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Clinton, Louisiana: Society, Poli-tics, and Race Relations in a Nine-teenth Century Small SouthernTown. By V. Elaine Thompson.(Lafayette: University of Louisianaat Lafayette Press, 2014. Pp. vii-x+ 192, epilogue and photo essay,appendix, bibliography, index.$20, paperback)

V. Elaine Thompson has produced asharply written and impressively researchedbook about Clinton, Louisiana, located about35 miles northeast of Baton Rouge, not far fromthe Mississippi border. At the outbreak of theCivil War, the town numbered about 1,000people, a third of them slaves. Today, the townhas roughly 1,600 residents. While neither largenor well known, the town had an interestingnineteenth century history, which Thompsonchronicles well.

Clinton, with its splendid Greek revival ar-chitecture, is in many ways the epitome of thesmall antebellum southern town. But for all its“southernness,” it was named after a Yankee:DeWitt Clinton, who ran for president in 1812.The town had roots in the colonial period. It isin the Florida Parishes (today, East FelicianaParish), which were ruled over by the French,English, and Spanish, respectively, before de-claring themselves an independent republic. By1812, however, the Florida parishes were underUnited States control. Clinton saw a boom inthe Jacksonian period, when the cotton frontierwas spreading further west, creating wealth andexpanding slavery.

Using a good amount of demographic data,Thompson shows that antebellum Clinton wasin many ways very “unsouthern.” Northerners

settlers—includinga notable Germanand Jewish Ameri-can population—were a significantminority in ante-bellum Clinton.Two-fifths of all themen in town in1860 had been for-eign-born. Clintonwas unusual inother ways in thatfew male residentswere farmers. The vast majority instead wereprofessionals, skilled laborers, and merchants.One could say that Clinton was a very northernsouthern town.

But what northern cities did not have wasslavery, and Thompson’s book gives careful at-tention to the world the master class made forthemselves. Clinton’s slave population was con-siderable, though most of the town’s AfricanAmericans were women who served as domes-tics. Most of the men elected to office wereslaveholders, though non-slaveholders num-bered a third of the political class. Thompsonmakes an important point about slavery migrat-ing out of the big cities into the countryside asthe South headed toward war. But in saying re-peatedly that urban slavery had “disintegrated”by 1860, she overstates her case. A marked dropin the slave population of New Orleans, for ex-ample, is not the same thing as disintegration.

Not surprisingly, the Civil War caused greatdisruption in Clinton, though the conflict didnot affect Clinton much until late 1862, bywhich time the Federal army controlled muchof the Mississippi River Valley. Clinton wasconnected to the Mississippi by way of a 27-mile railroad between the town and Port Hud-son, one of the last bastions on the Mississippi

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to fall. With Confederate defeats, refugees fromsouthern Louisiana–such as diarist Sarah Mor-gan–moved into Clinton, which suffered greatlyat the hands of Union and Confederate forceslooking for supplies amid what Thompson de-scribes as the South’s “ill-conceived battle forindependence” (p. 105). Clinton suffered twodevastating fires in wartime, one that was acci-dental, the other set by Yankee troops.

Events in Clinton during Reconstructionfollowed a pattern familiar to students of thenineteenth century. African Americans in thearea tried to reestablish and maintain familyties, while building schools and obtaining fairworking relationships with planters and otherwhite employers. As black citizens assertedthemselves politically, white Democrats becamemore unified and violent. Clinton saw the de-velopment of a biracial Republican Party, but itfaced problems not just in battling white su-premacist Democrats but remaining unified.

Thompson shows that it was not until 1876that Clinton saw the kind of extreme violenceand intimidation that characterized Recon-struction in other Deep South communities.The Republicans had their problems in south-ern Louisiana, but their party did not collapseuntil after the contested presidential election of1876. Thompson’s attention to Reconstructionis illuminating and uses important documentsfrom the Freedmen’s Bureau collections at theNational Archives to make her case. But attimes, she is loose with her chronology, makingan already complicated time in Louisiana’s his-tory more confusing than might have been nec-essary.

Thompson concludes her book in 1876,and her study is one of the occasions when Iwould have liked to have seen the narrative golonger. The books includes a coda, in whichThompson provides a brief overview of thetown’s historical buildings and briefly discussesthe twentieth century, including Clinton’s suc-cess in attracting major Hollywood film crewssince the 1950s. Perhaps a second volume is inthe works. If so, this reviewer would look for-

ward to reading it. On the whole, Clinton, Louisiana, is a solid

work of scholarship. Thompson’s book makes astrong case for the importance of the smallsouthern communal study as a means of under-standing the nineteenth-century South.Thompson has not published a book for boost-ers who like their history white-washed. Herbook is serious, but fair, and it will prove inter-esting and useful for students and scholars ofLouisiana history.

--Colin Edward Woodward

Builders of a New South: Mer-chants, Capital, and the Remakingof Natchez, 1865–1914. By AaronD. Anderson. (Jackson: Universityof Mississippi Press, 2013. Pp. vii +271, acknowledgments, notes, se-lected bibliography, index. $40.00,hardback)

If the Old South was the handiwork of theplanter class, then the savvy merchant classstamped their powerful imprint on the NewSouth. This is the central argument of historianAaron D. Anderson’s Builders of the NewSouth, a sharp, fo-cused, and well-researched mono-graph that exam-ines the NatchezDistrict of Missis-sippi and Louisianain the five decadesfollowing the CivilWar. The Natchezmercantile commu-nity constituted agroup of “fresh so-cial and economic

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leaders of the New South” who proved to be in-dispensible in shaping the Natchez region fol-lowing the chaos of the Civil War and thesocial and economic disruptions wrought by theabolition of slavery (p. 6). With the planterclass in a state of disarray, the established mer-chants of Natchez, along with an infusion ofnew entrepreneurial blood, stepped into the gapand drove the creation of new economic andlabor arrangements, most notably, sharecrop-ping. These merchants were innovative in busi-ness, took advantage of any opportunities thatpresented themselves, and always kept theireyes on the lucrative profits awaiting them inthe postwar economy. Anderson writes that theNatchez merchants were “good businessmen”who saved the local economy when it desper-ately needed rescuing. “No other group,” hecontends, “was as responsible for the economichealth of the town and its hinterland as werethe merchants, who invested in land, railroads,cotton mills, and numerous civic undertakingsover the years” (p. 219).

The mercantile class of Natchez found itselfin the right place at the right time. The crum-bling of the Old South under the weight of warand abolition presented a whole host of eco-nomic opportunities. Nowhere was this realitymore evident than in the development of share-cropping. Anderson does not view the develop-ment of sharecropping as being primarily theresult of mutual negotiation between formerslaveowners desperately seeking workers andtheir former slaves who craved land and inde-pendence. Instead, the merchants used thepower of granting credit and new crop lien lawsto push the South toward a system of sharecrop-ping and continued high levels of cotton pro-duction. In Anderson’s version of thesharecropping arrangement, indebted plantersand the new market of freedpeople both foundthemselves at the mercy of mercantile leaderswho controlled access to goods and credit. WithKing Cotton still firmly on his throne after1865, thanks to the actions of the Natchez mer-chants, these businessmen accumulated great

wealth and status in a new South built on anold, familiar white fabric.

Being a Natchez merchant meant morethan simply running stores, granting credit, andrunning the local economy. The mercantileelite created strong familial, social, religious,and political ties within their community, and,although they constantly followed the nextpath to the next dollar, they dedicated a greatdeal of their efforts to enhancing social connec-tions and community uplift within Natchez.The stories of local families and their myriadworks within Natchez add a personal touch thatis often missing from economic and businesshistory. Herein lies one of the greatest strengthsof Builders of a New South: balancing the quan-titative side of the history with the qualitativeevidence. Anderson succeeds in keeping hisstudy attuned to the families and individualswho made decisions that had positive and neg-ative effects upon the people of Natchez. Hedoes not overwhelm readers with statistical dataand quantitative analysis, which will be appre-ciated by those looking for a more narrativestyle of economic and business history.

Anderson’s appraisal of the merchant islargely positive, although he is clear to ac-knowledge their shortcomings. Merchantsnever broke themselves or the region’s economyfrom the cycle of dependency on cotton. For allthe foresight and keenness of the Natchez mer-chants, they willfully remained wedded to “anunstable and pernicious system, built upon thebacks of the unfortunate and predicated uponan unsustainable, dangerous business” (p. 197).By the early twentieth century, cotton pricesspiraled downward and the boll weevil marchedthroughout Louisiana and Mississippi, leavingbehind a path of economic devastation andgrinding poverty, especially for African Ameri-cans. Anderson demonstrates that the mercan-tile elite exploited black sharecroppers andfueled the southern addiction to cotton, whichultimately came back to haunt everyone, in-cluding “the king’s attendants” (p. 197). By the1910s, the leaders of the New South stared

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ahead at a world of uncertainty and economicdecline, yet that world was made by their ownhands.

Without question, the Natchez merchantswere a critical component in the creation of theNew South. On too many occasions throughoutthe book, however, Anderson presents them asthe only or “true” builders of a New South (p.220). This study does not pay enough attentionto the ways whites and blacks outside the mer-chant class remade the region after the CivilWar. The story of race in the building of theNew South is often subsumed in Anderson’sbook by the matters of dollars and cents. Thisis unfortunate because, to a large extent, thecreation of a New South was largely predicatedon race. Builders of a New South presents aclear, straightforward story of economic growthand decline when the building of the NewSouth was much messier and more complicatedthan the book suggests.

These concerns notwithstanding, AaronAnderson has delivered a superb work on animportant place and time in the South’s history.Scholars interested in the study of Natchez, theNew South, and economic history will benefita great deal from his thorough research andclear writing. Important people come to life inthis impressive book. Just how important thosemerchants were has been and will continue tobe a subject of debate among historians of theNew South.

--Charles Westmoreland

Hurricane Katrina in TransatlanticPerspective. Edited by RomainHuret and Randy J. Sparks (BatonRouge: Louisiana State UniversityPress, 2014. Pp. vii + 197, contrib-utors. $29.95, paperback).

When it comes to weather-related hazards,the Delta has the unfortunate distinction ofbeing a very deadly place to live. Tornadoes,floods, and tropical storms, too often combinedwith poverty and its ills (fragile housing,crowded conditions, disability and illness, etc.),result in higher-than-expected fatality rates.Since the advent of warning systems and exten-sive media coverage, nowhere, and at no othertime, was this more evident than when Hurri-cane Katrina struck Louisiana and the Missis-sippi Gulf Coast in late August of 2005.

Co-editor Romain Huret identifies threethemes in his “Introduction” to Hurricane Ka-trina in Transatlantic Perspective: the event it-self, the racial/ideological perspective, andKatrina’s legacy. As this book was publishednearly ten years after Katrina, some descriptionof what it purports to add to the plethora ofbooks, journal articles, documentaries, specialeditions, and films already in circulation aboutthe event seems in order, but is not found in theIntroduction. Further, the “event itself”—notclearly defined, since the natural event, a hur-ricane, seems far less important than the failuresthat followed—is not the clear focus of anychapter. Most chapters set a historical backdropwithin various subdisciplines, leading up to thehurricane and itsaftermath, espe-cially the anti-gov-ernment, pro-freemarket neoliberalpolitical/institu-tional milieu intowhich Katrinaslammed. The post-Katrina legacy, abroad term andeasy catch-all, in-cludes chaptersthat revolve prima-rily around decisions regarding housing andservices for local victims and those evacuated,and recovery of the economy—especiallytourism and associated cultural forms—primar-

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ily their effect upon the less well-to-do in thecity.

Campanella’s chapter most closely relatesto the event, if only by the tragic numbers. Itdescribes the geography of victimization: histor-ical settlement patterns, focusing especially onelevation, among black and white New Orlea-nians and the resulting non-disproportionalityof both fatalities and affectation by floodingamong black residents. Equally believing intechno-fixes (levees, drainage systems), heclaims both races “proportionately” eventuallysettled in harm’s way. As blacks wound up ineastern areas “more at-risk of hurricane-inducedsurge flooding,” which “led to more black floodvictims than did . . . topographic elevation,”one wonders how this settlement pattern wasproportional; in areas where “harm” is moreharmful, it disproportionately affected AfricanAmericans.

The second theme, the ideological/politicalmilieu of pre- through post-Katrina, is threadedthroughout nearly every chapter. Huret focuseson a massive meltdown of every agency at everylevel, pointing out it was at the time the federalgovernment’s role to make needed decisions dueto restructuring of FEMA and the Departmentof Homeland Security by the Bush administra-tion following 9/11, but no one at any levelseemed to know whose task was whose before,during, or after the hurricane, resulting in manydeadly mistakes. Diamond describes a culturallyembedded racism and a neoliberal focus, insti-tutionally and more recently among middle-class African Americans, as contributing to thelack of mobilization in the face of widely publi-cized social injustice exposed by Katrina. Any-one protesting the treatment of poor AfricanAmericans were accused of ‘playing the racecard;’ thus only charity replaced the (rightful)place of government to address the disaster andthe needs of poverty-stricken citizens. Lovell’schapter opens with an unfortunate glaring error(floodwaters overtaking residents “on the morn-ing of September 28, 2005” rather than August29) but goes on to describe the neoliberal-un-

friendly history of Charity Hospital, founded onthe idea that all people deserve health care, andits unfortunate and controversial demise afterKatrina. Given that Charity was not badly dam-aged and despite broad-based efforts to refurbishand reopen the hospital, Lovell like several con-tributors, describes the storm as a (welcomed,by some nefarious persons) wrecking ball anddeplores the use of disaster funds to ‘fast-for-ward’ ambitious neoliberal plans for upscalingneighborhoods (and in this case, privatizinghealth care). Adams’s chapter describes, as docountless others since 2005, how Katrina rippedthe mask off of the poverty-stricken undersideof New Orleans, but places his rendering in thehistorical fact of the advent of a pre-Katrinatourist-oriented economy which requires thatmask be slammed right back on if the city is toregain its place as tourist haven par excellence.Potential tourists must put aside images of an-archy, crime, looting, dead and dying poverty-stricken faces. Security was used to undertakereplacement of the “projects” (and Adams ar-gues these were not the traditional multi-storyprojects once thought to foment crime), butmore likely an excuse to privatize housing;tourism necessitates a return to invisibility ofpoor, mostly black service personnel to backrooms, quashing memories of those desperate,needy images. Le Menestrel’s chapter also hitson the theme of decision makers choosing de-struction of public housing as blatantly discrim-inatory, while officials often chose to focus onconcrete memorials to the storm. She describesthe “Lower Nine Monument” to homeowner-ship (the American Dream) even as homeswere demolished without the owners’ knowl-edge and money to rebuild in the Lower NinthWard had not been forthcoming from officialsattending.

Le Menestrel’s chapter also, however, bringsto light with its theme of commemoration—perhaps the best thread tying together this vol-ume, as well as a motivation for its publication.In quoting journalist Jordan Flaherty’s 2006question “How do you commemorate . . . some-

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thing that is still happening,” Le Menestrel al-ludes to the “endless character” of Katrina, stillongoing despite passage of nearly ten years (p.156). Her definition of scholarly conferencesand publications as a form of commemoration,lending expertise in understanding to aid in thehealing process, is the entire book’s raison d’e-tre. The chapter in general addresses the cop-ing/mourning process in New Orleans asmanifested in concrete and symbolic, officialand grassroots commemorative forms. Severalof her examples—second-line marches as sym-bolically taking back the streets by dispossessedvictims; musical expressions of memory andsupport; Mardi Gras; photo collections—are ad-dressed elsewhere herein, chapters otherwisemore difficult to place into the editors’ threethemes.

Raeburn’s chapter examines Katrina’s effecton black brass bands, a musical form all but syn-onymous with New Orleans. The return andsuccess of musicians is seen as a “barometer ofthe city’s recovery” and numerous charities re-main dedicated to their continued well-being(p. 139). Raeburn further underscores Katrinaas a catalyst for both traditional and younger,more hip-hop-influenced bands to meld theirstyles, both sides comprehending that music,traditional or new, commercial or “street,”heals, and must be as fluid and resilient as thecity in reinventing itself. Sparks’s chapter onMardi Gras covers the “damned-if-you-do,damned-if-you-don’t” dilemma facing the cityin early 2006: as Mayor Nagin expressed it,“There they go again, partying when they haveserious challenges” (p. 186). Reiterating an-other theme (the idea that New Orleans doesn’treally produce anything but “moments,” oftenfor tourists), Sparks describes Mardi Gras as thedaddy of all moments, “in the DNA” of its res-idents, rendering it a necessity and a hilariouslysatirical catharsis for the rage and sorrow of thepopulace, with or without tourists present.Kempf’s chapter analyses and places into histor-ical context the iconic images—those Adamsdescribes as images people must shake—of Ka-

trina. Kempf finds these images, while display-ing themes common to all disasters, unique inthe juxtaposition of images representing con-tinual rebirth of the US (due in part to theAmerican “can-do” attitude toward conqueringthe environment, perhaps nowhere more evi-dent than in New Orleans), and those that dis-play a nation alien to most Americans.

God as causal agent—rather than a bum-bling bureaucracy—sets Boyden’s chapter aparta bit. Divine retribution is a special category ofblame-mongering that flies after every disaster:some transgression has brought on God’s wrath.In this case, one obvious target was SouthernDecadence, a gay event set to take place daysafter Katrina. Coverage of this topic, a bittongue-in-cheek, is refreshing in a book thatotherwise stirs up outrage even ten years later;while it offers no concrete criticism that couldbe acted on and no help to those most affected,it (perhaps unfortunately) simply reminds read-ers that retribution narratives are part of a cul-ture many Americans adhere to, within notonly the Delta, but as far afield as Philadelphiaand beyond. If victims “asked for it,” then Amer-icans can feel guiltless about non-response.

The book is generally a fine read for thosewith at least a basic pre-existing knowledge ofthe events that took place in New Orleans (no-tably, this is not a perspective inclusive of theMississippi Gulf Coast) when Katrina struck. Inthat past works have documented its devastat-ing effect on African Americans and thepoor/elderly/disabled, the ineptitude of bureau-cracy at every level, and hazards researchers(the volume’s most likely intended audience)have made very clear for decades that “natural”disasters are anything but natural, most of thechapters do, to a varied extent, cover familiarground. Some, in fact, are nearly identical pre-vious works, by the same authors. A large partof Campanella’s, for example, is published in aspecial Katrina edition of the Journal of Amer-ican History in 2007; that particular special edi-tion covers many other themes in the volumeat hand, including the music and Mardi Gras

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angles. The “transatlantic” perspective is not es-pecially prominent; the arguments are generallythe same as those of most American scholars,much of it a neoliberal critique. This volume isbest described as a fine, ongoing commemora-tion of the lives destroyed by Katrina, and a re-flection of a worldwide desire to see a uniquecity and its inhabitants—rich, poor, black,white—recover and thrive, and in that, it doesan excellent job.

--Mary Sue Passe-Smith

Ten Years After Katrina: CriticalPerspectives of the Storm’s Effecton American Culture and Identity.Edited by Mary Ruth Marotte andGlenn Jellenik. (Lanham, MA:Lexington Books, 2014. Pp. vii-xiv+ 237, index. $90, hardback)

This year marks ten years since HurricaneKatrina, the costliest natural disaster in the his-tory of the UnitedStates. Mary RuthMarotte and GlennJellenik’s work, TenYears After Kat-rina: Critical Per-spectives of theStorm’s Effect onAmerican Cultureand Identity, is acollection of essaysthat attempts toprocess how our na-tional and individ-ual responses to the hurricane changed theUnited States as a culture. As they pointedlyexplain in their introduction, these responsesare still raw: “Ten years of chronological dis-tance from the hurricane is not enough for us

to forget the images of floating bodies, imagesthat captured and continue to capture the ter-rible nature of Katrina and the shame of howand why America abandoned so many peopleaffected by the storm” (p. vii). Since the storm,the Katrina experience has been the subject ofnovels, photographic collections, films, televi-sion shows, and creative non-fiction works inorder “to construct a coherent narrative out ofthe chaos and wreckage of a cataclysmic event”(p. viii). This anthology collects the scholarlyresponses to this body of artistic work. It is thefirst anthology to do so, which stands in con-trast to the multiple anthologies that exist con-cerning the literature of 9/11. As such, TenYears After Katrina is a needed work to help usunderstand why the United States as a nationwent so wrong with Katrina, and why we con-tinue to bury our responses to the storm in theback of our national consciousness.

This collection of scholarly essays is dividedinto two parts. The first part responds to testi-monial works that seek to process the trauma ofKatrina. The second part examines works thatcenter on Katrina’s effects on racial, socio-eco-nomic, and regional identity. The texts dis-cussed are wonderfully diverse—from graphicnovels like Josh Neufeld’s A.D.: New OrleansAfter the Deluge, to television shows like DavidSimon’s Treme, to hip-hop responses by KanyeWest, Mos Def, and Jay Z, to Jesmyn Ward’snovel Salvage the Bones. Such diversity of textsis noble and pertinent to expanding academicideas of where culture lives and is created in theUnited States. As well, the inclusivity of theKatrina-based texts discussed give us “a vast andcomplex creative memory bank for testimonyon Katrina, as well as the beginnings of an un-derstanding of how American culture has beenand continues to be shaped by this disaster” (p.xiii).

The strongest essays in this collection teachthe reader how cultural memory is formedthrough the genre-breaking interweaving ofauto-ethnography, art, and politics. For exam-ple, by looking at the unnamed and un-cited

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sources of Robert McDaniel’s poetry collectionSaltwater Empire, Joseph Donica—in “Disas-ter’s Ethics of Literature: Voicing Katrina Sto-ries in the Digital Age”—deconstructs thepolitics that continue to silence Katrina vic-tims. As Donica points out, McDaniel bor-rowed liberally from the words of victims inAbe Louise Young’s The New Orleans DisasterOral History and Memory Project, yet “Mc-Daniel contacted neither the project nor thesurvivors,” thus calling into question the ethicsof how artists and writers represent the voicesof the dispossessed (p. 4). In “Bearing Witnessto the Dispossessed: Natasha Trethewey’s Be-yond Katrina: A Meditation on the MississippiGulf Coast,” Eloisa Valenzuela-Mendoza seeshow our preservation of traumatic memoriesshould be an archive, rather than just thosememories of mainstream representations, thatavoid a “method of preservation [that] createsa ‘hierarchy of memories,’ and within this sys-tem certain remembrances are lost, or disre-garded” (p. 73). Trethewey’s genre-breakingwork of personal narrative, poetry, letters, pho-tographs, and essays seeks to create this newform of archive that does not privilege one formof experience-recording over another, butrather “suggests that the story of recovery con-tinues past the bounds of the text, and impli-cates the witness/reader in the progression ofthe story, and the preservation of memory” (p.87).

Though there are a number of comparisonsof Katrina literature to the literature of 9/11—for example, A. G. Keeble’s “An Aggregationof Political Rhetoric in Zeitoun”—there is verylittle in this anthology that contextualizes Kat-rina literature within a larger literary and artis-tic history of the United States. While Katrinawas a regional event, the effects have not beenregional, but involved a mass migration of dis-placed people into the Upper South and Mid-west, many of whom never returned to the GulfCoast. Their stories still exist and are now shap-ing the United States in ways we have yet toknow. Marotte and Jellenik’s collection gives us

an important, needed, and forward-thinkingstart to understanding how Katrina has shapedus, and how the shame of our national reactionto the storm deserves to be uncovered, exam-ined, and prevented from ever happening again.

--Erin C. Clair

Caddo Connections. By Jeffrey S.Girard, Timothy K. Perttula, andMary Beth Trubitt. (Lanham, MD:Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. Pp.v-xi + 133, references cited, index.$85, hardcover)

Southeastern archaeologists and historiansare certainly familiar with the site of Spiro andits Great Mortuary, situated within the CaddoArea. The recent publication Caddo Connec-tions: Cultural Interactions Within and Beyondthe Caddo Worldprovides an impor-tant and valuablesynthesis of archae-ological and ethno-historical informa-tion emphasizingthe nature of diver-sity “within and be-yond the CaddoWorld”, the originsof this diversity, andhow it developed inthe Caddo Areainto what is defined as Caddo culture. Locatedwithin east Texas, southeast Oklahoma, south-west Arkansas, and northwest Louisiana, theCaddo Area was originally defined primarily onbroad similarities in ceramic decoration andspatial linkages with historically known Caddopeoples who occupied the region. Caddo Con-nections highlights that while similarities have

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been used to define the Caddo Area, an up-dated examination of archaeological datademonstrates significant cultural diversitywithin the region as well as multifarious socialand economic interactions with neighboringgroups and individuals living in the greater Mis-sissippian Southeast, the Southern Plains, andfurther to the Southwest.

The book is organized into five chaptersand represents a significant level of detailed in-formation combining older and more recent re-search. Chapter One sets the stage, so to speak,with an informative and very interesting pres-entation of the history and theoretical scope ofwhat has become Caddo archaeology. Investi-gations in the region began in the late nine-teenth century and by the 1940s developed intoa distinctive study of Caddo Area archaeology.This was spearheaded by a series of scholarsfrom the four-state region and the creation anddevelopment of the Caddo Conference. As theauthors mention, the Caddo Conference is stillvery active and provides a productive forum forarchaeologists, historians, and Caddo people topresent research and discuss Caddo archaeology,tradition, heritage, and culture (see www.cad-doconference.org). Chapter One also offers anoften-overlooked discussion on the develop-mental background and theoretical frameworkfrom which we examine the Caddo Area today.To this end, the authors offer clarity with theshared definition of the term Caddo (ethnicgroup, archaeological area, and linguisticgroup), the theoretical development of theCaddo Area temporal and spatial taxonomicdesignations, and specific challenges with thesedesignations as old archaeological data are re-analyzed and new data collected that elucidatea better understanding of cultural variabilityand diversity throughout the Caddo Area.

The “meat” of the book is in Chapters Two,Three, and Four and is organized chronologi-cally. This section begins with a presentationon Caddo origins and regional interactions dur-ing the Formative (A.D. 900–1050) and Early(A.D. 1050–1200) Periods (Chapter Two). In

Chapter Three, the authors provide an evalua-tion of the distinct Caddo cultural develop-ments and elaborations during the Middle(A.D. 1200–1450) and Late (A.D. 1450–1700)Periods. Following these, Chapter Four focuseson European interaction (A.D. post-1542–1830s), implications, and cultural adaptation.

The approach of the book is multiscalar andmacroregional. The authors explore how andwhy intra-Caddo Area diversity developed byexamining cultural linkages and exchanges withneighboring groups on a regional scale and howthese exchanges are visible in the material cor-pus at a localized archaeological site scale. Aninsightful discussion of the trade and exchangeof imported marine shell provides an exampleof the nature of macroregional economic inter-action and cultural transmission. Throughoutthe book, the authors examine the shared yetdistinctive cultural expressions related to mor-tuary treatment, mound center settlement pat-terning and architecture, and ceramicdecoration and treatment that developed ca.A.D. 900 into Caddo culture. Importantly, theauthors include a highly detailed and crucialanalysis of cultural change and adaptation as aresult of European encroachment. They outlinethe dynamism of social and economic relationsbetween the historical Caddo peoples and theSpanish, French, and Euro-Americans.

Caddo Connections is a well-written syn-thesis of Caddo archaeology and culture bythree respected and highly knowledgeablescholars of Southeastern archaeology, in gen-eral, and Caddo Archaeology, in particular. Asthe authors state, “a major theme of this bookis to portray the Caddo Area as a culturally di-verse region lacking overarching political or so-cial institutions that served to integrate it intoa homogeneous culture entity” (p. 30). In thislight, they have succeeded in providing a cur-rent synthesis of the diversity of cultural elabo-ration that defines the Caddo Area as well asevaluating important connections, not onlywithin the Caddo Area, but also macroregionalinteractions with neighboring ecologies, mate-

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rial culture, and peoples. As such, Caddo Con-nections serves as an excellent reference on thecurrent understandings of Caddo archaeologyand culture and is highly recommended.

--Duncan P. McKinnon

Work for Giants: The Campaignand Battle of Tupelo/Harrisburg,Mississippi, June–July 1864. ByThomas E. Parson. (Kent, OH:Kent State University Press, 2014.Pp. xi-xix + 301, appendix, notes,bibliography, index. $39.95, hard-cover)

In Work for Giants, Parson challenges thealleged truism that history is written by the vic-tors by arguing that the history of the 1864 Bat-tle of Tupelo/Harrisburg, Mississippi, has beenlargely written bythe defeated andtheir historians.Parson exploreshow the South hasthus far won thebattle of words topresent this devas-tating loss as a vic-tory. Detailed andvivid, Parson’s ac-count shuns heroworship and roman-ticism to deliver abalanced and responsible study of this contro-versial battle.

Drawing on his extensive experience as ahistorian and battlefield park ranger, Parson en-livens this account with evidence from docu-ments and from the field. In the openingchapters he adroitly manages the chaotic eventsthat prompted this raid into northern Missis-

sippi, and throughout the account he providesbrief, relevant biographies of several key com-manders. He also displays a generous and deftuse of sources as he invites all who experienced,witnessed, or studied this battle—from thehighest-ranking general to the dustiest private,from a diarist killed in battle to historians read-ing in quiet libraries—to have a voice. For ex-ample, when recounting an ill-conceivedConfederate charge, Parson calls several wit-nesses to construct a well-rounded perspective.Parson notes that one commander of thecharge, General James Chalmers, “refused toadmit he had been defeated by the enemy” (p.206). He then allows Confederate private JohnHubbard to observe, “‘[W]e retreated with noattention to order. To save individual life wasnow all that could be expected of the living’”(p. 207), and while describing the aftermath ofthe charge, Parson turns to Private SidneyRobinson of Illinois who wrote, “‘Here the Rebslay scattered around like Pumpkins in a field’”(p. 211).

Parson refuses to indulge in hero worship orin glorification of war. Although his evidencerequires him to hand the South and NathanBedford Forrest a defeat, he objectively notesthe strengths and weaknesses of the generalsand avoids mythmaking or unfounded praise.Parson does not hesitate to express respect forthe bravery, dedication, and compassion dis-played by soldiers of all ranks, but he refuses toportray war as thing of beauty or grandeur. In-deed, he often allows witnesses of battle to nar-rate the horrors of war, such as when aMinnesota private describes his encounter witha wounded Confederate: “He first received awound through one lung and tried to leave thefield, but was hit by a bullet in one thigh. Stilltrying to get off the field, he received anotherbullet through the other lung, but was still ableto crawl. A bullet through the other thighcaused him to cease his efforts to leave the field”(p. 210). When the task of description falls toParson, he delivers brutally bare and honestlines that rival the combat prose of such masters

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as Ambrose Bierce or Tim O’Brien. For exam-ple, when he relates one soldier’s immediate fatewhen attempting a charge, he says, “he was hitby a round of artillery, a solid shot, which torehis leg off and threw his body into the dust” (p.196), and he describes the scene following thebattle by stating that the dead “lay in every con-ceivable position, and wounded men were scat-tered where they had fallen or were gamelytrying to crawl away” (p. 208).

Parson’s detailed and objective approach re-sults in a persuasive correction of the history ofthis raid. He dedicates a chapter to each phaseof the armies’ movements and follows this thor-ough reconstruction with two chapters assessinghistorical perceptions of this campaign. In theclosing lines of the penultimate chapter, Parsoncuts through 150 years of debate by summariz-ing the success of this raid led by General A.J.Smith: “His enemy was never sure where he wasgoing, could not defeat him when he stopped tofight, could not drive him away till he was readyto leave, and could not detain him when hechose to depart” (p. 274). In his final chapter,“A Second Battle,” Parson flanks a quagmire ofcontroversy by listing and responding to tencentral points of historical contention, such asthe alleged timidity of Smith’s advance and thedegree to which Nathan Bedford Forrest was re-sponsible for this Sothern defeat.

Parson observes that at one point in battle,Iowa artillerymen were firing 12-poundNapoleons that recoiled nearly twenty feet andhad to be rolled back into position, and henotes that one of these men later wrote that“this was work for giants” (p. 194). This bookand other such instances of historical correctionare also work for giants, for inheritors of historymust be willing to set aside regional or nationalbiases in order to objectively weigh receivedhistory against the many voices of historicalrecord.

--Phillip Howerton

Marching Masters: Slavery, Race,and the Confederate Army Duringthe Civil War. By Colin EdwardWoodward. (Charlottesville, VA:University of Virginia Press, 2014.Pp. ix-x + 210, notes, bibliography,index. $33.16, hardcover)

It is ironic that, in spite of all the recenthistoriographical inquiry into the divergentracial attitudes of Union soldiers and northernpolitical leaders, Confederate attitudes aboutrace and slavery are under-analyzed as a primaryfactor of influence upon the development ofConfederate national identity and especiallythe southern war effort. Despite the fact thatthe Confederacy’s own documents place slaveryat the forefront of the secession movement, ge-nealogical apologists continue to portray slaveryas a peripheral consideration to the outbreakand expansion of the Confederate war effort.Likewise, many historians remain enamoredwith explanatory euphemisms about States’Rights and the common soldier’s defense ofhearth and home, and downplay the signifi-cance of slavery as a defining force that shapednot only the outbreak of war, but also its char-acter and intensity.

That void, however, is beginning to close.Influenced by the work of James M. McPhersonand Chandra Man-ning, as well as themethodologies andarguments of NewSocial History andNew Civil WarHistory (which an-alyze relationshipsbetween soldiersand society), ColinEdward Wood-ward’s MarchingMasters: Slavery,

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Race, and the Confederate Army During theCivil War is a much-needed addition to our un-derstanding of this complex part of our nation’smost complex event (i.e. the role of race andslavery as definitive antebellum social factorsthat continued to evolve and influence politicaland military issues during the Civil War). AsWoodward states, “to remove slavery from theConfederate mindset depoliticizes the most po-litical of events—warfare” (p. 5); in otherwords, the South’s antebellum obsession overslavery as a fundamental cornerstone of south-ern society only became more entrenched dur-ing the war.

Woodward analyzes the importance of slav-ery to the growth of the secession movement;how the South’s class structure influenced rela-tions between slaves, slaveholders, and non-slaveholders; early military use of anddependence upon slaves as manual laborers; theincreasingly intensified Confederate reactionsto the North’s policies of emancipation and theenlistments of free blacks as Union soldiers; theSouth’s internal debate over the enlistment ofslaves as soldiers and the fundamental misun-derstanding about the supposedly intimatepseudo-familial relationships between mastersand slaves; as well as the war of words to ex-punge slavery as the primary cause of the con-flict that characterized the post-war era.

Woodward argues persuasively for the needto understand the role of slavery in relation tothe lives of Confederate soldiers in order toproperly understand the institution’s peculiarand particular influence on the outbreak of thewar and the development of Confederate polit-ical and military strategy. He looks at slavery inrelation to the creation of Confederate identityand its influence on the way Confederatesfought (both in terms of grand strategic deci-sions and individual soldier actions on the bat-tlefield), arguing that defense of a society basedon an entrenched racial hierarchy was centralto the formation of the Confederate nation.

Woodward’s research is founded on exten-sive use of thousands of letters written by a mul-

titude of Confederate soldiers and officers, serv-ing in the Eastern and Western Theaters, toprovide what he describes as an anecdotal cross-section of opinions and beliefs expressedthroughout the war’s length and across its manyregions. As a result, Woodward shows just howfrequently and passionately Confederate sol-diers wrote about and defended slavery as a nec-essary characteristic of southern society; theyviewed slavery as a just and righteous institu-tion, even if they did not personally own slaves.In other words, even the average non-slave-holding rebel recognized slavery’s fundamentalimportance as the socio-economic cornerstoneof southern society and understood that defeatmeant the collapse of the South’s establishedsocial order (and their tentative place in it);they enlisted and fought to preserve that socialorder, and those beliefs only intensified as thewar progressed.

Woodward makes this perceptive connec-tion through his examination of slavery’s influ-ence on the overall nature of Confederate warstrategy, arguing that a fundamental defense ofslavery lay at the heart of such policies as the1862 Confederate Conscription Act and theTwenty Negro Law, as well as attempted terri-torial expansion via military campaigns intopro-slavery states that narrowly remained withthe Union in 1861. Woodward shows that, asthe war progressed, defense of slavery remainedas meaningful to the Confederate nation andsoldiers as it had been in the earliest days. By1864 such Confederate policies as non-recogni-tion of blacks as Union soldiers or prisoners ofwar resulted in increased incidents of Confed-erate atrocity, from the Fort Pillow massacrecommitted by Nathan Bedford Forrest’s troopsto the frenzied killings of black soldiers trappedin The Crater by Robert E. Lee’s army.

Recognizing that removal of racial attitudesfrom any Civil War study removes that popula-tion from the era’s defining social characteristicand, thus, any true understanding of that soci-ety’s core values, Woodward also examinesracial attitudes in the South as a whole. While

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Woodward acknowledges that some rebel atti-tudes undoubtedly changed during or after thewar, the majority did not significantly alter theirfundamental beliefs about racial inferiority orthe South’s right to preserve and extend its pe-culiar institution. Such ideas gained fuller ex-pression as part of the post-war Lost Causemythology, in which collective denial of slaveryas a primary cause for secession and war tookcenter stage.

Woodward forcefully throws down thegauntlet early in Marching Masters, declaringthat “the conflict that erupted over a debateover slavery demands that historians examinehow the South continued that debate inwartime” (p. 5). With Marching Masters,Woodward helps put to rest many of the super-ficial and shop-worn euphemisms or apologiesthat have previously masqueraded as explana-tions for how and why the Confederacy shapeditself and its war effort.

--Robert Patrick Bender

The Indicted South. By AngieMaxwell. (Chapel Hill: Universityof North Carolina Press, 2014. Pp.ix-x + 233, epilogue, notes, bibli-ography, index. $34.95, paperback)

This fascinating book argues that a “her-itage of inferiority” (p. 3), exacerbated by mo-ments of intense public criticism, shaped theracial identity of white southerners. While peo-ple commonly associate racial oppression withsouthern whiteness, the author contends thatthis trait became only one in “an intricate webof inseparable strands” of an identity that even-tually included “rigid stances on religion, edu-cation, the role of government, the view of art,[and] an opposition to science” (p. 4). Thisidentity construction was an ironic exercise in

“othering” that pitted white southerners againstblack southerners and the South against the na-tion. Evidence for the thesis comes from numer-ous secondary sources and several manuscriptcollections with materials relevant to the 1925Scopes trial, the literary endeavors of the Agrar-ians, and massive resistance to school desegre-gation in Virginia. By the author’s estimation,these three episodes included “a transformativeelement of cultural anxiety . . . that resulted ina collective about-face, often characterized byretreat or denial” (p. 6).

To subscribe to this thesis, readers must firstaccept that a collective inferiority complex canexist. A few pages of the introduction are de-voted to individual and group psychology, par-ticularly the work and influence of Alfred Adler(1870–1937), an Austrian medical doctor andpsychologist. The author also cites more famil-iar commentators on the South, such as W. J.Cash and John Shelton Reed, to establish infe-riority as a viable approach for understandingwhite southern identity. Readers must also ac-cept the generalizations that inevitably arisewhen scholars speak of group identity forma-tion, but various exceptions to the author’s gen-eral assertions are regularly (if incompletely)acknowledged in this work.

The first three chapters briefly recountevents surrounding the infamous Scopes trialbut focus primarily on the popularity of WilliamJennings Bryan among white southerners, theintense media scrutiny of Dayton, Tennessee,and the activities ofChristian funda-mentalists. The trialnotably coincidedwith a proliferationof mass-circulationperiodicals and ex-panding radio audi-ences, trends thatdramatically in-creased the impactof public criticismand, the author

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notes, “blurred the lines between individual, re-gional, and national identities” (p. 4). Thus theauthor imagines the Scopes trial less as a battlebetween science and religion and more as a re-gional conflict between the South and the na-tion. The author finds that negative publicitytriggered an inferiority complex that readersmay or may not perceive. White southernerswere much more likely to sympathize with theanti-evolution forces, lament the widespreadridicule, and write defensively, but the degreeto which they incorporated such criticism intoa collective psyche remains unclear. The authorcontends that Christian fundamentalists re-treated from society after the Scopes trial, anassertion that diminishes how numerous statessubsequently adopted restrictions on the teach-ing of evolution.

Questions about the presence and influenceof a collective inferiority complex appear evenmore applicable as the book progresses to dis-cussions of the Agrarians and Virginia segrega-tionists. One Agrarian, Donald Davidson, madethe book’s most explicit assertion about the ex-istence of a southern inferiority complex in anundated and unpublished essay. While the au-thor notes a personal or collective inferioritycomplex in Donaldson and his literary compa-triots, one might alternatively see nothing be-yond their intense desire to win admiration. Asyoung writers, they eagerly sought critical ac-claim, sending a collection of their poems toone of the South’s fiercest critics, H. L.Mencken, whose essay “The Sahara of theBozart” (1917) they accepted as a challenge toproduce notable literature. But their need foroutside affirmation diminished over time, espe-cially as they developed their own outlets forpublication and formulated the New Criticism.The author asserts that the publication of I’llTake My Stand was a response to a “cripplingsense of cultural inferiority” (p. 128), but thenext paragraph explains how the contributors“sought recognition for the superiority of whitesouthern culture” (p. 129).

This tension between cultural inferiority

and white southerners’ arguments for the re-gion’s superiority also existed in Virginians’ de-fense of school segregation. In this section theauthor suggests that “the drive for superiority isan effort to cope with a sense of inferiority” (p.191). From this perspective, one cannot easilydistinguish between an inferiority complex andthe belief, fervently and frequently expressed bymany white southerners, that the South’s prac-tice of racial segregation offered a superior wayof life. While moderate plans to slowly desegre-gate schools in Virginia briefly held some prom-ise, James Kilpatrick, editor of the RichmondNews Leader, used documents such as the Fed-eralist Papers to help convince white southern-ers that the doctrine of interposition coulddelay or even prevent school desegregation.The author stresses that white southerners wereeager to hear this message because of the mediaridicule that accompanied massive resistance tothe Brown decision.

This compelling book invites further dis-cussions about definitions of the South, theevolution of white identity, and the persistenceof “southern” as an adequate descriptor. PerhapsW. E. B. Du Bois was more broadly correctwhen he said, “The truth is and we know it:Dayton, Tennessee, is America” (p. 64). AimeeSemple McPherson was an outspoken critic ofevolution and strong supporter of William Jen-nings Bryan from her church in Los Angeles. Inthe introduction to I’ll Take My Stand, theAgrarians acknowledged the presence of “sym-pathetic communities everywhere” with whomthey “would be happy to be counted as membersof a national agrarian movement.” And, ofcourse, white supremacy was most notorious inthe South but has never been bound to one re-gion.

In an era when most readers of this journalaccept evolutionary biology as fact, largely re-ject agrarian lifestyles, and nominally approveof racial integration, we may struggle to distin-guish between an inferiority complex and thegenuine belief that “the southern way of life,”however it may be defined, was better than so-

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cial mores in other regions of the country. Read-ers may sometimes differ with the author’s in-terpretation of events or occasional referencesto the present, but the idea that southern white-ness has been shaped by negative cultural feed-back deserves careful consideration.

--Barclay Key

Race and Ethnicity in Arkansas:New Perspectives. Edited by JohnA. Kirk. (Fayetteville, AR: Uni-versity of Arkansas Press, 2014. Pp.vii-xvii + 164, notes, contributors,index. $24.95, paperback)

When the public thinks of race and ethnicrelations in Arkansas, probably only threeevents come to mind. Individuals may first re-member the pivotal and powerful moment inhistory when the Little Rock Nine were es-corted into Little Rock Central High School,representing one ofthe first forced de-segregation meas-ures to take placesince the Brown v.Board of Educationdecision. Peoplemay also remembermedia attention ofthe gang wars andviolence betweenthe Bloods and theCrips, who startedout as notoriouslyviolent street gangs in Los Angeles but spreadthrough the American South into Arkansas. Fi-nally, racialized attention on Arkansas camewith the election of former governor, Bill Clin-ton, as the 42nd President of the United States,who was characterized by some media outlets as

the “first black president.” While these snippetsinto Arkansas’s race and ethnic relations historyare helpful, they do not effectively explain thecomplexity of the social, political, and eco-nomic relations that came about since the veryinception of this southern territory and later onadmission as a state in 1836.

In Race and Ethnicity in Arkansas, JohnKirk puts together a quintessential set of aca-demic readings primarily explaining the histor-ical progression of race and ethnic relations inArkansas. This important volume also providesthree well-written parts with new and little-known information about race and ethnic rela-tions throughout Arkansas’s history. While thebook focuses a little too heavily on black-whiterelations, Parts I and III present a nice focus onAfrican American experiences with slavery,emancipation, migration, and resistance. PartIII is an excellent section that highlights thepersistent, violent, and institutional wayswhites encouraged racial apartheid to disenfran-chise African Americans on every level of eco-nomic, political, and social life. Finally, andmost refreshing for a volume focusing on racein the context of a southern state, several au-thors do well in providing a discussion on thetransformation of the discourse about race rela-tions in Arkansas with the arrival of Latino andAsian populations as far back as the 1940sthrough the Bracero Program.

From a social science perspective, there areseveral important contributions to highlightthroughout the book. First, most of the readingsin Part II are excellent in reminders of white re-sistance to African American inclusion. I par-ticularly find the discussion provided byLancaster on “sundown towns” and the “racialcleansing” to be an important piece in exposingthe viciousness of white supremacy and thispopulation’s overt use of violence and power.Second, readers of this volume will enjoy thebiographies presented in Part III by White andKey’s chapters concentrating on those whoworked to correct the racial injustices faced byAfrican Americans in Arkansas. Probably the

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most current and interesting discussion of raceand ethnic relations presented in this volumeoccurs in Part IV with the chapters focusing onLatinos and Asians. For example, the chaptersby Guerrero and Bowman clearly point out thatwhile Latinos and Asians face some racializedodds in Arkansas, they may do better econom-ically as entrepreneurs and laborers than theirAfrican American counterparts.

While the volume is a great contribution tounderstanding race and ethnic relations in theAmerican South, there are a few items missing,such as the current explanation of AfricanAmerican experiences in Arkansas. One is leftwith the question of what happened to thisgroup after the civil rights era. More specifically,have there been any economic or political suc-cesses for this group in the context of a sup-posed post-racial America? The book alsoleaves you wondering about the relationshipsbetween non-white groups. Has the injection ofmore non-black and immigrant populations ledto clear economic strains for African Americansand maybe some whites? What about the publicand political reactions from the entire state tothe increase of foreign immigration to the area,which, in other southern states, has been metwith racist nativist fears and policies? Finally,there is little criticism of the various socialstructures that continue to encourage whitedominance in Arkansas, despite more racial andethnic diversity. However, such questions maybe left unanswered because the book is prima-rily written by historians who may not be inter-ested in them.

The strength of this work rests in the factthat it provides more exhaustive information onrace and ethnic relations, which moves beyondthe standard black-white dichotomy explana-tions. More important, the readings often takeyou through some pivotal historical pointsthrough the eyes of racial and ethnic minoritiesas they saw it in Arkansas. This edited volumewould be a great addition to any student or pro-fessional’s library who wanted a more in-depthexamination of race and ethnic relations in

Arkansas, with broad implications of relatingits contents to social trends across the Ameri-can South and the rest of the United States.

--Cameron D. Lippard

Racial Reckoning: ProsecutingAmerica's Civil Rights Murders.By Renee C. Romano. (Cam-bridge, MA: Harvard UniversityPress, 2014. Pp. 207, notes, ac-knowledgements, index. $35.00,hardcover)

Renee Romano’s 2014 book, Racial Reck-oning: Prosecuting America’s Civil Rights Mur-ders, chronicles the attempts to prosecuteperpetrators of the murders of black people andtheir white allies in the civil rights movementin the 1950s and1960s. She tells thestory of successfuland unsuccessfulprosecutions withan underlying thesisof the role white su-premacy played inthe murders. Ro-mano demonstratesthat these murderswere an attempt touphold the statusquo in the South ofthe oppression and repression of blacks, and thecollusion of the “criminal legal system” that ini-tially denied any justice and then gave only par-tial justice to the families of the murdered. Thebook is timely as the murders of black men andwomen by the police in various states in 2014and 2015 have been publicized, often throughsocial media, rekindling and expanding theconversation about the devaluation of black

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lives in a society that despite its protestationscontinues to desperately hold on to the tenetsof white supremacy.

Professor Romano’s book is an excellent re-source on the history of the murders committedin the 1950s and 1960s. Her book is very wellresearched and provides the reader with littleknown facts about the murders, the attempts atprosecution, or lack thereof, at the time of themurders, and the reopening of cases by prosecu-tors particularly in the early 2000s. Some ofthese reopened cases led to the conviction ofwhat at the time were “old, feeble white men”who no longer appeared to be dangerous yetmost of whom still embraced the venomousracial hatred that led them to murder their vic-tims. Romano also highlights throughout thebook the contradictions in the investigationsand trials of the perpetrators of these murders.A major contradiction continues to haunt thosewho seek to obtain racial justice today—theview that this is a post-racial society and thatthe racial animus and oppression that existed inthe ’50s and ’60s is no more. This contradictionis fed, as Professor Romano aptly points out, bythe willingness of whites and government at alllevels to place full responsibility on these “oldwhite men,” members of the Klan, and the Klanitself, denying any culpability. Thus, they reen-act a theme that is all too present today of let-ting the poor and marginalized take fullresponsibility for acts that were encouraged andsupported by the well-to-do and powerful. Theydeny that the white community as a whole satby and supported the murders by its silence, atbest, and the government at all levels encour-aged them by failing to act. This failure to“own” the problem has led to the continuationof white supremacy by not examining the atti-tudes and institutions, such as the police, pros-ecutors, judicial and elected officials, who werein either active or passive collusion with theperpetrators. This distancing from the acts ofthe perpetrators committed another crimeagainst black people—that of seeing the con-victions that did occur as evidence of the end

of racism and whites, symbolized by white maleprosecutors, as the heroes of this story.

Although Professor Romano criticizes thismyth of white male heroism several times in herbook, she is guilty of making the same error.Several times in her recounting of the historyof these murders and the investigations andprosecutions that followed, she mentions blackvoices that were on the frontlines advocatingfor fair investigations and prosecutions of theperpetrators, yet other than the most famous ad-vocates for the prosecution of the murderers oftheir loved ones, Myrlie Evers Williams andMamie Till Mobley, those activists are virtuallynameless. Romano speaks about the limited jus-tice provided by the trials—justice for the fam-ilies of the victims whose perpetrators, or someof them, were convicted. Yet, she focuses onlyon those victims as well. She talks about thesemurders as racial terrorism, yet she provides vir-tually no description of what this terrorism re-ally is—how it affected the lives of black peopleand their allies who were not murdered. She,thus, unwittingly reinforces white supremacy byfocusing almost exclusively on the white malevillains and white male heroes. Indeed, shepasses up a significant opportunity to point outthat the reason why the prosecutors were allwhite men is itself a product of racism—through the discrimination against blacks in thelegal profession.

The timeliness of this book also leads towhat can be viewed as a weakness. Ironicallythe book was published at a time when the massincarceration of blacks and murders of blacks bythe police have been the major topic of discus-sion, particularly since the 2010 publication ofMichelle Alexander’s book, The New JimCrow. Professor Romano could have linked herargument of how the denial of responsibility forthese murders by whites and governmentsmaintained white supremacy to the assault onblacks by the police and criminal legal systemleading to disproportionately higher numbers ofblacks that are incarcerated and murdered bythe police.

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The overall value of Professor Romano’sbook outweighs the problems seen in it. Herdepth of research and her often moving prose,such as “the backhoe that dug up the eartharound Till’s casket was, quite literally, excavat-ing the past,” make the book a moving read ofa painful subject that haunts the South and theentire United States today. Her book under-scores the criticalness of debunking the myth ofwhite supremacy that is entrenched in this so-ciety. There is an urgent need to create strate-gies for local, state and federal governments andthe many whites who disavow their role inwhite supremacy, to take responsibility, joiningin the work to dismantle white supremacy.

--Adjoa A. Aiyetoro

Strong Inside: Perry Wallace andthe Collision of Race and Sports inthe South. By Andrew Maraniss.(Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt Uni-versity Press, 2014. Pp. ix-x + 417,acknowledgements, notes, bibliog-raphy, index. $35, hardcover)

Andrew Maraniss comes by his writinggene honestly. He’s the son of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss, an associateeditor at The Washington Post who wrote oneof the best biographies of former President BillClinton, First in His Class. David Maraniss wonthe Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1993for his coverage of Clinton’s 1992 presidentialcampaign.

Andrew Maraniss received the highly com-petitive Fred Russell-Grantland Rice Scholar-ship to Vanderbilt University in Nashville,Tennessee. The four-year scholarship forprospective sportswriters is sponsored by theThoroughbred Racing Association. He gradu-ated in 1992 after earning the school’s Alexan-

der Award for excel-lence in journalism.Maraniss worked forVanderbilt for fiveyears, handlingmedia relations forthe school’s basket-ball team. He thentried his hand atmedia relations for aprofessional team,working for what’snow the Tampa BayRays during the baseball team’s inaugural sea-son. Maraniss is now a partner in a Nashvillepublic relations firm. Strong Inside is his firstbook, but you can’t tell by reading it. Maranisshas a fluid writing style that keeps the narrativemoving even though the book runs for 417pages and contains an additional 28 pages offootnotes.

Strong Inside is the story of Perry Wallace,who enrolled at Vanderbilt in 1966 and becamethe first black scholarship basketball player inthe Southeastern Conference. In an era of 24-hour cable television channels devoted to sportsand websites that update sports stories by theminute, it’s hard for younger readers to under-stand that the story of what Wallace wentthrough hasn’t been told until now.

Wallace was an overachiever from the start.He had a double major, graduated from lawschool and went on to become a college profes-sor. He came of age at a time when the civilrights movement was roiling the South. As anelementary school student in Nashville, Wal-lace was often accosted by white children as hewalked to school.

In 1989, Maraniss read an article aboutWallace by Dave Sheinin, who now works atThe Washington Post. Maraniss later calledWallace and interviewed him for a term paperfor a black history class. As editor of the schoolnewspaper, the Vanderbilt Hustler, Maranisswrote several columns about Wallace. Maranissstayed in touch with the basketball pioneer

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through the years and then spent eight yearswriting and researching the book.

“Perry Wallace, an asthmatic kid who hadbeen taught by his parents to stay out of trouble,had to walk to elementary school,” Maranisswrites. “And to get there, on his way from CassStreet to Elliott Elementary, he had to walkthrough white neighborhoods, past whiteschools. Sometimes the white boys threw rocksat him. Sometimes they called him names.Sometimes a carload of teens sped by, throwingthings, and calling him names. And at least onegroup of punks surrounded him and threatenedhim with a knife. In those moments, Wallacelater recalled, he ‘had to figure out the basic lawof the jungle. It was fight or flight. It was classicand it was raw.’ Sometimes he fought, some-times he ran. Sometimes he took the bus, justto avoid the hoodlums. But even that plandidn’t always work” (p. 11).

Wallace was the youngest of six childrenand a straight-A student who would go on tobecome his high school’s valedictorian. In ad-dition to being an outstanding basketball player,Wallace played the trumpet and enjoyed mathand science courses. He entered kindergartenthe year that the US Supreme Court made itslandmark Brown v. Board of Education deci-sion. He watched sit-ins at downtown Nashvillelunch counters as the civil rights movementheated up, entered high school a few weeks afterthe Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have aDream” speech, and was in high school whenCongress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Vanderbilt, founded in 1873, liked to thinkof itself as the Harvard of the South, but theschool was slow to integrate. “The three pillarsof old-money Nashville, they used to say, werethe Belle Meade Country Club, the Chamberof Commerce and Vanderbilt University,”Maraniss writes. “There was a good deal of truthto this, and more than a few of the city’s power-brokers pledged allegiance to not just one ofthese institutions but all three. It was an un-comfortable distinction for Vanderbilt at times,

considering the school had—to varying degreesand with a few notable false starts along theway—been a bit more cosmopolitan and for-ward thinking than its neighbors” (p. 49).

Vanderbilt had initiated a policy in 1953 ofadmitting blacks only to graduate programssuch as the Divinity School and the LawSchool. Black graduate students weren’t al-lowed to live in dorms or eat in the school cafe-teria. One thing that makes Maraniss’s bookinteresting even to non-sports fans is the factthat it’s as much a history of the civil rightsstruggles in the South as it is the story of thefirst black basketball player in the SEC. Withthe skills of an experienced historian, Maranissdelves deeply into the mindset of VanderbiltChancellor Alexander Heard and head basket-ball coach Roy Skinner.

Skinner wanted badly to be able to beat theUniversity of Kentucky and its legendary coach,Adolph Rupp, on a regular basis. He thoughtthat a player of Wallace’s ability might give himan edge, especially since Rupp was ignoringKentucky President John Oswald’s request thathe recruit black players. Wallace had justhelped lead Pearl High School to the 1966 Ten-nessee state championship over Treadwell Highof Memphis to complete an undefeated seasonand win Tennessee’s first integrated state bas-ketball tournament. Before the game, Pearlhead coach Cornelius Ridley had told his play-ers that they were representing every blackhousehold in the state. Gov. Frank Clementpresented Pearl players the trophy at the end ofthe game. Later that night, most of the Pearlplayers watched the black Texas Western teambeat Rupp’s all-white Kentucky Wildcats to winthe NCAA title.

Pearl had gone 31-0 during the 1965-66season and had a 43-game winning streak thatdated back to Wallace’s junior year. Wallace,who was recruited by more than eighty collegesand universities, made the decision to sign withVanderbilt in May 1966, desegregating athleticsin the Deep South. He was forced to contendwith not only taunts from the fans but fouls on

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the court that were never called. His coach ad-vised him to “learn to duck.”

Even though they cheered him when hewas on the court, Wallace’s classmates at Van-derbilt often ignored him in class. Cheerleadersat places such as Ole Miss and Mississippi Statewould lead racist chants when Wallace played.Wallace never retaliated against the playerswho fouled him or those who yelled at him. Heended his career as the captain of the Vander-bilt team and a second-team All-SEC selection.Wallace earned his bachelor’s degree in engi-neering from Vanderbilt in 1970 and graduatedfrom Columbia University’s School of Law in1975. He was an attorney in the U.S. Depart-ment of Justice during the Carter and Reaganadministrations and is now a law professor atAmerican University’s Washington College ofLaw in Washington, D.C.

“The real victory is in fighting for theproper human values and then bringing themeven to those who had been hateful and recal-citrant,” Wallace told Maraniss. The author ar-ticulates throughout Strong Inside the thingsthat motivated and drove this quiet, thoughtfulman.

--Rex Nelson

This Ain’t Chicago. By Zandria F.Robinson. (Chapel Hill, NC: Uni-versity of North Carolina Press,2014. Pp. ix-xii + 198, notes, bibli-ography, index. $29.95, paperback)

What would the South be without AfricanAmericans? What would African Americans bewithout the South? These are two overarchingquestions the author attempts to answerthroughout This Ain’t Chicago: Race, Class,and Regional Identity in the Post-Soul South.

This Ain’t Chicago is an essential book for

understanding the diversity of African Ameri-cans and the southern region. Zandria Robin-son, a sociologist, merges cultural studies andurban theory to tackle a broad spectrum of cul-tural shifts that have occurred since the CivilRights Movement in America. She ably em-ploys ethnographic interviews to drive her mainpoints and to personalize her thesis of showinghow place intersects with race, class, gender andregional identities and differences. Overall, thisis a well-crafted interdisciplinary work.

Robinson, a Memphis native, situates herresearch in the city. She proves to be well ac-quainted with the historical, political, and cul-tural variations of this metropolis. Memphis haslong served as a melting pot for migrants so-journing from rural areas north and south of itsborders—it is also the gateway many blacksoutherners traveled en route north during massexodus periods. She posits that Memphis is nei-ther Old South nor New South, “having littleof the Old South history of the Confederacyand even less of the glitzy shine of the NewSouth” (p. 26).

The book’s title derives from southernAfrican American informants who distinguishthemselves with asense of superiorityfrom black peoplewho moved toChicago; they indi-cate that true andauthentic blackidentity is rooted inthe South: “Whilemy respondentsreadily recognizedthe southernness ofa place likeChicago, home tomany of the close and distant kin and the de-scendants, two or more generations removed, ofmigrants from the Mississippi Delta, Chicagowas frequently othered as No’f, often standingin for blackness gone awry” (p. 25).

Her work underscores a sense of black

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southern pride and explains the various levelsto which the South is constructed, experienced,and performed by post-civil rights generationsof black Americans. This Ain’t Chicago ex-pands readers’ geographical understanding ofthe South by explaining how the region hasevolved to become the most integrated part ofthe country in more modern times.

In the initial chapter “Finding the BlackSouth,” the author unearths the long-held neg-ative stereotypes and myths about the Southand Southerners. Robinson examines the variedways the region has been represented and por-trayed via media, academics, and entertain-ment. She focuses on how popular culture hasframed the understanding of Southern blackidentity: “To reconcile representations of blacksouthern identity and the lived experiences ofpost-soul southerners, I retrace the idea of theblack South, and the South as an artifact ofblack collective memory, in black arts and let-ters and black public culture” (p. 33).

In the three proceeding chapters, the au-thor highlights how Southerners adapt to thechanging cultural landscape of the region dueto the influx of immigrants, the dismantling oflegalized racial discrimination, post-civil rightsracial tensions, and the increased migration ofblacks from northern cities.

Overall, this book is a necessary read for allAmericans in understanding how the culturallandscape in the South has changed over thepast fifty years while providing a propheticglimpse of the shifts to occur in post ObamaAmerica. “Thus, Black southern lives can tellus much about not only the character of life inthe South but also the nature of black life acrossthe United States and in marginalized blackcommunities globally” (p. 197). Robinson trulyleaves no stone unturned as she explores the dy-namics of race, class, gender, and sexuality inAmerica. The vibrant prose and her keen cul-tural eye are timely and unprecedented.

The book’s conclusion is particularly valu-able and insightful. She poses the questions asto what will be the future of the South as the

racial demography changes? And what will bethe demise of those who have contributed tothe development the region? Her work ulti-mately encapsulates the rich growing body ofnew black Southern studies and is a worthycontribution to the field.

--Jajuan Johnson

Womanpower Unlimited and theBlack Freedom Movement in Mis-sissippi. By Tiyi M. Morris.(Athens, GA: University of Geor-gia Press, 2014. Pp. ix-xvi, + 178,epilogue, notes, bibliography,index. $24.95, paperback)

Tiyi Morris’s book, Womanpower Unlim-ited and the Black Freedom Movement in Mis-sissippi introduces the reader to anextraordinary group of women who founded aCivil Rights support group, Womanpower Un-limited, in Jackson,Mississippi. Whilemost of the CivilRights discussion ismale-dominated,Morris’s book isstrictly focused onthe grassroots ac-tivism, communitymothering, and be-hind-the-sceneswork of foundingmembers ClaireCollins Harvey,A.M.E. Logan, and Thelma Sanders.

Contrary to popular thought, not all Mis-sissippians were sharecroppers in the state’sDelta region during the height of the CivilRights Movement. Some lived in urban areassuch as Jackson, Mississippi, and these areas had

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unique challenges to real racial progress. For ex-ample, Morris details specifically why someblack middle-class members, such as teachers,were hesitant to become involved with theCivil Rights Movement or even contribute tothe groups. They were afraid of retaliation fromthe white-dominated school boards who oftenthreatened black teachers with termination forinvolvement with those groups. In addition tointroducing readers to an urban Civil RightsMovement in Mississippi, Morris places theMississippi movement within a national and in-ternational context. Such projects as Vermontin Mississippi and the Mississippi Box Projectwere Northern-based support groups whichmade extensive monetary and material dona-tions to Mississippi families and Civil Rights or-ganizations. Some Northern women wereinvited to work with Womanpower, and theyaccepted. Undoubtedly, the national reach ofthe organization through such “interactions ex-emplified the necessity of connecting local andnational movement activism that Harveyhoped would emerge when she invited northernwomen to work in the state” (p. 129). One suchwoman, Ruth Baston, was already prepared towork in Mississippi due to her own struggleswith Boston’s racial divisiveness and white re-sistance to school integration; thereby, Missis-sippi was not seen by all Northern women as aforeign land inside the United States.

Historically, black women activists sup-ported broad-based agendas with grassroots or-ganizations with an ultimate goal of achievingthe beloved world community. This meant ad-dressing oppression locally, nationally, and in-ternationally. The founders of Womanpowerunderstood that there is a link between mili-taristic threats overseas and racial oppression athome. Morris places the struggle in Jackson,Mississippi, within an international frameworkby devoting an entire chapter to Woman-power’s involvement with international, ColdWar politics. The chapter, “‘We Who Believein Freedom,’ International Cooperation andPeace Activism,” details the stance of Woman-

power’s members on the nuclear arms race andClaire Collins Harvey’s trip to the SovietUnion at the height of disarmament negotia-tions between the United States and Russia.Harvey flew overseas to participate in theWomen Strike for Peace event in which shemarched with women from all over the world.The involvement of black women in interna-tional politics was the next logical step for blackwomen activists. This is particularly true ofHarvey: “First, her participation and perspec-tive were shaped by her ideology as a Blackwoman. Second, she believed in the unityamong humankind and the responsibility ofevery individual to bring this into fruition” (p.88).

One of the strengths of this book is that itbegan as a dissertation, according to the ac-knowledgements. It provides the audience witha fair amount of carefully-researched, biograph-ical information of each member in order to sit-uate the members’ socio-economic status withintheir respective Mississippi communities. Thebook also includes pictures of the members inmultiple roles: as mothers and grandmothers,boutique and beauty shop owners, wives, polit-ical activists, and international delegates. Theepilogue focuses on the lives and deaths of thefounding members, post Civil Rights Move-ment era, and their individual and collectivelegacies inside Mississippi and the rest of thecountry. There is also very specific detail on thewomen’s struggles to involve white women inthe Movement and their punctuated victoriesin that endeavor. Chapters Four and Five aredevoted to the involvement of white people inthe Jackson movement. Because Mississippi isportrayed as the “closed society,” Morris’s inclu-sion of inter-racial cooperation goes against tra-ditional thinking concerning white and blackpeople in Mississippi and white, Northern in-volvement with the Movement.

Because this book is so thoroughly re-searched, there is only one problematic area inthe reading. In Chapter Six, “‘When There wasa Need’: Ministering to the People,” Morris

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takes the reader to Womanpower’s involvementin the Mississippi Delta movement. Like moststudents of the Civil Rights Movement in theMississippi Delta, Morris spends much pagespace detailing the abject poverty of black peo-ple in the Delta. At times, the reader is lost inthe poverty and Womanpower members cannotbe found. While she portrays the Mississippimovement as part of a national movement forCivil Rights, in this chapter, she somehow man-ages to imply the state’s racial relations, eventoday, are somehow exceptional. She explainsthat on the 25th anniversary of the Box Project,a group of black and white women stopped inTchula, a Delta town. She writes, “the stop wasbrief as it was getting dark and it was Missis-sippi” (p. 258). Perhaps this was a bit of sarcasmor irony from the women, who were travelingin 1988, or for Morris, but it does harm thebook. It negates Morris’s point that any progressat all was made in Mississippi by the womenduring the Civil Rights Movement. Also, shedismisses the many monuments and buildingnames dedicated to black Civil Rights martyrsand workers in Mississippi, such as MedgarEvers, as mere superficial acknowledgement bya white-dominated, Southern governmentrather than the results of hard-fought battles in-side the state for acknowledgment of AfricanAmericans’ contributions to the state’s progress.

Ultimately, the reader of this book gains adeeper understanding of the complexities of theCivil Rights Movement in Mississippi, nation-wide, and internationally. It is not a book whichrevolves around one man’s story, as many CivilRights narratives tend to do. Instead, it focuseson the role of women and local people.

--LaToya Jefferson-James

Women Pioneers of the LouisianaEnvironmental Movement. ByPeggy Frankland with Susan

Tucker. (Jackson: University Pressof Mississippi, 2013. Pp. ix-xxv +224, notes, index. $36, hardcover)

Women Pioneers of the Louisiana Envi-ronmental Movement, by Peggy Frankland withSusan Tucker, is a motivational and heartbreak-ing oral history of the women who were unex-pectedly imperative to the LouisianaEnvironmental Movement. These womencome from humble backgrounds, and most ofthem are reluctant to identify themselves as en-vironmental activists, as they feel their actionsare simply natural acts of family and communityresponsibility. Throughout the book, this typeof motivation serves to answer questions of whythese women took on these monumental battlesin order to preserve the environmental integrityof their communities.

Many stories or histories of female environ-mental activists focus on maternal inclinationsand instincts. However, the women being pro-filed are not all motivated by their children, norare they all mothers. Frankland purposefully re-minds her readers that this movement is not re-stricted to any one demographic and adroitlycreates an inclusive oral history: “They areblack and white, working class and wealthy,school teachers, sec-retaries, pharma-cists, housewives,small business own-ers, civil servants,nuns, and house-wives. Some weremothers, some sin-gle, some widowed”(p. xxii). The inclu-sivity Franklandproduces expressesthe importance andpervasiveness of theLouisiana Environmental Movement. Throughthis inclusivity, Frankland provides these advo-cates and activists with the autonomy that has

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been challenged and threatened during theirbattles against government and industry: “I[Frankland] chose the oral history format be-cause, although many of the women have beeninterviewed countless times, they had neverhad an opportunity to tell their stories in theirown words” (p. xxiii). As a result of Frankland’sefforts to preserve the authenticity of these oralhistories, readers, whether well-versed in eco-activism or not, are provided with a balancedand authentic view of the movement.

To that end, Theresa Robert, a foundingmember of Save Our Selves (SOS) andLouisiana Environmental Action Network(LEAN), is one of the women who contributesher perspective on the fight for environmentalresponsibility throughout Louisiana (p. 49).Robert perhaps sums up what is poignant andpowerful about Women Pioneers of theLouisiana Environmental Movement as shestates, “We women have a strong bond with ourchildren and the next generation. We are emo-tional, and nurturing—the very assets thatmake us most effective. I have become closefriends with many people in my community. Weare black and white, rich and poor. I think thatis what is special about the environmentalmovement; it crosses all boundaries. We are allGod’s children and these are bonds that willnever be broken” (p. 53). Robert’s reflection onher Christian-based, community bonds surpass-ing differences in race and socioeconomics andher acknowledgement of the role of a higherpower speak to the religious overtones thatdrive much of the activism in this movement.While religion is highlighted as a motivatingforce for many of the activists in this book, itdoes not motivate Frankland’s overall message,which is still firmly based in the scientific, eco-nomic, and political complexities facingLouisiana, and many other ecologically diversecommunities. The juxtaposition in the role ofreligion in this ecological battle with the gov-ernmental and industrial forces provides a real-istic dimension, showing the differentmotivations that are in play.

While Women Pioneers of the LouisianaEnvironmental Movement largely does focus onwomen, Frankland includes the oral histories ofseveral men. This helps to develop the overallnarrative and provides useful context withwhich to understand and further appreciate therole of each woman included in this oral historyof environmental activism. While Franklandstates early on that women, not exclusivelymothers, would be included in the book, thefocus on the obligation to protect, born inmotherhood and the power of maternal care-taking, is persistent throughout many of thewomen’s narratives profiled in Women Pio-neers. Reminiscent of Bell’s Our Roots RunDeep as Ironweed in this way, the oral historiespresented in this book focus largely on how theinstinct to create a safe environment for chil-dren motivated the eco-activism of the majorityof these women. The men interviewed often ac-knowledged their mothers as an inspiration fortheir activism. While activism that does find itsorigins in maternal instincts cannot be dis-counted for its passion and efficacy, more femalevoices that are not grounded in motherhoodwould perhaps provide added depth to this oralhistory of activism.

Still, Frankland strikes an effective balancewith the various motivations portrayed inWomen Pioneers, showing her audience thatthe environmental movement represents per-sonal battles, and the emotion and passionelicited by this personal conviction and con-nection does not diminish the urgency and re-sults of the Louisiana EnvironmentalMovement. As Wilma Subra, an environmentalscientist born and raised in Louisiana, con-cludes, “Historically, grass roots movementshave short lives. The Louisiana movement haslasted more than thirty years. The women andmen in this book set the process in motion thathas led to the huge environmental awarenessthat is now in Louisiana. Their care-giving ex-tended from a personal to a public space. Thereis every reason to be proud of them and buildon what they began” (pp. 240-241). While it

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would be arguably beneficial for more attentionto be paid to the female non-mother in envi-ronmental activism, Frankland skillfully intro-duces her readers to the complex and crucialoral histories of the Louisiana EnvironmentalMovement.

--Megan E. Cannella

Images of America: Hot SpringsNational Park. By Mary Bell Hill.(Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publish-ing, 2014. Pp. 127, bibliography.$21.99, paper)

Reviewing this superbly illustrated bookhas placed this reviewer, a native of Hot SpringsNational Park, Arkansas, in a serious quandary.On the one side, the book is filled from start tofinish with rare, fas-cinating, and de-lightful pictures ofHot Springs fromits most rustic be-ginnings, throughits reign as “Amer-ica’s Spa,” (p. 41),its decline, and cur-rent efforts at a ren-aissance. However,on the other side,as excellent asthese photographsare, they are admittedly most meaningful toreaders like this reviewer who are either nativesor very familiar with the city’s past and present,and even more to the point, familiar with themany landmarks, buildings, and trappingswhich define a city, any city, and which disap-pear, change, and evolve over time. Only thosewho remember, perhaps fondly, this building orthat place or what once was can fully appreciate

the transformation to what these elements arenow.

After the general introduction, the body ofthe book is divided into four chapters stressingthe different eras alluded to earlier. A one-pageoverview heads each chapter which is thenfilled with photographs, as if one is turningthrough a family album, but with far better doc-umentation. Every photograph is provided witha brief, clear explanation or insight to place thebuilding, site, or person into its proper historicalcontext. This feature is helpful to the reader,whether familiar with Hot Springs or a new-comer. Even the most dedicated native of HotSprings will appreciate the author’s jogging ofmemories and revealing of long lost landmarkswhich were once oft spoken of but which fewactually remember seeing personally.

Nevertheless, one failing of the author isthe lack of any apparent theme, order, or direc-tion in the placing of the many pictures withineach chapter. Perhaps there were so many fromsuch varied subjects the author simply placedthem as she found them or found space to in-clude them. In this sense the book is very muchlike the aforesaid family album with pictures ofplaces, events, people, building, etc., oftenplaced in seeming juxtaposition. At least onecan say it is not dull, as the reader never knowswhat to expect on the next page.

So then, as one who has viewed this bookfrom front to back, enjoyed it, and appreciatedthe immense effort it took to gather, edit, andannotate several hundred illustrations, can thisreviewer recommend the book to all who mightconsider it? Or should it be recommended withcaveats? With due thought, it will have to bethe latter.

If one is reading this review as a HotSprings native or oft visitor, then this volumecomes highly recommended as a means toawaken feelings of nostalgia and fond memoriesof historic roots and past glories. On the otherhand, other potential readers should understandthat, while filled with quaint and curious pho-tographs which will be of passing interest to city

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historians or antiquarians, said illustrations willcarry much less meaning or significance if thereare no associative memories attached to thesearcane images. Pardon one last observation; ifthe reader enjoys looking at very old pictures ofrustic, bygone days, then the photographs pro-vided in the book’s first chapter might be worththe steep price of admission. The pictures ofHot Springs from the 1830s onward throughthose unregulated early years can only be de-scribed as amazing, and those early visitors in-trepid. As one contemplates the sheercrudeness of the facilities and difficulties thoseearliest visitors encountered, one can only won-der how Hot Springs ever became what it istoday. This aspect of the city’s past is truly themost enthralling and will probably titillate oramuse even the most casual of readers, and betreasured by the city’s sons and daughters.

It is a fair point. This reader thoroughly en-joyed the book but has to honestly observe,“Would I say the same for any of the other hun-dreds of volumes in this series, say Altoona,Iowa, or Spokane, Washington?” I leave it tothe gentle reader to make his/her decision.

--Paul D. Haynie

Mr. Gordon’s Blues. By GordonOsing. (New York: Spuyten Duyvil,2014. Pp. 31. $10.00, paperback)

Mr. Gordon’s Blues is a long poem in ninecantos. It’s a kind of love letter to the blues andjazz, but also to art, in general, and the naturalworld. The book opens with several quotes byvarious poets, songwriters, and writers on realversus imagined experience, culminating in KrisKristofferson’s line from the song “Me andBobby McGee,” “Freedom’s just another wordfor nothing left to lose.” Osing seems to be ar-guing for the authentic life with these quotes,and with his poem. Though he focuses on art,

he uses it as a means of amplifying experience.Similarly, each canto begins with a quote. Thefirst quote has to do with the stylization of de-sire and using that desire as an impetus towardachieving sometimes different goals.

Osing’s poem is often philosophical, read-ing somewhat like stream of consciousness. Heopens Canto I with an image of himself, wakingin the very early morning. “I can’t stop think-ing,” (p. 1) he says. Perhaps he is lamenting hisinability to simply experience life without con-stantly evaluating it. He describes his life as adream, referencing other, familiar poems, jump-ing from idea to idea much like fevered dreamimagery. One thing he thinks about is music:“Old Bluesmen laughing and dancing likeghosts/in Posada” (p. 2). He muses on the cul-ture that produced blues and jazz: “The hearthas to go somewhere or die,/so it wants to keepdancing” (p. 2). His musing covers music, liter-ature, his parents, and various aspects of popularculture. It’s comforting, this place of memory. “Ican live in this world between/life and sleep,”Osing says (p. 2). And this passion for musicand art shifts to a consideration of love, towardthe end of the canto.

Canto II focuses on language and intent.“Often enough, just as I have it, the word/es-capes me,” (p. 4) it begins. Osing meditatesupon the frailties and shortcomings of languagetrying to get at real, deeper meaning. “Bodywanders life. A self,/wanders between accidentsof attention” (p. 5) he states. And later, “A cen-ter is anywhere attention gathers” (p. 5). Just aswords can come and go, seemingly at random,when we need them, significance is equally ran-dom, he seems to be saying. It is simply our per-ception of what is important drawn from verylimited information.

In Canto III, Osing meditates on the bluesand jazz as a kind of spirituality, a religion. Hedescribes the faith of an older generation andlaments that modern people don’t have thesurety of that faith:

We do, however, have the blues.What to do until the doctor comes, what to

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dowhen he ain’t coming, what to do whenthere is no doctor: that’s where we’re at. (p. 8)Later, Osing examines what faith really

means. “It’s ourselves we pray to, looking/intoclasped fingers bedside as children” (p. 8). Andlater:

If a godwants your soul, give it to him, butmake it gamboled joy and contradictions.You go to Heaven like you go to Hell,alone, praying the lord likes performances.(p. 9)In Canto V, Osing has shifted to his own

mortality. It begins, “I have heard that gettingold you forget/one thing at a time until noth-ing’s left” and later, “Like it or not,/all heartsleak like sieves” (p. 16). Getting older, forOsing, is about losing parts of oneself, be itmemories or more physical changes. All that re-mains is the art we’ve created. Osing alwaysbrings his musings back to the lessons of theblues singers and performers, lessons of couragein the face of adversity and cultural oppression,and lasting art sparked against the backgroundof the long night. In Canto VI, he states:

Love the magic for all you’re worth,for all that is undone, and all that’s left

are motions toward and motions from moment-things. Walk, don’t run. (p. 22)This, then, is his lesson: the desires of the

mind are constant, but they can be quieted longenough for one to immerse oneself in life andexperience. This is the way to joy.

--CL Bledsoe

ContributorsAdjoa A. Aiyetoro is Associate Professor of Law andthe Director of the Racial Disparities in theArkansas Criminal Justice System Research Project.She is a professor at the UALR William H. BowenSchool of Law.

Robert Patrick Bender graduated from the Univer-sity of Wisconsin-La Crosse and the University ofArkansas. He is a tenured Instructor of History atEastern New Mexico University-Roswell. His pub-lications include Like Grass before the Scythe: TheLife and Death of Sgt. William Remmel, 121st New

York Infantry (2007) and Worthy of the Cause forwhich they Fight: The Civil War Diary of BrigadierGeneral Daniel Harris Reynolds, 1861–1865 (2011).

Brooke Bennett is a senior undergraduate honorscandidate studying English and Gender Studies atthe University of Arkansas. Her thesis encompassesa feminist analysis of AMC’s The Walking Dead,and she plans on obtaining a PhD in Film and MediaStudies.

Kelsey Berkel is a first-year graduate student, pursu-