Product Description
In a vivid portrait of a relationship that defied all odds in 1960s North Carolina, Davidson tells how C.P. Ellis (a poor white member of the KKK) and Ann Atwater (a poor black civil rights activist) went from being each other's worst and most hostile enemies to forming an incredible, long-lasting friendship. By placing this very personal story into broader context, Davidson demonstrates that race is intimately tied to issues of class, and that cooperation is possible--even in the most divisive situations--when people begin to listen to one another. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A remarkable and insightful book
This thoroughly researched and well-written book held special meaning for me, one of the last generation from the segregated South who entered a movie theater through the "colored" entrance and sat in the balcony, and who spent four years at Duke U. during the early '70's.The presence of the Klan in my small North Carolina town was always known but hidden, and this book provided insight into why poor whites find membership in the Klan and its philosophies so attractive and how the white elite was secretly complicit in its support of the Klan.This book introduced me to Hayti, the section of Durham where low-income African-Americans live.Despite my four years at Duke, I'd never heard of this neighborhood, and the story of Hayti resident Ann Atwater's activism to improve conditions for poor blacks and whites in Durham is amazing.Duke U. is a very insular campus, and town-gown relations between the school and Durham have historically been tense.I'm very glad that this book exists for incoming freshmen to read; to spend four years on a campus and have no knowledge of the town surrounding the campus (as I did not have) is shameful.
A very valuable insight in this book is the author's understanding of the strange dynamics of class, which exists throughout the South but is seldom mentioned.Blaming African-Americans for their economic woes, and receiving secret support from the white elite, has historically distracted poor whites from the reality that it is this white elite, with its power and money, that keeps poor whites economically down-trodden.
Although I was in Durham slightly later than the years during which the events of the book take place, I had some familiarity with many of the key players (Howard Fuller, Floyd McKissick, Asa Spaulding), and the book exhaustively discusses the roles of everyone involved in this tumultuous time in Durham.It reads like riveting fiction, and the evolution of the relationship between C.P. Ellis and Ann Atwater is a wonderful story.

Great service
Thank you for providing such great service. You followed through on your end of the deal perfectly.

The Best of Enemies to Start With...But is Doesn't End that Way.
This book has been out of print for some time, but thankfully the University of North Carolina Press has resurrected it. Duke University's incoming Freshman class has been assigned to read this book as their compulsory summer reading assignment.The Class of 2011 will then discuss this book during Freshman Orientation Week.The selection of this book as the summer reading assignment is timely with the upheavals in Durham and at Duke during the so called "Duke Lacrosse Scandal."

It is interesting to note that Durham held on to Jim Crow laws and was very slow to integrate public schools compared with some high profile Southern cities.When forced to comply with court-ordered integration, the school district took the unusual step of pairing a long-time black activist and a ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan to lead a committee whose purpose it was to deal with the issues surrounding integration.It seems like this would be a disaster, but surprisingly it was far from it.

I shouldnote that this is not some dry recitation of the past.The story reads much more like a novel. I couldn't put in down and found myself quite moved by the story.

This is a truly poignant book that demonstrates how much we have in common with people of other races, creeds or colors and how, by finding common ground, we can move ahead in our society.There are lessons here for us in the new millennium.

For those interested in an excellent book dealing with similar issues, I recommend Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story

fascinating
An extraordinary book, not for its writing or ideas, but for the *very idea of it!* How could this have happened, and how could the book tell the story like this???As a feminist I'm challenging the assumptions of whitemales who think they are in touch with African Americans, or with feminism.As a white Woman, I feel for the experiences of Black Women, and amsickened by the way white males mostly just don't get it. This is such astrange book you will be blinking hard for sometime afterward.

A well-written, scrupuosly researched important book.
As someone who works for parity in this society, I look for materials that show clearly that poor white people have more in common with blacks and other ethnic/racial peoples than they do with the power structure thatoppresses us all.This book clearly and beautifully illustrates thatpoint.

It has always mystified me that more poor "white" men,in particularly, fail to see this.Every young white man who blames blacksfor his inability to get a decent job, the meagerness of his life, orwhatever, should read this book.Every petty racist should read the storyof C.P. Ellis and Ann Atwater and learn something about the real problems,not the cheap shot racist answers that many of us come to too readily inthis society.

I've purchased five copies for myself and friends. A greatbook to give that relative, co-worker or acquaintance who persists inmaking racist comments and blaming blacks for the problems in this society. ... Read more

Product Description
In an in-depth community study of women in the civil rights movement, Christina Greene examines how several generations of black and white women, low-income as well as more affluent, shaped the struggle for black freedom in Durham, North Carolina. In the city long known as the "capital of the black middle class," Greene finds that, in fact, low-income African American women were the sustaining force for change.

Greene demonstrates that women activists frequently were more organized, more militant, and more numerous than their male counterparts. They brought new approaches and strategies to protest, leadership, and racial politics. Arguing that race was not automatically a unifying force, Greene sheds new light on the class and gender fault lines within Durham's black community. While middle-class black leaders cautiously negotiated with whites in the boardroom, low-income black women were coordinating direct action in hair salons and neighborhood meetings.

Greene's analysis challenges scholars and activists to rethink the contours of grassroots activism in the struggle for racial and economic justice in postwar America. She provides fresh insight into the changing nature of southern white liberalism and interracial alliances, the desegregation of schools and public accommodations, and the battle to end employment discrimination and urban poverty. ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in 1882.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

Product Description
7. The Indians were, in many respects, a peculiar people. Though ignorant and savage, they were not idolaters. They believed in one God, whom they called the "Great Spirit." They were not shepherds or farmers, for they had no domestic animals except dogs, and their corn fields were but insignificant patches, cleared and cultivated by their women. They cleared these little patches of land by burning down the trees, and their plow was a crooked stick with which they scratched over the ground for planting the corn. The men hunted, and fought with other tribes, but disdained to be found engaged in any useful labor. ... Read more

Product Description
It's 1865, and freedom is in the air. Ten-year-old Ezra Taplin is living on a North Carolina plantation when Union soldiers arrive to set the slaves free. Ezra and his father, Silas, must deal with their newfound liberty while finding a way to support themselves. After spending time in a Union work camp, they journey to Charleston, South Carolina, where freed slaves are organizing to establish better lives for themselves and their families. As Ezra matures, both he and his father discover the true meaning of freedom. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

History Is Important for Kids
My kids loved Ezra's story. I only read parts of the book because it's for children, but we talked about it after they were finished. I think The Road to Freedom gave them just enough to inform them of the history that whites and blacks share in this country, without creating a sense of fear or hatred in my boys. I think its a must-read for all children because history is important, even if it's told through fictional characters. Believe me, if it made my boys -- ages 8 and 11 -- finish the entire book, then it has to be engaging and worth the time it took to read it.

The Road To Boredom
Sadly, this book does not live up to its title. The story is hackneyed,uninspired and not very well thought out. In truth, the story line appears to have been thrown together during a coffee break. The writer, Jabari Asim, seems incapable of making the reader believe in the books characters .... for they appear dull, uninteresting and frankly, boring. This novel has obviously streched Mr Asim's limited capabilities as a writer to the limit ... and it clearly shows. I would not recommend this novel to anyone.
I read this book whilst traveling on a long train journey. Next time I travel, I shall fly.

The Road to Freedom by Jabari Asim
When Ezra Taplin, a young boy witha broken leg, is ten years old, Yankees set them free and bring them to a Union camp.They make friends with a man named Mose and his family.Ezra and his father move to Charleston and work for a man named Mr. Cain.There Mose learns the truth about his broken leg and his mother.When his mother comes to Charleston, Ezra feels that he is truly free. ... Read more

Product Description

When Nancy Mace entered the Citadel, the United States government had just recently overturned the ruling that women were not allowed to enter the "Corps of Cadets." Having grown up in a military family, Nancy was not unfamiliar with the harsh realities of military life. But upon entering those imposing gates. Nancy soon found out that she wasn't just fighting the tradition of the corps, but the culture and city that surrounded it.

Steeped in tradition and lore, the grand bastion known as El Cid is considered one of the South's most infamous and controversial institutions. Built in 1842, it has turned out a unique brand of Southern man -- and now woman. This is the true account of one young woman's battle to be a part of the long gray line. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

A Legacy of Enlightenment
As we approach the tenth anniversary of the author's entry into the Citadel, the book shows just how far we've come.In many respects, Nancy Mace is the Citadel's Jackie Robinson; the book provides a thorough exposé of how she needed to draw upon her own inner strength and integrity in the face of sustained abuse.Her story is an inspiring example of determination fueled by an unwavering focus upon the light at the end of the tunnel.And her achievement has, over time, both isolated and marginalized her detractors and their primitive belief in the superiority of men over women.By successfully venturing into one of the last refuges of institutionalized sexism, she has made both the Citadel and our society a better place to be.

Golden Ticket to Ride
I graduated from this wonderful institution known to all as The Citadel, to some as Pure Hell, and to the Mace's as their fumbling fortress.It is a total sham, everything in that book except for the names and locations.Those are true, but unless you were there at that time, or there at all, you will never get the truth.Conroy's Lord's of Discipline held more legitimacy than this book.And we all know when a book is written by 2 people, the first person spoke and the second person actually wrote.
There has yet to be a truly accurate depiction of The Citadel- maybe someone with a little bit of INTEGRITY (part of what the Citadel stresses) will set the facts straight.Until then, this book may give a few good laughs, but all in all, its more of a wive's tale than anything else.

Mostly accurate -- A story that needed to be told, though
To prove that much of what Ms. Mace states in her book is true, I, as a male cadet, waited until I was on a break at home to read her book.Being the son of a mother who graduated from a military academy, I entered this institution with a much different perspective than most incoming cadets.What I have seen and experienced over the years has blown my mind.

Nancy Mace's book does exaggerate a few things, here and there.. and as the other alum wrote, she does write about stories that are 100% common to every knob's experience (in other words, not unique to her trials).. but still, being one of the first women at this school had to be an experience unlike anything that any normal person could imagine.Whether other, narrow-minded, disgruntled old grads want to admit it, or not, Nancy Mace DID do something special...something that no other person had accomplished.Her story needed to be told, and was done so in an extremely easy-to-read, and frank fassion.

In trhe Company of Men
In 1999 Nancy Mace became the first woman to graduate from The Citadel, a military academy in Charleston, SC. The Citadel is steeped in tradition --- a tradition that included a men-only admissions policy until a court order forced the school to admit a woman in 1995. That woman, Shannon Faulkner, lasted only one week. When her turn came, Mace was determined to make it to graduation. IN THE COMPANY OF MEN: A Woman at The Citadel tells her story bluntly and honestly.

Most of IN THE COMPANY OF MEN details Mace's first semester at The Citadel. Freshman year is the most challenging year at The Citadel --- which is saying a lot since no year there is a walk in the park. Freshmen at The Citadel are referred to as "knobs" --- a reference to their shaved heads --- and are forced to live under the "fourth class system," which greatly restricts their freedom and allows upperclassmen to make their lives miserable in a variety of ways. The year is difficult for all who enter The Citadel, but for Mace and the three women who entered the school with her, the challenge was infinitely increased.

The school, its administration, students, and backers were all faced with hard questions. How short should a woman's hair be cut? What sizes do the uniforms need to be? How do you deal with a soldier who menstruates? How do you keep women knobs safe in an atmosphere where they are resented by their classmates, by upperclassmen, by alumni, and --- most oddly --- by the wives and girlfriends of Citadel students past and present? None of these questions were hypothetical for Mace. As she addresses them in her book, she does a fine job relating not only the actual occurrences, but her own emotions. She does not shy away from the feelings of helplessness that sometimes threatened to overwhelm her; nor does she turn her tale into a list of grievances for wrongs suffered, as she finds humor in many situations that may not have seemed funny at the time.

Mace's story of perseverance, both mental and physical, is inspiring. IN THE COMPANY OF MEN is not, however, a prettified tale of adversity overcome. Mace's language is direct and occasionally peppered with obscenities, and her assessments of her classmates, instructors, and the upperclassmen are unyielding --- as is her assessment of herself throughout the book.

Mace spends some pages detailing her second semester at The Citadel, including a moving description of the final challenges a knob faces before being released from the "fourth class system." The two years leading up to her graduation are summarized too briefly. A more complete description of her life as an upperclassmen --- during which knobs were subject to her whims --- would have been interesting and would have provided a better transition to the graduation scenes that end the book. Nevertheless, IN THE COMPANY OF MEN is a fascinating look at The Citadel and at the kind of person who can make it from knob to Citadel graduate.

--- Reviewed by Rob Cline (rjbcline@aol.com)

In the Company of Men Review
By Emma

Before reading In the Company of Men, I disliked all biographies and autobiographies, but while reading about Nancy Mace's life, my opinion changed.This autobiography is a funny, touching, and compelling true story about the first women to graduate from the Citadel, a strict military collage with much discipline and hazing.This is a great book, mainly for girls and women, that realizes how hard it was when men were considered superior.It gives the important message that even though the world will always be filled with mean and hurtful people, it is possible to accomplish anything, even the impossible.That is what Nancy Mace did; she was the first woman ever to graduate from the Citadel, something that seemed impossible for women before her.All females should read this book, even if they aren't interested in the military.This is a terrific autobiography! ... Read more

Product Description
Like many black school principals, Ulysses Byas, who served the Gainesville, Georgia, school system in the 1950s and 1960s, was reverently addressed by community members as "Professor." He kept copious notes and records throughout his career, documenting efforts to improve the education of blacks. Through conversations with Byas and access to his extensive archives on his principalship, Vanessa Siddle Walker finds that black principals were well positioned in the community to serve as conduits of ideas, knowledge, and tools to support black resistance to officially sanctioned regressive educational systems in the Jim Crow South.

Walker explains that principals participated in local, regional, and national associations, comprising a black educational network through which power structures were formed and ideas were spread to schools across the South. The professor enabled local school empowerment and applied the collective wisdom of the network to pursue common school projects such as pressuring school superintendents for funding, structuring professional development for teachers, and generating local action that was informed by research in academic practice. The professor was uniquely positioned to learn about and deploy resources made available through these networks. Walker's record of the transfer of ideology from black organizations into a local setting illuminates the remembered activities of black schools throughout the South and recalls for a new generation the role of the professor in uplifting black communities. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Cities of the United States, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 552 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Provides a wide range of hard-to-locate data to answer questions concerning American cities. Includes thorough coverage of the area's largest or fastest-growing cities, or those with a particular historical, political, industrial or commercial significance. ... Read more

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This is a comprehensive accounting of how the county responded to the Civil War and the effect it had on Yadkin's citizens, civilian and military alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The Civil War And Yadkin County, North Carolina
This book, as suggested by the title, focuses on Yadkin County's contribution to the Civil War.Among the topics covered include:

1.Geographical, Economic, and Religious impact on Yadkin County during the Civil War.
2.Battles that Yadkin County soldiers fought in.
3.The Bond School House incident.
4.Stoneman's Raid.
5.Results of the war in Yadkin County.

While all of the chapters were highly readable, I especially appreciated the service history of each Yadkin County man who fought in the Civil War.The summary gives a brief description of the person's enlistment and any applicable instances (wounded or killed in battle, captured, deserted, paroled, etc.).I found this to be particularly helpful as I had some great uncles who fought for the 28th NC regiment.

A very good read.Recommended for anyone wanting to learn more about Yadkin County during the Civil War.

Must Have Book for Yadkin County Genealogists
This book was well researched, nicely written and contains wonderful facts and stories about Yadkin County, N.C. before, during, and after the Civil War.It presents actual letters from the people of that era giving their personal accounts of the horror of the Civil War and how Yadkin County residents coped with the changes that the Confederacy and War brought to them.If you are studying the family history of someone in or around Yadkin County, this book will really help you understand what your relatives went through in the early days of this section of our country.

The war within the war in western North Carolina.
A small western Piedmont county in North Carolina is the subject of this very unusual Civil War history.Written by a local historian with a richknowledge of the county and its people, the book weaves the colorfulthreads of local characters and events into the big picture of the greatestwar in our history.Battlefield stories and army life are recounted,partly in letters writen home by Yadkin soldiers in the field, but the mostintriguing events are those that occurred on the home front.In a regionof sharply divided loyalties, the woods of Yadkin County soon filled with"bushwhackers", men hiding out to escape concription into theConfederate army.The book tell of the locally famous shoot-out betweensome of these men and the Militia, of their arrest and the jail breaks thatset them free, of executions by the Home Guard, and of the treks toTennessee to join the Union army.In the last days of the war a YankeeCavalry division led by George Stoneman rode through the county andCassstevens treats us to previously unpublished stories of his famousraid.

More than a history, the book is also a genealogy.Appended listsname people who applied for pensions, men who served in the Militia, andmen exempted from military service and why.A final appendix gives Yadkinmen who served in the army with a summary of their service and, notinfrequently, the names of their parents and other relatives.This book isfor everyone with Yadkin County roots and for anyone interested in learningabout the secret little wars within the Civil War. ... Read more

Product Description
It's harvesttime at the Ravenal plantation, and Austin can't wait for the annual festival to begin. But when Austin's slave friend Henry-James beats a hired hand named Narvel during a wrestling match, Narvel is furious and determined to get even. He picks a fight with Henry-James, gets Charlotte in trouble-and even traps Austin in a water well! To make matters worse, Austin's cousin Kady runs away from home when her parents try to force her to marry a soldier she doesn't love. When Austin, Henry-James, and Charlotte go looking for her, the evidence points toward Narvel. Can Austin convince Uncle Drayton that it's Narvel and not Henry-James who's causing all the trouble? Will Austin learn to trust God to resolve the problems?

The Christian Heritage Series is an ongoing line of youth books that explore the role of faith and family throughout American history. These engaging stories help young readers better understand their country, its values, and its God. The Charleston Years books take place in early 1860s South Carolina.

Nancy Rue's writings have appeared in a variety of youth publications, including Clubhouse, Campus Life, and Teens Today. She has won a number of literary honors, including the 1991 C.S. Lewis Honor Book Award.

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Cities of the United States, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 596 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Provides a wide range of hard-to-locate data to answer questions concerning American cities. Includes thorough coverage of the area's largest or fastest-growing cities, or those with a particular historical, political, industrial or commercial significance. ... Read more

Product Description
In this story, the group of children from The Wampus Cat: A Tidal River Tale recount the delightful yet harrowing return boat trip they experienced with their friends and their grandfather. The story details the mysterious beauty of winding tidal rivers and a nearby sound that leads them to the National Wildlife Refuge Blackbeard Island and the awe-inspiring power of towering thunderstorms.

Both books are useful on many levels in the classroom for students in 3rd and 4th grade. It has a readability level of 4.3-4.5 grade. It addresses a review of language arts skills with regard to figurative language, author's purpose, main idea, making predictions and supporting details. It is also very helpful for use as a resource on coastal or low country studies.
... Read more

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This sweeping work of cultural history explores a time of startling turbulence and change in the South, years that have often been dismissed as placid and dull. In the wake of World War II, southerners anticipated a peaceful and prosperous future, but as Pete Daniel demonstrates, the road into the 1950s took some unexpected turns.

Daniel chronicles the myriad forces that turned the world southerners had known upside down in the postwar period. In chapters that explore such subjects as the civil rights movement, segregation, and school integration; the breakdown of traditional agriculture and the ensuing rural-urban migration; gay and lesbian life; and the emergence of rock 'n' roll music and stock car racing, as well as the triumph of working-class culture, he reveals that the 1950s South was a place with the potential for revolutionary change.

In the end, however, the chance for significant transformation was squandered, Daniel argues. One can only imagine how different southern history might have been if politicians, the press, the clergy, and local leaders had supported democratic reforms that bestowed full citizenship on African Americans—and how little would have been accomplished if a handful of blacks and whites had not taken risks to bring about the changes that did come. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A look at Southern Culture in the 1950's
Read this for graduate American history course.Lost Revolutions by Pete Daniel is a book that looks at the South during the 1950's. More specifically, it is a cultural history of the American South from the end of World War II until the Freedom Summer of 1964. Daniel's thesis is, "The South that evolved in the twenty years after the war emerged out of displacement, conflict, and creativity - not tranquility" (1). Daniel covers many themes that support his thesis.Among these themes are the migration of small farmers to cities, the advent of NASCAR, Rock n' Roll, and the lost occasions to give full citizenship to African Americans. The author's intention for writing this book is twofold. First, Daniel explores the cultural achievements of the "Lowdown culture" (91). He does this by looking at how the displaced farmers kept their rural roots, despite the fact that they lived in urban areas.Second, Daniel delves into the reasons why the middle-class and upper-class South did not want to desegregate. Lost Revolutions is a fascinating cultural history that sheds light on many current issues.

Daniel discusses numerous issues that surrounded the South after the end of World War II. Primarily, the author looks at a multitude of reasons that massively shrank the number of farmers in the South. "Over a million farm operators left the land in the 1950s" (60). Ezra Taft Benson was a major contributor in the displacement of small farmers in the South. Benson was appointed the secretary of agriculture under
Eisenhower in 1952. This is about the same time that farm machinery, such as tractors, began to replace labor-intensive farming techniques. Additionally, since the Great Depression the majority of southern farmers relied on Government subsidies."Calculations, allotments, and regulations - not hard work - determined whether farmers succeeded or failed" (46). In 1959 a seventy-one-year-old Alabama farmer named E. Spech said, " ... now we can't move without a handout ... Each morning the men headed for some local restaurant for a cup of coffee while their wives sleep till noon" (59). It was obvious to many that Benson did not want to support the small farmer, but rather Agribusiness and the large farmer. Many of the white southern landowners bought more farms, machinery, and became wealthy with the support of the government. Conversely, small farmers, tenant farmers, and sharecroppers, both black and white, left their farms for the cities.

One of the themes that Daniel discusses in Lost Revolutions is the role of the government on the southern environment. As machinery cut down on the need for workers on a farm, so to did the use of chemicals. Interestingly, after World War One, two the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) teamed up with the Chemical Warfare Service to combine their chemical research. These organizations researched
chemicals like DDT, which could be used against humans or insects to shut down the nervous system. DDT and other similar chemicals were used to dust crops by plane, but usually this was done by hand to save money. The USDA even funded the dusting of private property with dieldrin, which is 20 times more toxic than DDT in order to eradicate Argentine fire ants. This supposed scourge was built up by using "Red propaganda" in order scare Americans that an invading insect was going to ruin their land.
The government would eventually spend $156 million dollars to extinguish the Argentine fire ant. This resulted in ruining the environment in many places and actually caused the ...fire ant to speed up its evolutionary cycle and spread throughout the country. The picture that Daniel paints of organizations like the USDA and the Agricultural Research Service(ARS) helps to support his thesis that the South was changing out of conflict.

Lost Revolutions gives the history of displaced southerners who banded together, despite having different skin colors. " ... when it came to exchanging something offensive to the upper class, racial barriers collapsed" (92). The Lowdown culture of the South thrived on being unruly, unrespectable, hard-drinking, and rough. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) has roots in bootlegging and quickly became something that the Lowdown culture gravitated to in the 1950s. The drivers, mechanics, and fans typically put pleasure over values by their bad behavior on and off the track. Additionally, the Lowdown culture produced, "jazz, blues, country, gospel, rhythm and blues, rock On'roll, and soul music" (122). People like Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Willie Mitchell, and Otis Redding were the sounds of the 1950s and the music had no color barrier. The culture that the displaced southerners found joy in reflected their beliefs and could have helped to end segregation in the South.The author describes the South in the 1950s by looking at the continuation of segregation as something that came from the white middle class and the elite. Daniel argues that the working-class southerners were typically not fighting against integration in the South. This is seen through the crisis at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Daniel describes why many whites and blacks feared integration at Central High School. The nine black students who attended Central were kept from major physical harm by the 101st Airborne, which was sent by President Eisenhower.Segregationists saw this action as a threat to state rights and a throwback to
Reconstruction. The strength of Daniel's account of this well-known event lies in his telling of the rest of the story. He tells how the "Littlerock Nine" were subjected to being hit, having hot soup dumped on them, seeing racial words written in the bathroom, and having to be submissive. In the end, Daniel notes the opportunity for positive integration was lost when, "Segregationists policed the color line with a vengeance and intimidated and white person who deviated from their code" (283).

Lost Revolutions is a book that looks at the driving forces behind the Southern culture in the 1950s. The author focuses on segregation as a major topic, but also looks at the cultural collision brought out by the upper-class, middle-class, and the Lowdown cultures. After WorId War II many people in the South favored integration, civil rights, and a positive change in culture. However, "The white elite engineered agribusiness, migration, and massive resistance, a counterrevolution that poisoned both the environment and race relations" (305). The damage done to race relations is to take many years to heal, and in many places is still waiting for resolution. The Blues and NASCAR are proof that race relations in the South could have come from positive cultural influence. Daniel does not look at the South as being predominantly full of segregationists. Rather, he points to lack of leadership, ignorance, and fear as the major reasons that the South had an uneasy end to segregation. Daniel claims that the working class
people of the South were swept away in the racial tension that embattled the 1950s.Segregation in the South ended through laws and intervention rather than a belief in equality. "Before they [the working-class] were divided or tamed, these people redefined the South and established enduring cultural monuments" (305).

As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I recommended this book for anyone interested in American history, civil rights era history.

Excellent appraisal of the Southern paradox
The 1950's South was both a time and a place of contradictions. On the one hand, there was a cultural revolution going on that fused both white and black musical tastes into one revolutionary music genre (rock 'n' roll) anda political revolution that went on (integration) which made the culturalachievements seem to pale in comparison. In essence, the South of the1950's was a confusing maelstrom of contradictory policies and failedopportunities for peaceful change.

So argues Pete Daniel in his book"Lost Revolutions: The South in the 1950's". Daniel's thesis isthat the South offered ripe opportunities for change during the immediatepost-World War II era but these opportunities were overlooked by the factthat warring factions between African-Americans and whites prevented tomake important cultural revolutions make a difference in the politicalspectrum. These important cultural revolutions consisted of: the importanceof rhythm and blues in forging feelings of appreciation between blacks andwhite country and western singers, the rise of NASCAR as a unifying factoramong lower-class whites to challeng the hegemony of the white middle andupper-classes, and, finally, the rebeliousness exhibited by both white andblack youth to forge a new consensus for political change. Daniel's bookdoes an excellent job of explaining both why there were contradictions inSouthern society and how these contradictions contributed to a painfullyfought battle for integration and equal rights. This is a battle which isstill being fought today but more on a state's rights and regionalisticfront than a racial front.

Daniel's book is a true lesson in primarysource research and his endnotes clearly demonstrate this. Interviews, 4pages of manuscript collection sources, and numerous prominent secondarysources fully back up a thought-provoking thesis. This book is a welcomeaddition to southern historiography. ... Read more

Product Description
Scarlett's Sisters explores the meaning of nineteenth-century southern womanhood from the vantage point of the celebrated fictional character's flesh-and-blood counterparts: young, elite, white women. Anya Jabour demonstrates that southern girls and young women faced a major turning point when the Civil War forced them to assume new roles and responsibilities as independent women. By tracing the lives of young white women in a society in flux, Jabour reveals how the South's old social order was maintained and a new one created as southern girls and young women learned, questioned, and ultimately changed what it meant to be a southern lady. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent addition to Southern history
Anya Jabour's Scarlet's Sisters is a monographic corrective to popular conceptions of Southern womanhood; it subverts "Americans' ideas about the South[,] particularly about Southern women" that continue to be shaped by Gone with the Wind (1). Adding to the "classic triumvirate of race, class, and gender", Jabour uses age as her unit of analysis in exploring the history of young white women in the antebellum South (2). Divided into eight parts, Scarlet's Sisters tracks the collective experience of over three-hundred women as they pass through shared cultural experiences of maturation and coming-of-age; adolescence, schooling, single life, courtship, engagement, marriage and motherhood are discussed in a chronological order which illuminates women's identities in flux.
Carving out a separate Southern identity from the oft-covered Victorian era, Jabour's "sensitivity to regional variations" gives southern women agency (3). Forms of resistance to the demands of Southern patriarchy were not generated by the influence of a didactic, urban-based feminism from the contemporaneous American North. Instead, Jabour asserts it is Southern women themselves who developed unique forms of resistance based on Southern cultural paradigms. Young women in the nineteenth-century South created communities in exclusively female spaces; academies, church groups, and sustained virtual communities in letter writing all served to give women a safe space to explore identities. Complicating the construction of belles as "giddy girls, fickle flirts, and husband-seeking hussies", Jabour introduces us to a world of young women who "prioritized intellectual development" in a community of their own (2, 126). "I describe... a culture of resistance" adds Jabour, a "subculture" that Southern women created to resist the imperatives of patriarchy (10, 12).
Jabour draws on archival documents, magazines, published letters, diaries and memoirs, as well as a number of monographs and secondary sources to produce an incredibly vibrant account of Southern women's lives. The book's organization gives a good sense of what it was like to grow up as young, white, and well to do in the Old South. Jabour seamlessly integrates sociological analytic tools, such as the discussion of homosocial behavior and the deconstruction of cultural conceptions of sexuality. In her chapter on schoolgirls, Jabour finesses the complexity of women's relationships. Romantic friendships often blurred the lines of the platonic and erotic; intense attachments to young female teachers, or to other peers, manifested themselves in girls' diaries. In the time before Freud, these socially-sanctioned relationships gave schoolgirls a "glimpse of an alternative to their seemingly predestined future as wives and mothers" (71). It was not at all uncommon for girls to have close physical contact with peers. Dormitory-style living "encouraged young women to form relationships with their fellow students" (64). While political lesbian separatism is still a century and a half away, this all-female academic environment was a socially-sanctioned, albeit temporary place where schoolgirls could "secure [their hearts] from becoming the slave" of any man (129). Southern women formed bonds at seminaries and academies that lasted their entire lifetime. Echoing these early experiences in school, Southern women persisted in forming all-female environments later in their lives. The "meaninglessness and melancholy" that plagued young women after graduation sharpened their fond memories of happier times spent with female friends in school (106). Left by men who joined the confederate army, some during the Civil War attempted to recreate these havens where refugee women "pooled their resources and created shared homes", much to the "delight" of all involved (265). Others worked in all-female aid societies. In any case, it was clear that the bonds formed in girlhood were a compass for guiding women to form all-female environments and communities where women were able to gain efficacy.
Overall, Scarlet's Sisters is an original, informative, and enjoyable read. It does justice to second- and third-wave feminist interpretations of gender, sexuality, and womanhood. In content and approach, this book includes a nice treatment of menstruation, a topic sparsely covered, and still stigmatized, in contemporary histories. "[F]or all of historians' efforts over the last three decades to dispel the myth of the southern lady," Jabour laments, few have gone farther than "exploding the moonlight-and-magnolias mythology" of Southern women (1, 2). With this volume, Jabour not only nuances history, but she certainly succeeds in complicating modern popular ideas of gender identity.

The Index is Worthless.
I bought this book because mentions particular people that I was interested in. I knew that it talked about them because Amazon allows us to search the book. These people were not even in the index although there are people in the index. I had to go back to Amazon to find the references. If I had seen the book in a bookstore or the library I would not have known that they were mentioned. This type of book needs a good index. ... Read more

Product Description
Military training was a prominent feature of higher education across the nineteenth-century South. Virginia Military Institute and the Citadel, as well as land-grant schools such as Texas A&M, Auburn, and Clemson, organized themselves on a military basis, requiring their male students to wear uniforms, join a corps of cadets, and subject themselves to constant military discipline. Several southern black colleges also adopted a military approach.

Challenging assumptions about a distinctive "southern military tradition," Rod Andrew demonstrates that southern military schools were less concerned with preparing young men for actual combat than with instilling in their students broader values of honor, patriotism, civic duty, and virtue. Southerners had a remarkable tendency to reconcile militarism with republicanism, Andrew says, and following the Civil War, the Lost Cause legend further strengthened the link in southerners' minds between military and civic virtue.

Though traditionally black colleges faced struggles that white schools did not, notes Andrew, they were motivated by the same conviction that powered white military schools--the belief that a good soldier was by definition a good citizen. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A history that prompts broad thinking on education and society
Read one way, this is a straightforward history of military colleges and secondary schools in the American south in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Crisply organized chapters deal with the views that undergirded the military schools movement, the founding of state colleges like Virginia Military Institute and the Citadel, the many effects of the Civil War, how the South responded to the Morrill Act that established the land grant colleges, and the tensions between "militarism" and "republicanism" that the military colleges had to resolve.

There's a fine essay on the system of discipline for cadets and how it came to incorporate legal protections recognized in American society.Another chapter traces the history of the separate military schools for African-Americans (Hampton was the most famous).

Read another way, this book addresses historical narratives of the ante-bellum South, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.Andrew challenges historians who have argued that the popularity of military schooling in the South derived from slavery and racism, and he succeeds in adding more depth and texture to discussion of the issue.Southern educators and parents were affected both by regional and national culture; law; concepts of duty, honor, virtue, and citizenship; reflections on adolescence; the economic development of the south; and the evolution of thinking on education and its purposes.

This is history, but as always history sparks thinking on the present.The legacy of the cultural values that supported the military schools, a century or more later, can be seen in the number of young men and women from the South who serve in the armed forces.

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Product Description
General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1860Original Publisher: General Protestant Episcopal S. School Union, and Church Book SocietySubjects: Biography ... Read more