Vernon Wharton's THE NEGRO IN MISSISSIPPI, 1865-1890 is an important work, greatly aiding in the understanding of that period of Southern history which we call Reconstruction. It is an excellent example of scholarship, dealing with wider issues than is indicated by the book's title. It is well-written, insightful, and valuable to anyone interested in the post-bellum South. Wharton's finest opus should be read by all students interested in history and race relations in the United States.

This book is a wonderful read, true to the diary of William Van Davis and illustrated with well reserached side stories and photos. The author did an amazing job of research and it is a must have for any true student of the Civil War or lover of the history of Mississippi.

If you can't go down the Mississippi yourself, tag along with Knudsen! Meet the "river rats," see the sights, and even smell life on the river as Knudsen found it in 1993. I found this book to be entertaining AND educational. I hope Knudsen has other trips planned so I can journey along with him again.

Thank goodness someone has had the good sense to reprint this classic book about steamboating on the upper Mississippi! George Merrick relates his personal experiences as a steamboat pilot during the heyday of steamboating with stories about the boats, towns, and people of the stretch of river between St. Louis and St. Paul. I grew up in that area, and found his recollections fascinating. I learned a lot about the history of the towns along the river, and about the rich tradition of steamboating. Imagine piloting a 500 ton boat down a winding, wild river in the dead of night with no headlight, moonlight, or navigation aids!! Captain Merrick tells how he did it! A must for anyone who is interested in steamboating or the history of industrial expansion to the West.

Clearly written and well illustrated with drawings and photographs, this book is a lovely introduction to the riverboat era on the Mississippi. I was completely absorbed by the descriptions of the boats, the explainations of how they worked, and what this by-gone life was like. It seemed to me that this would be appropriate for older children as well as adults.

Partial to Home represents the culmination of a ten year period in which the photographer, Mississippi's Birney Imes, records timeless vestiges of Southern, African-American culture throughout Mississippi. These first photographs, many of which were taken during research and photography for Juke Joints, acutely pick out specific instances that are rich in drama and heritage and smack of rural ingenuity and pragmatism as a way of life in the South.

Photographs in the book range from back porch gambling to Sunday baptisms in the river, and combines the photographers knowledge with powerful subjects to make for thoughtful, provoking, and equally joyous imagery, while chronicling and preserving a way of life that resists change but is rich in history and in its sense of familiarity.

Imes has a way of surprising the viewer with his adept visual storytelling, and, even though obviously physically present in the environment of the photography, resides as the instrument by which the often barely visible is fully seen.

I highly recommend this book.

This book was well writing, with many unknown facts on the movement of American families caming to the Southern states. It is a shame that it is out of print.

The scope of this work is astonishing. Originally published in 13 volumes, Parkman's magnum opus is here distilled to a mere 800 pages.

Beginning with Cartier's forays into the Canadian wilderness, Parkman recounts the gradual European settlement of the continent. Along the way, the giants of pre-1776 North America -- Champlain, Brebeuf, La Salle, Amherst, Montcalm, Wolfe and the powerful nations of the Iroquois -- are presented in all their humanity, by turns heroic and flawed. Throughout, Parkman's style is highly readable and entertaining.

Especially wonderful are his occasional lapses into the high-toned style of the late 19th century. The reader is invited to "embark in the canoe of some Montagnais Indian" and cross the St Lawrence to Quebec, to climb the cliffs and, "pausing for breath," behold the tenants of this wilderness outpost in 1635: "a soldier of the fort; an officer in slouched hat and plume; a party of indians; a trader from the upper country, one of the precursors of that hardy race of coureurs de bois;" -- and of course, a Black Robed Jesuit -- none other than Father Le Jeune himself -- the vanguard of European exploration into the interior.

By contrast, the reader is invited to become indignant -- as the colonists were -- at the latter half of the reign of George II, "the unwashed and unsavory England of Hogarth, Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne; of Tom Jones, Squire Western, Lady Bellaston, and Parson Adams; of 'Rake's Progress' and 'Marriage a la Mode'; of lords and ladies who yet live in the undying gossip of Horace Walpole, be-powdered, be-patched and be-rouged, flirting at masked balls, playing cards till daylight, retailing scandal, and exchanging double meanings." Great stuff.

Throughout, you'll get plenty of history and plenty of Parkman, with all that entails. I've seldom enjoyed reading so much as with this book, and I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the subject matter.

CAVEAT: This book was written over 100 years ago. That means there is no new historicism, no Marxist theory, no psychoanalytic criticism, no semiotics, no neoformalism (or, for that matter, plain old formalism), no structuralism or post-structualism, no analysis of perceptual processes, no modes of discourse or discourse on modes. So beware.

A great tool for the Louisiana/Mississippi genealogy/histoty buffs. It lists the owners of the land and the name of the plantations. I found it to be accurate. It is also beautiful, a perfect wall decoration for a den or study. Mary Rettig

A simply pleasant book of a time past along the Upper Mississippi River system all spelled out in the printed postcard! A "must" for every river buff to have in their collection!