======================== 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]