From: Richard Slutzky
Question: I have a casual but strong interest in
US history and, like many of my friends and relatives,
find myself looking for expert opinions on finding the
best books in American History. We are all in mid-career
with law or business and thrive on books during our commuting
via train to NYC.
Those of us in my circle have read
the top, popular biographies of American leaders like
Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, etc. and have read 1776
or 1865 but are hungering for a list of very
good history books that may not be the most current books
being peddled by the publishing houses, but are classics
that every well-read American adult should read. Our interests
are not limited to Revolutionary or Civil War periods--we
are open to reading about any part of American history.
My question is, are there such lists or bibliographies
that are on the web that we could circulate? I am not
sure where to look.
Answer: Dear
Mr. Slutsky:
I’ll operate on the assumption that someone among
your circle of friends and relatives can visit a library
with the following resource:
The American Historical Association's Guide
to Historical Literature / general editor, Mary
Beth Norton ; associate editor, Pamela Gerardi. New
York : Oxford University Press, 1995.
This is a continuing series of the AHA, and the 1995
volume focuses on post 1965 publications – you’ll
have to work your way back for older materials. Find
the volumes, and you’ll see they’re arranged
by subject (you want U.S. history, of course) and then
by chronological era and/or topic. The entries give
you not only author, title, etc., but enough information
to let you know why each book is recommended.
Another good source for "recommended" readings
on a given topic in American history is the syllabus
in a good college/university course in that topic. All
major (and some minor) American colleges and universities
have course syllabi and reading lists on their websites
– this is a great resource for articles as well
as books.
From:
Nicole Brown
Question: I am a university student. I am currently
enrolled in a class that addresses the Civil War and
Reconstruction specifically. My question is where are
the African American women who influenced their own
emancipation during the the period of 1861-1865? I am
reading a lot of information about men who influenced
their own freedom by joining the Union military and
I am having a hard time believing women were silent
performers. I would really enjoy if you could direct
me to any web pages, journals or books that would address
this issue.
Answer:You are
absolutely right. African American women who’d
spent the decades before the Civil War fleeing slavery,
fighting for jobs, battling local authorities to get
schools for their children didn’t suddenly take
to their beds during the Civil War.
You should be able to get these books at the university
library or through interlibrary loan:
African American Women during the Civil War
/ Ella Forbes. New York : Garland, 1998.
African American Southerners in Slavery, Civil War,
and Reconstruction / by Claude H. Nolen. Jefferson,
N.C. : McFarland, c2001.
A Black woman's Civil War memoirs : reminiscences
of my life in camp with the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops,
late 1st South Carolina Volunteers / Susie King
Taylor ; edited by Patricia W. Romero ; with a new introduction
by Willie Lee Rose. New York : M. Wiener Pub. : Distributed
by the Talman Co., c1988.
Black Americans and Their Contributions Toward Union
Victory in the American Civil War, 1861-1865 /
Joe H. Mays. Lanham, MD : University Press of America,
c1984.
Dear Ones at Home; Letters from Contraband Camps/
Selected and edited by Henry L. Swint. Nashville, Vanderbilt
University Press, 1966.
Freedom's Women : Black Women and Families in Civil
War Era Mississippi / Noralee Frankel. Bloomington
: Indiana University Press, c1999.
Freedom's Journey: African American Voices of the
Civil War/ edited by Donald Yacovone. Chicago :
Lawrence Hill Books, c2004.
From Contraband to Freedman: Federal Policy Toward
Southern Blacks, 1861-1865/ Louis S. Gerteis. Westport,
Conn., Greenwood Press [1973]
The Negro's Civil War : How American Negroes Felt
and Acted During the War for the Union / James
M. McPherson. Urbana : University of Illinois Press,
1982.
Time Full of Trial : the Roanoke Island Freedmen's
Colony, 1862- 1867 / Patricia C. Click. Chapel
Hill : University of North Carolina Press, c2001.
We Are Your Sisters : Black Women in the Nineteenth
Century / edited by Dorothy Sterling. New York
: W.W. Norton, c1984.
The Pen Is Ours -- a listing of writings by
and about African- American women before 1910 with secondary
bibliography to the present / compiled by Jean
Fagan Yellin and Cynthia D. Bond. New York : Oxford
University Press, 1991.
Daughters of the Union : Northern Women Fight the
Civil War/ Nina Silber. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 2005.
Families and Freedom : A Documentary History of African-American
Kinship in the Civil War Era / edited by Ira Berlin
and Leslie S. Rowland. New York : New Press, 1997.
Freedom, a Documentary History of Emancipation,
1861-1867. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York
: Cambridge University, 1982 to date. Editors: Ira Berlin
and Leslie Rowland. 4 vols. So far. This is a wonderful
series – based on the records of the Freedmen’s
Bureau, 1861-1867.
I did a quick search of American Memory’s materials
on African American history and got a lot of hits –
most of them irrelevant. You can try your luck as well.
Go to this Website and type "women Civil War"
in the box for a search:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?category=
African%20American%20History
From: John
Rihm
Question: I would appreciate any information about
William Floyd's
contributions to the writing of the Declaration of Independence
and his role in the Continental Congress.
Answer: People
certainly haven’t been tripping over themselves
to write about William Floyd, have they? When I did my
usual searches, I was shocked at the dearth of material.
I don’t know what library you can get to, but
try to find this reference work. The entry for Floyd
will summarize the most recent writings on the man:
American National Biography/ general editors,
John A. Garraty, Mark C. Carnes.: New York : Oxford
University Press, 1999. Description: 24 v.
You may want to take a look at this article, although
I suspect it doesn’t say much about Floyd that’s
new:
"Presbyterian Signers of the Declaration of Independence."
Miller, William B. in Journal of the Presbyterian
Historical Society 1958 36(3): 139-180. ISSN: 0147-3735
Abstract: Demonstrates that 12 of the 56 signers of
the Declaration were either members of the Presbyterian
Church or related to the Presbyterian Church to a significant
degree. Brief biographical sketches giving the evidence
underlying this claim as well as the record of their
political activites are given of Benjamin Rush, James
Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, Abraham Clark, Richard
Stockton, John Hart, John Witherspoon, Philip Livingston,
William Floyd, Mathew Thornton and Thomas McKean.
And take a look at these books for analyses of the
creation of the Declaration and brief lives of its Signers:
1) Honorable Treason: The Declaration of Independence
and the Men Who Signed It / David Freeman Hawke.
New York : Viking Press, 1976.
2)A Transaction of Free Men; the Birth and Course
of the Declaration of Independence. Hawke, David
Freeman. New York, Scribner, 1964.
3) The Declaration of Independence : The Evolution
of the Text / by Julian P. Boyd ; edited by Gerard
W. Gawalt. Washington : Library of Congress in association
with the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation ; Hanover,
NH : Distributed by University Press of New England,
1999.
And, if you want to get into serious original research
on the subject, go to these sources:
1) Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789
/ Paul H. Smith, editor; Gerard W. Gawalt, Rosemary
Fry Plakas, Eugene R. Sheridan, assistant editors. Washington:
Library of Congress : for sale by the Supt. of Docs.,
U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1976-2000.
2) Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789.
Edited from the original records in the Library of Congress.
Washington, U.S. Govt. print off., 1904-1937.
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