliteration of much of the old Outer Banks culture that spoke of piracy, fishing, and the sea.
   
   Overall, Stick does a good job telling about the history of the Banks, although his chapters on the wars, revolutionary and civil, tend to recitations of people and place names and do drag a bit. The virtually unnavigable Outer Banks were not a geographical key to the outcome of the Civil War, unlike the superhighway Mississippi River, and were quickly won back by the Federal invading troops, including some early experience with marine invasion. In fact, as Stick points out, many Bankers quickly swore loyalty to the Union and elected a representative; sent to Washington, Congress debated the merits of seating the rump legislator, but declined on the grounds that a few voters on nearly deserted coastal islands could hardly speak for a state the size of North Carolina which was otherwise seceded.
   
   Stick provides a brief synopsis of the Wright Brother's time in Kitty Hawk, covered in greater depth in other books, but his tales of whaling villages built and deserted (see the chapter on Diamond City), of pirates plundering and captured, and of islands open and alive make the book worth reading as both history and time piece. I was reminded again that while the Outer Banks have been blamed for blocking navigation and coastal port development that has limited the population and economic growth of the state, they have also contributed a physical beauty, isolation, and majesty that is worth more, both economically and aesthetically, than any "progress."

4 comments about Aunt Arie: A Foxfire Portrait.

1. From the cover:, " The students, none of whom had ever been to Aunt Arie's before, were awed, drawn inexorably into the little circle of activity that surrounded this 5' 6" dynamo who laughed and pecked on each of them and tapped their shoulders and grasped their knees and tried to remember their names and loved them, instantly, and without reservation-strangers all". This book is wonder full, and heart full, and shines a little light into a way of being that is fast becoming a just catchy phrase on a hall mark card.



2. WHAT A GREAT "AMERICANA" STYLE BOOK, FANTASTIC ADDITION TO A FOXFIRE COLLECTION OR GREAT ON ITS OWN. AUNT ARIE HERSELF, HER OWN STYLE FROM COOKING TO HARVESTING, THOGUHTS, RELIGION AND HER FEELINGS ABOUT LIVING ALONE! SHE WAS AN HONORABLE WOMAN!



3. terrific read - inspirational - one tough and lovable character who will be missed for many years to come



4. I recently purchased 'Aunt Arie: A Foxfire Portrait,' along with two Foxfire guides, to assist me in establishing an Appalachian setting (and characters)for a story I am working on. I've only skimmed the guides at this point, but I haven't put "Aunt Arie" down! I've still got a couple of chapters left to read, but so far the story of this woman's life, as told by her to the folks at Foxfire, has proven indispensable to my research.
   
   The editors of the book have attempted, most successfully (they offer an explanation of ways and means at the beginning of the book)I think, to reproduce/preserve Aunt Arie's dialect and colloquialisms, as transcribed from the hundreds of hours of taped interviews. In this book, HOW she says things is just as important as WHAT she's saying...and what does she say? Where do I begin? Besides offering a virtual treasure-trove of information on the subjects of gardening, healing, economy, and food storage and preparation, she also delves into stories of her friends and neighbors, living and dead, speaks often of her life with her beloved husband, and before that her childhood, and all her talk of the people she's known, whether she loved them or could have done without them, is tinged with her faith, her basic love of and respect for humanity, and her simply ideology: you get what you give.
   
   If any of the above appeals to you, get this book. You won't regret it. I'm back here b/c I'm about to get one for my grandmother. Just thought I'd leave a more complete review than the ones I'd seen.

1 comments about Many Excellent People: Power and Privilege in North Carolina, 1850-1900 (Fred W Morrison Series in Southern Studies).

1. Escott has written a well-research, scholarly study of how ordinary people in North Carolina, white and black, interacted with the political and social institutions of the day. This is an important social history worth the time of anyone interested in Southern history after the Civil War. Escott focuses in particular on five counties but his study is more broad-based than this indictes. He uses statistics but the human story predominates.

4 comments about A Golden Haze of Memory: The Making of Historic Charleston.

1. Stephanie Yuhl's book is a great read for historians and layman alike. I loved it. As a native Carolinian(North), adopted Charlestonian, historian, and community college instructor, I found the book fascinating. The research and conclusions are thorough and thoughtful. I have used it as a reference for my own research on memory and cultural association. The sources and notes are extensive. Yuhl's book, as any good history, creates new questions for debate. Those people who consider themselves versed in the history of the city should read it and have an opinion. This book is "about Charleston" and "FOR Charleston". But it is also for the rest of us who visit and study the city, and care about its special place in the history of the South.



2. Stephanie Yuhl's book on the "making" of historic Charleston, South Carolina during the 1920s and 1930s -- the era of "Porgy and Bess" -- is fascinating. Yuhl deconstructs the mythmaking that artfully ignored some of the city's less heroic features and transmuted them into a placid, controversy-free image of a way of life at once locked in the past but also looking forward.



3. When you visit Charleston for the first time you are impressed and at times overcome by the sheer beauty of the place. The charismatic churches, cobblestone streets, and preserved homes seem almost movie set like in their ability to transport you to another time. Stephanie Yuhl's book very adeptly explores the phenomenon that is Charleston. This capitol of the south has been able to preserve itself like many European cities have done for centuries. An effort that is largely ignored in most other American urban areas. I wish I had "Golden Haze of Memory" when I first went to Charleston, as it explores how and why this Southern Belle of a city has sought urban renewal through preservation of a romanticized past.



4. Stephanie Yuhl's study of Charleston is a great read, organized brilliantly with metaphors from theatre, and wonderfully well written. As a newcomer to Charleston but a long time South Carolinian, I was fascinated by her account of how Charleston has marketed itself. Her analysis of the literature of the Charleston Renaissance is extremely insightful as is her critique of Charleston's most well known painters. But perhaps most astute is her analysis of class and race relations. This book is definitely a prize winner!
   Carolyn Matalene
   Distinguished Professor Emerita
   University of South Carolina

No comments about North Carolina Through Four Centuries.

5 comments about Princes of Ireland, Planters of Maryland: A Carroll Saga, 1500-1782.

1. I was originally attracted to this book out of a simple curiosity about the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence (Charles Carroll outlived Adams and Jefferson by about six years, or about 56 years after 1776!). On a deeper level, I hoped to learn more about the kind of early capitalist that would be attracted to signing on to the American Revolution in general. What this book helped me discover was a family that had over time become focused, almost obsessed, with making a buck under fairly adverse circumstances (namely, continuing in their Roman Catholic faith that made it difficult for them to thrive, even in an enclave as seemingly sympathetic as colonial Maryland, with its relatively large Catholic population). But when the time came for this family to rise above its simple wealth building and to champion the cause of the Revolution, it did indeed rise to the occasion, however brief and painful the process might be. (Hoffman attends to both the private and public lives of the Carrolls.) The history of the Carrolls is a part of the history of the magic that was the American Revolution. It is not surprising that the book ends abruptly with the death of Charles Carroll's father and his wife, about 10 days apart from one another in 1782 (though there is a brief summing up of Carroll's remaining 50 years and the attention attracted by his death in 1832). The story is told, the dynasty pretty much complete.

   What's the book like? At times it seems downright willfully prosaic, and the story proceeds much like a carefully written doctoral dissertation - all conclusions fully supported and made in as logical a context as possible, all contentions politically correct for our time. Hoffman's goal is of course to be scholarly and thorough, not to be entertaining or controversial. Thus the sweep of this history must emerge and coalesce in the mind of the reader. Leave being beaten over the head with the broader conclusions inherent in the narrative to more popularly written histories.

   Suffice it to say, if you're a municipal library and you need to beef up your Revolutionary War material, this is a prime buy. If you're a true history buff, this would be an excellent choice to work into your reading list. It has the effect of immersing you into the spirit of the times and providing you with detail you could not have imagined you would find interesting (but you do). If you're a casual reader, just be advised - this is heavy stuff. It's not an easy read, but it is ultimately a rewarding one.




2. Ronald Hoffman is an excellent historian who has brought great knowledge of Chesapeake social and cultural history to this biographical work that places three generations of the Carroll family within their colonial context. It is a wonderful biography that gets the reader into the minds and lives of these three Charles Carroll's. But for me the best thing was the number of times it made me think, "Oh, that's how it was." I have read enough colonial history to know that there were lots of tenant laborers and not just slaves in the region, to know that Catholic Maryland quickly became Anglican Maryland, and to know that the Revolution was not just about ideas but also about social change. Ronald Hoffman's narrative, however, really brings these facts home. His book is not about any one of these issues in particular, but in telling the story of three generations of Carroll's in Maryland he brings home the greater circumstances of the colony better than many historians who have set out to make a case for one of the above arguments, or many of the other fascinating takes on early Chesapeake society contained in this highly readable book. I have not read any book lately that I enjoyed more.



3. Traditional patriotism demands that we believe that the founding fathers of America were all great democratic idealist. Although this may have been true for some, many others had no problem with the idea of an elite ruling class, so long as they were considered the elite. Thus the victory over England can be viewed as less of an American Democratic Revolution and more of a power transition from the English crown to the new American aristocracy.
   
   A primary example of this American elite class was Maryland representative Charles Carroll of Carrollton. A signer of the American Declaration of Independence, Charles of Carrollton was a wealthy planter and businessman who became such not by his own doings but primarily through the inheritance and molding of his father, Charles Carroll of Annapolis. Ever mindful of his Irish and Catholic roots and the persecution therein by English aristocrats, the elder Charles did everything in his power to equip his son to fend off those who would attempt to cripple him politically and economically. In so doing, the elder Charles created a mindset of elitism within his son.
   
   This irony is highlighted by Ronald Hoffman in his book, "Princes of Ireland, Planters of Europe," in which he examines the Carroll family and traces how a persecuted family from Ireland in 1500 came to be one of the prominent families in America by the time of the American Revolution



4. This is perhaps the most pleasurable "academic" history I have come across. Although it provides an extensive account of life in the Chesapeake through the lives and business dealings - and there are plenty of those enumerated - of the tenacious Carroll family, I was also struck by Ronald Hoffman's major theme of family continuity, of purpose driven by recollection and ambition that the Carrolls had in spades. The very tightly researched accounts of the family history in Ireland, and of all the other families like them in the chaos of the 17th century, is little short of astonishing. I'll admit to an enduring interest in Irish history, but this one illustrates why Carrolls and others left their broken aristocracy. That continuity touches on my own forebearers, one of whom was a first cousin of Charles Carroll of Carrollton's. She married another Irish immigrant Marylander and set out in 1796 to populate the then frontier in Kentucky with other Catholics, I am sure at direction of one of their neighbors in Upper Marlborough, MD, Fr. John Carroll, first Catholic bishop in America and also Charles' first cousin. A great read on many levels.



5. Purchased this book for my Grandmother. Apparently we are related on her side of the family. Thought she would enjoy reading. I purchased one years ago when my daughter had to do a report on someone famous in your family. I found the book very interesting and informative.

4 comments about Ribbon of Sand: The Amazing Convergence of the Ocean and the Outer Banks (Chapel Hill Book).

1. I picked this book up during a recent week's stay on Topsail Island (one of the southernmost of the Outer Banks). Having never read a book on natural history or the ecology, I was prepared for the paper-pulp equivalent of Sominex.

   Never have I been more wrong in my preconceptions about a book. Ribbon of Sand captures PERFECTLY the true mystique of North Carolina's Outer Banks -- how a half-mile wide band of barrier islands survive both because of nature . . . and in spite of it. Each segment of the book ties together both human and natural history. How the wind the shapes the wonderfully high dunes near Kill Devil provided the Wright Brothers with the means to test their gliders and to develop the first airplane. How shifting tides and currents that continue to shape the Outer Banks both abetted . . . and spelled doom for Blackbeard the Pirate.

   In short, Ribbon of Sand captured my imagination and instilled in me a greater appreciation for the fragile balance of nature and man on the Outer Banks. I very highly reccomend this book!




2. I purchased this book to learn more about the Outer Banks, which I have long wished to visit and where we will spend a week this summer. It is an amazingly interesting and informative book. Geology, geography, biology, weather, ecology, politics, and more are all discussed as is the importance of each in relation to the others. I found the book engrossing and would recommend it even if you are not going to this unique area of the world. Now when the kids ask me why there is a forest in the dunes I will be able to tell them and I will be much better able to appreciate the beauty of the place.



3. Anyone who has visited the Outer Banks -- and many who have only seen them from the famous 1970-era Apollo space shot -- knows that the islands are unique, fragile, and someday going to be overrun, either by trashy tourism or, eventually, nature. Alexander and Lazell hope, but are hardly convinced, that nature will get the chance to run its long course. Beyond the fascinating subject, the authors' chapter by chapter analysis of the forces that compete on the Banks -- sand, wind, land, forest -- is a clarifying approach to writing about the science of the Banks. In separate chapters, Alexander and Lazell then effectively show how the forces combined to impact Blackbeard's last battle and the Wright Brothers efforts to fly. The final chapter, Convergences, is like reading a decade-early preview of the impact on the islands of Hurricane Isabel. I would call Alexander and Lazell prescient, but I suspect they themselves would be the first to admit they were simply documenting the inevitable future. Only problem with this excellent book is that the writing feels as if it was done either in turn or by compromise, and is often far less compelling than its subject matter. Still, Ribbon of Sand offers some science, some entertainment, and a whole lot of appreciation for this wonderful speck of the world.



4. ........of history, science, poetry and politics. I can't think of an existing category that this book properly belongs to; perhaps the literature of place, if I create one for it. I don't know of another book that so accurately and beautifully gives a true sense of a real place in all of its complexity.
   
   And what a place! A unique treasure that has somehow been substantially preserved while it continues to evolve according to contemporary usage. Not without struggle and controversy, of course. Don't just read the book, go there and experience it in your own way.
   
   Using some kind of specific guide book for planning is probably a good idea: I thought "North Carolina Beaches" by Glenn Morris (Chapel Hill) was useful and pleasant.

No comments about North Carolina: Change and Tradition in a Southern State.