Southern Odyssey contains the best of Sherwood Anderson's writings about the region where he spent the last sixteen years of his life. In more than forty selections of journalism and fiction, Anderson explores the people and problems of the South. The pieces collected here present Anderson's perceptive vision of the South, combining his love for the region with the fresh observations of an outsider. His work reflects a range of issues that engaged all southerners at a crucial time in their history--the Great Depression, the influence of the New Deal, the painful transition from agriculture to mechanization, the struggle of labor to unionize, and the elemental divisions of race--always with an eye toward the human side of things. Anderson's impressions and convictions concerning his southern experience encompassed more than its troubles, however. He also wrote of the splendor of a Shenandoah spring and the strength of character of the native people. Southern Odyssey is more than a personal record--it is a gallery of southern portraits, drawn in the style that distinguishes Anderson's prose at its best.

Spirits of Just Men tells the story of moonshine in 1930s America, as seen through the remarkable location of Franklin County, Virginia, a place that many still refer to as the "moonshine capital of the world." Charles D. Thompson Jr. chronicles the Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial of 1935, which made national news and exposed the far-reaching and pervasive tendrils of Appalachia's local moonshine economy. Thompson, whose ancestors were involved in the area's moonshine trade and trial as well as local law enforcement, uses the event as a stepping-off point to explore Blue Ridge Mountain culture, economy, and political engagement in the 1930s. Drawing from extensive oral histories and local archival material, he illustrates how the moonshine trade was a rational and savvy choice for struggling farmers and community members during the Great Depression. Local characters come alive through this richly colorful narrative, including the stories of Miss Ora Harrison, a key witness for the defense and an Episcopalian missionary to the region, and Elder Goode Hash, an itinerant Primitive Baptist preacher and juror in a related murder trial. Considering the complex interactions of religion, economics, local history, Appalachian culture, and immigration, Thompson's sensitive analysis examines the people and processes involved in turning a basic agricultural commodity into such a sought-after and essentially American spirit.

The lifelong link between a formerly enslaved woman and her childhood mistress provides a unique view of life in Reconstruction era Louisville. Born into slavery, Cecelia Reynolds was presented as a birthday gift to her nine-year-old mistress, Frances "Fanny" Thruston Ballard. Years later, Cecelia escaped to join the free black population of Canada. But what might have been the end of her connection to Fanny appears to be only the beginning. A cache of letters from Fanny to Cecelia tells of a rare link between two urban families over several decades. Cecelia and Fanny is a fascinating look at race relations in mid-nineteenth-century Louisville, Kentucky, focusing on the experiences of these two families during the seismic social upheaval wrought by the emancipation of four million African Americans. Far more than the story of two families, Cecelia and Fanny delves into the history of Civil War-era Louisville. Author Brad Asher details the cultural roles assigned to the two women and provides a unique view of slavery in an urban context, as opposed to the rural plantations more often examined by historians.

Liberian Politics tells the fascinating story of Liberia's early nation-building efforts, its attempts to establish democracy, and the pivotal role played by African Americans in exporting the American democratic experiment to Liberia. The story of the rise of Africa's oldest democracy is told through the writings of J. Milton Turner, an African American diplomat who served in Liberia from 1871 to 1878. Turner's official diplomatic correspondence--superbly organized and edited by Walton, Rosser, and Stevenson--document Liberia's struggle to define its political institutions and processes. They chart Liberia's struggle to establish its relationship with the wider world and offer an intimate portrait of Turner's role as the agent of U.S. foreign policy in Liberia. A comparative study in the best tradition of Tocqueville and Myrdal, this pathbreaking work reveals the global dimensions of nineteenth-century African American politics and offers rich insight into the direction of early U.S. diplomacy in Africa.

This book illuminates the professional career and private lives of J. McCants Stewart--a Reconstruction-era lawyer, minister, politician, and political activist--and his descendants over three generations, providing an epic account of an African-American family in America. (Adapted from book jacket)

This text argues that the Civil War truly formed the American nation and that the antebellum period was the crucial phase of American national construction. Grant focuses on a Northern nationalism based on an opposition to things Southern and links national construction with European nationalism.

The English version of "The Odyssey" is Alexander Pope's 1725 translation. As Dr. Johnson said, it is "certainly the noblest version of poetry which the world has ever seen." This is that text as cast into Engish by Alexander Pope, one of the giants of English poetry. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

This collection of fifteen essays, selected from papers presented at the April 1981 Citadel Conference on the South, examines three of the most powerful operating forces in southern life: race, class, and folk culture. The Southern Enigma, representing the work of both established and emerging scholars, reflects the most recent historical analyses of southern history.