======================== HES POSTING =================== 
 
Folks, 
 
H-Net --Humanities & Social Sciences Online, with emphasis on History-- 
has a revised page for its Book Reviews : 
        http://h-net2.msu.edu/reviews/ 
Reviews that originated on the dozens of different H-Net e-mail lists can 
be jointly searched in several ways.  These are serious reviews, typically 
three or four single-space pages on paper. 
 
Most of the books reviews are historical and many deal with economic 
themes.  For a sample of H-Net Reviews that doubles as preparation for 
your visit to Charleston and its region this summer, there are two reviews 
you should see this winter (headers and opening paragraphs embedded here). 
 
CHARLESTON HARBOR 
 
Charleston was one of four or five major seaports in 18c British North 
America at the time of the Revolution and in the Confederate States at the 
time of the Civil War.  Thus it was a prime object in both conflicts.  For 
USAmericans today, I daresay it is best known as the site of Fort Sumter, 
whose bombardment by the Confederate forces is commonly called the "first 
shots" of the Civil War.  Thereafter it had symbolic significance as a 
center of the rebellion and one book reviewed at H-Net focuses on the 
Federal government campaigns to retake it.  (There are many ways to search 
H-Net Reviews <http://h-net2.msu.edu/reviews/>.  Eg, find this book by 
search for Author "Wise", Reviewer "Smith", or List "H-CivWar". )  
  
> 
   Stephen R. Wise. Gate of Hell: Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863.  
   Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1994. xii + 312 pp.  
   Maps, appendix, notes, bibliography, and index. $27.95 (cloth). ISBN  
   0-8724-9985-5.  
     
   Reviewed by W. Wayne Smith, Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  
     
   Published by H-CivWar (February, 1996)  
     
   The movie Glory popularized in dramatic fashion the heroism of the  
   54th Massachusetts regiment in the assault on Ft. Wagner. Now Stephen  
   Wise, museum director and South Carolina historian, presents the full  
   story of the assault on Ft. Wagner within its larger context. . . . 
> 
 
CHARLESTON REGION: Lowland South Carollina 
 
Charleston was the seaport and capital city for the "heart" of plantation 
slavery in North America in colonial times and still a the time of the 
Civil War.  Another book reviewed at H-Net is a social and political 
history of that region, lowland South Carolina, before the War. 
(At H-Net Reviews <http://h-net2.msu.edu/reviews/>, find this by search 
for Author "McCurry", Reviewer "Keith", or Keyword "South Carolina".) 
 
>     
   Stephanie McCurry. Masters of Small Worlds: Yeoman Households, Gender  
   Relationsand the Political Culture of the Antebellum South Carolina  
   Low Country. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. 320 pp. Tables,  
   appendix, notes, index. $39.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-19-507236-7.  
     
   Reviewed by Jeanette Keith, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.  
     
   Published by H-CivWar (February, 1996)  
 
   [. . . first paragraph deleted]     
   The Low Country represents the Slave South carried to extremes,  
   characterized as it was by huge plantations, a majority slave  
   population, and a political system unique in the South for its  
   elitism. South Carolina was not "the South" any more than  
   Massachusetts was "the North," but its very nature as the extreme  
   example of "Southern-ness" makes it an excellent place to ask some  
   basic questions about the nature of antebellum society and its  
   relationship to the political system. . . . 
> 
 
----Paul 
 
Paul Wendt, Watertown MA 
HES asst.editor 
 
============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ 
For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]