Too many times, the Old Regular Baptists have been either ridiculed outright or praised as "quaint" or "anachronistic". Such praise still condescends. The ORB's have developed a hesitancy about opening up to the outside world who do not understand their way of worship. They will not allow cameras in the church house (as a rule) and anyone who brings a recorder into a church needs to be discreet to the utmost. That is why Howard Dorgan's book is so welcome. It well- and, more importantly, respectfully written.
Before I continue, the reader should know this reviewer grew up in the Old Regular Baptist Church. My paternal grandfather, his father, and his grandfather were all ordained Old Regular Baptist preachers.
Mr. Dorgan's book reads well and helps explain some of the idiosyncracies (to the eye of the outsider) of the denomination. They do not believe in Sunday school (and there is an historic and doctrinal reason for it), they do not pass a collection plate, they do not have musical instruments in the church. But what they do have is a spirit of God moving through their service that is incomparable to any I have ever seen.
The service is simple. There is singing, an introduction from the moderator, prayer, and two or three visiting preachers preach for 20 to 45 minutes each, and a prayer to close the service. There is none of the "extraneous" items, such as a bulletin, a youth group, announcements, children's church, a nursery, etc. It is just a time for pure worship.
Mr. Dorgan explains all this and more and I believe that he has even helped many of the faithful understand some of the reasons behind what they do. He does this with readable history and the theology behind the doctrine and practices of the denomination.
This ought to be required reading for anyone who wishes to go to an Old Regular Baptist Church for a service. You will not be questioned, you will not be looked upon suspiciously. Instead, the entire congregation may make their way to you and other new faces in the church to shake your hand and welcome you. If you are looking for "the good old-fashioned way", you will have found it here.
I recommend you also take a listen to their songs. The Smithsonian has put out a CD/cassette of the music by some of the best-known singers and preachers in the denomination.

Purcell-Gates avoids the weighty conventions of academic writing and thus opens her studies and insights to the larger world. The book recounts her experiences over two years tutoring a completely illiterate mother and her nearly equally illiterate son. Purcell-Gates, who at the time worked at the local university and literacy center, tells their story with compassion and a strong effort to get at the causes and perpetuation of illiteracy in 20th century American cities, schools, and families. Hers is a noble cause and this is a superb and educational book. She serves her subjects well.

Sharyn McCrumb and Mona Walton Helper have assembled a collection of short stories that will stay with the reader long after the book is back on the shelf. These stories embrace the mountains and their inhabitants. Anyone interested in life and the way different people live it needs to read this collection.

This is a very good book to learn the mountain dulcimer. You don't even have to read Musical notes! If you do know how to read musical notes this book is for you too. Songs are taught using both tabulature or musical notes. I could play 2 songs the first day I got this book and had never played a dulcimers before.

Well i really enjoy this book about 20 plus years ago i guess whyi use to go to these type of churches with my grangparents but as an adult now i do not attent these type of worship but i not against it but i think that god would allow me to have more faith to pray for someone with an awful sickness and thought him i would have faith that they would be heal of their sickness,than handling serpents,if i wrong lord pease forive me but i am scare to death of snakes,as a young boy i use to help them go an catch them,but as anadult now i see the real danger in these serpents, wheni was 14 or i5 i went to a church in west virginia one night i recall of a sister in the church prophsey and said i shell my people tonight,so everyone in that service handle a rattlesnake evenyoung children ,but after i handle that serpent i came back to realazation of life and ask myself a qestion,what if tat serpent bite me,i guess that the reason of today i am so scare of them no matter poision or non poision,BUT I LIKE TO GIVE god ALL OF THE PRAISES,for his protection over me, i personally do not know if it right or wrong but i know one thing i do not believe i got the faith to do that again,i not knocking but it really would have to be god in me to do it again.

This book is special. My family comes from Mountain City Tenn and I thought no one else was like us. This book chronicles a lifestyle never revealed in the romantic narratives of what most people think of as "the south". As a Delaware Northern Girl, it makes me sad that my parents relocated and I will not live like that.

Very good book, very informative. A great in depth book about a mountain preacher who loves God and Jesus Christ and preaches fire and bremstone. It's a heartfelt book with great emotion and love demonstrated through self stories and bible truthes. I would strongly recommend this book to everyone. If you are looking for a book that will take you back in time and show you the need for Jesus then and now, this book is for you!!

Forget Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods".... (where you end up rooting for the bears) this book is written by a "real" outdoorsy person and provides a highly detailed description of life on the AT.

The walk is covered in sections - each describing not on the scenery and climate - but also the highs an dlows experienced during the walk. Finally - someone who acknowledges that long walks are not always fun - and that everyone has their own fair share of physical and emptional barriers to overcome.

The deeply moving insights into Brampton's life and his reasons for being on the trail seems more like sharing the trail with a friend than reading a book.

An excellent outdoorsy book written for a true outdoorsy audience! Well done!!

Evans is a fascinating man to listen to. He is a decorated veteran, but shuns the recognition he rightly deserves. He admits that some of his actions during the heat of combat "might have been foolhardy." Evans was not interested in medals, only in trying to keep his men alive. As Evans' Third Army Com mander, General George S. Patton remarked, "No one ever won a war by dying for his country. He won by making the other poor bastard die for his country."

Evans met several truly historical figures. First and foremost was Patton. After the first day of the Battle of Arracourt, Patton visited Evans' command post to commend him on a job well done. That was just the first of many encounters with General Patton. After hostilities ceased in 1945, Evans was assigned to a Prisoner of War camp near Landshut, Germany. There, while interrogating prisoners, he briefly met General Vlasov, another larger-than-life individual. Vlasov was a former White Russian officer who was convinced (some say coerced) to help the Nazis against the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front. Later, in Switzerland, Evans was able to get a glimpse of a compound full of Nazi war criminals, most notable of whom was Herman Goering.

Evans was also fortunate to have been able to participate in the design, testing and eventual combat deployment of the M18 "Hellcat" tank destroyer. The United States Army found that its antitank capabilities were woefully inadequate against the masses of German armor, so a new tank destroyer was desired. Evans, along with a handful of other armor officers from various posts around the US, was invited to Detroit to the Buick Division of General Motors, to offer suggestions for the design of this new vehicle. There are precious few times in a soldier's career that he is given the opportunity to impact upon the equipment he will use in the performance of his duty. Evans and these other officers seized the moment and helped to design one of the most effective combat vehicles ever. In ju! st a few short months the M18 went from the drawing board to the maneuver field and then the European Theater of Opera tions.

Elder John Sparks is an ordained minister in the United Baptist denomination and thus is intimately tied to the richly historical traditions of what is general known as the "Old Time Baptists" of central Appalachia, divisions such as Regular Baptists, Old Regular Baptists, Separate Baptists, United Baptist, and a host of other groups, including a wide range of Primitive Baptists. Sparks sets out to document the influence of Shubal Stearns on this entire Old-Time Baptist phenomenon, and his work in excellent in scholarship and analysis.

For those of use who have labored in this this particular field of scholarship, it is a joy and an inspiration to see the field of study added to so wonderfully by an individual who has come from the indeginous base of the phonomenon. Sparks received a degree from Pikeville College in Pikeville, Kentucky, and promptly turned himself in to a excellent scholar. Read this book. You will be rewarded with a much deeper understanding of Appalachian religious history than has heretofore been provided.

Howard Dorgan Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Appalachian State University