Little Rivers and Waterway Tales

Little Rivers and Waterway Tales
Author: Bland Simpson
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2015-07-29
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 146962494X

Bland Simpson regales us with new tales of coastal North Carolina's "water-loving land," revealing how its creeks, streams, and rivers shape the region's geography as well as its culture. Drawing on deep family ties and coastal travels, Simpson and wife and collaborator Ann Cary Simpson tell the stories of those who have lived and worked in this country, chronicling both a distinct environment and a way of life. Whether rhapsodizing about learning to sail on the Pasquotank River or eating oysters on Ocracoke, he introduces readers to the people and communities along the watery web of myriad "little rivers" that define North Carolina's sound country as it meets the Atlantic. With nearly sixty of Ann Simpson's photographs, Little Rivers joins the Simpsons' two previous works, Into the Sound Country and The Inner Islands, in offering a rich narrative and visual document of eastern North Carolina's particular beauty. Urging readers to take note of the poetry in "every rivulet and rill, every creek, crick, branch, run, stream, prong, fork, river, pocosin, swamp, basin, estuary, cove, bay, and sound," the Simpsons show how the coastal plain's river systems are in many ways the region's heart and soul.

A Conspiratorial Life

A Conspiratorial Life
Author: Edward H. Miller
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 481
Release: 2023-04-19
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0226826503

The first full-scale biography of Robert Welch, who founded the John Birch Society and planted some of modern conservatism’s most insidious seeds. Though you may not know his name, Robert Welch (1899-1985)—founder of the John Birch Society—is easily one of the most significant architects of our current political moment. In A Conspiratorial Life, the first full-scale biography of Welch, Edward H. Miller delves deep into the life of an overlooked figure whose ideas nevertheless reshaped the American right. A child prodigy who entered college at age 12, Welch became an unlikely candy magnate, founding the company that created Sugar Daddies, Junior Mints, and other famed confections. In 1958, he funneled his wealth into establishing the organization that would define his legacy and change the face of American politics: the John Birch Society. Though the group’s paranoiac right-wing nativism was dismissed by conservative thinkers like William F. Buckley, its ideas gradually moved from the far-right fringe into the mainstream. By exploring the development of Welch’s political worldview, A Conspiratorial Life shows how the John Birch Society’s rabid libertarianism—and its highly effective grassroots networking—became a profound, yet often ignored or derided influence on the modern Republican Party. Miller convincingly connects the accusatory conservatism of the midcentury John Birch Society to the inflammatory rhetoric of the Tea Party, the Trump administration, Q, and more. As this book makes clear, whether or not you know his name or what he accomplished, it’s hard to deny that we’re living in Robert Welch’s America.

Living at the Water's Edge

Living at the Water's Edge
Author: Barbara Garrity-Blake
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2017-02-23
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1469628171

The Outer Banks National Scenic Byway received its designation in 2009, an act that stands as a testament to the historical and cultural importance of the communities linked along the North Carolina coast from Whalebone Junction across to Hatteras and Ocracoke Island and down to the small villages of the Core Sound region. This rich heritage guide introduces readers to the places and people that have made the route and the region a national treasure. Welcoming visitors on a journey across sounds and inlets into villages and through two national seashores, Barbara Garrity-Blake and Karen Willis Amspacher share the stories of people who have shaped their lives out of saltwater and sand. The book considers how the Outer Banks residents have stood their ground and maintained a vibrant way of life while adapting to constant change that is fundamental to life where water meets the land. Heavily illustrated with color and black-and-white photographs, Living at the Water's Edge will lead readers to the proverbial porch of the Outer Banks locals, extending a warm welcome to visitors while encouraging them to understand what many never see or hear: the stories, feelings, and meanings that offer a cultural dimension to the byway experience and deepen the visitor's understanding of life on the tideline.

North Carolina

North Carolina
Author: Bland Simpson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2021-10-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781469665832

Bland Simpson, the celebrated bard of North Carolina's sound country, has blended history, observation of nature, and personal narrative in many books to chronicle the people and places of eastern Carolina. Yet he has spent much of his life in the state's Piedmont, with regular travels into its western mountains. Here, for the first time, Simpson brings his distinctive voice and way of seeing to bear on the entirety of his home state, combining storytelling and travelogue to create a portrait of the Old North State with care and humor. Three of the state's finest photographers come along to guide the journey: Simpson's wife and creative partner Ann Cary Simpson, professional photographer Scott Taylor, and writer and naturalist Tom Earnhardt. Their photos, combined with Simpson's rich narrative, will inspire readers to consider not only what North Carolina has been and what it is but also what we hope it will be. This book belongs on the shelf of longtime residents, newcomers, and visitors alike.

Into the Sound Country

Into the Sound Country
Author: Bland Simpson
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Total Pages: 292
Release: 1997
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780807846865

The story of two North Carolinians returning to seek their roots in the state's eastern provinces, "Into the Sound Country" offers an affectionate, impressionistic, and personal portrait of the coastal plain and its richly varied natural world, as seen by two natives of the region. 61 illustrations. 3 maps.

North Carolina’s Roadside Eateries

North Carolina’s Roadside Eateries
Author: D. G. Martin
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2016-09-02
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 146963015X

Want to eat like the locals? D. G. Martin has spent years traveling the major roadways of North Carolina, on the lookout for community, local history, and, of course, a good home-cooked meal. Here D. G. is your personal tour guide to more than 100 notable local roadway haunts that serve not only as places to eat but also as fixtures of their communities. *Features locally owned and time-tested community favorites *Covers a range of food tastes from BBQ joints and country kitchens to Mexican restaurants and Greek diners *Introduces diners to the restaurant owners and locals who make these places unique *Includes current contact information, hours, directions *Features nearby points of interest to explore after eating This handy reference to good food just off North Carolina's interstates should find a spot in every Tar Heel traveler's glove compartment.

Mothers and Strangers

Mothers and Strangers
Author: Samia Serageldin
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2019-02-26
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 1469651688

In this anthology of creative nonfiction, twenty-eight writers set out to discover what they know, and don't know, about the person they call Mother. Celebrated writers Samia Serageldin and Lee Smith have curated a diverse and insightful collection that challenges stereotypes about mothers and expands our notions of motherhood in the South. The mothers in these essays were shaped, for good and bad, by the economic and political crosswinds of their time. Whether their formative experience was the Great Depression or the upheavals of the 1970s, their lives reflected their era and influenced how they raised their children. The writers in Mothers and Strangers explore the reliability of memory, examine their family dynamics, and come to terms with the past. In addition to the editors, contributors include Belle Boggs, Marshall Chapman, Hal Crowther, Clyde Edgerton, Marianne Gingher, Jaki Shelton Green, Sally Greene, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, Eldridge "Redge" Hanes, Lynden Harris, Randall Kenan, Phillip Lopate, Michael Malone, Frances Mayes, Jill McCorkle, Melody Moezzi, Elaine Neil Orr, Steven Petrow, Margaret Rich, Omid Safi, James Seay, Alan Shapiro, Bland Simpson, Sharon K. Swanson, and Daniel Wallace.

Two Captains from Carolina

Two Captains from Carolina
Author: Bland Simpson
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2012-09-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0807838101

In Two Captains from Carolina, Bland Simpson twines together the lives of two accomplished nineteenth-century mariners from North Carolina--one African American, one Irish American. Though Moses Grandy (ca. 1791- ca. 1850) and John Newland Maffitt Jr. (1819-1886) never met, their stories bring to vivid life the saga of race and maritime culture in the antebellum and Civil War-era South. With his lyrical prose and inimitable voice, Bland Simpson offers readers a grand tale of the striving human spirit and the great divide that nearly sundered the nation. Grandy, born a slave, captained freight boats on the Dismal Swamp Canal and bought his freedom three times before he finally gained it. He became involved in Boston abolitionism and ultimately appeared before the General Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1843. As a child, Maffitt was sent from his North Carolina home to a northern boarding school, and at thirteen he was appointed midshipman in the U.S. Navy, where he had a distinguished career. After North Carolina seceded from the Union, he enlisted in the Confederate navy and became a legendary blockade runner and raider. Both Grandy and Maffitt made names for themselves as they navigated very different routes through the turbulent waters of antebellum America.

RIO LA

RIO LA
Author: Patt Morrison
Publisher: Gibbs Smith
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-01-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 1626401039

The bestselling book about the Los Angeles River, originally published in 2001, is updated with an Afterword that includes the Los Angeles County 2021 Master Plan to improve the quality of life and ecosystem health in the region--all centered at the original source, the Los Angeles River. RIO-LA: Tales from the Los Angeles River 20th Anniversary Edition traces the history and lore of the Los Angeles River. When the book was first published in 2001, few people even regarded the river, but because of Morrison’s devotion to the topic, LA River has been rediscovered. The river has become the center of the county’s 2021 MasterPlan to reestablish it as the heart of the city, its lifeline to all things positive: an antidote to homelessness; a source of increased affordable housing; new jobs, good health; serenity. Morrison traces this rediscovery in her extensive new Afterword, following pages of river history, dating back to before the founding of the pueblo called Los Angeles. Together Morrison and Lamonica explore the river and the culture that evolves around this virtual oasis in a land of super highways and celluloid dreams.

Tales from the Tillerman

Tales from the Tillerman
Author: Steve Haywood
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2021-09-02
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1472977017

'Haywood imprints his inimitable humour on his descriptions of the people and places he meets along the way.' – BBC Countryfile magazine 'He conjures up a picture of a different world, filled with interesting and eccentric people. A cross-section of the best of middle England, in fact.' – The Oxford Times Steve Haywood has been cruising the inland waterways for fifty years, and has amassed a following of readers keen to hear about his travelling tales on Britain's beautiful canals and rivers. His previously published books – Narrowboat Dreams, One Man and a Narrowboat, Too Narrow to Swing a Cat and Narrowboat Nomads – have all been hugely enjoyed by those with a desire for a narrowboat narrative told in Steve's witty, charming style. Tales from the Tillerman is Steve's next title and is both his tribute to Britain's canals, rivers and countryside and a celebration of Britishness in all its eccentric glory. Unlike Steve's previous titles, which have each focussed on one particular journey that Steve has taken, Tales from the Tillerman is casting the net wider and drawing from his full fifty years of experience, recounting the many hair-raising escapades he's had up and down the country and reflecting on how the country and the cruising landscape has changed in those fifty years. Anecdotes and light-hearted rants aplenty, mixed with some tall tales and a smattering of the nostalgic, in Tales from the Tillerman you'll be thoroughly entertained as a middle-aged man (oh, go on then, an old one) reflects on his long love affair with boats and waterways, contemplating their importance to his life and how they've changed it.