Bøger udgivet af Kent State University Press

When did textile printing originate, and how can we identify the fabrics, inks, dyes, and printing processes used on surviving historical examples? In Wearable Prints, 1760-1860, Susan Greene surveys the history of wearable printed fabrics, which reaches back into the earliest days of the discovery of the delights of selectively patterned cloth and is firmly interwoven with the Industrial Revolution.

Reassessing the motivations and contribution of Union soldiers come late to the war For more than a century, historians have disparaged the men who joined the Union army in the later days of the Civil War--when higher bounty payments and the conditional draft were in effect--as unpatriotic mercenaries who made poor soldiers and contributed little to the Union victory. However, as Edwin P. Rutan II explains, historians have relied on the accounts of 1861 and 1862 veterans who resented these new recruits who had not yet suffered the hardships of war, and they were jealous of the higher bounties those recruits received. The result, he argues, is a long-standing mischaracterization of the service of 750,000 Union soldiers. High-Bounty Men in the Army of the Potomac offers a much-needed correction to the historical record, providing a more balanced assessment of the "high-bounty" replacements in the Army of the Potomac. Rutan argues, using combat-effectiveness methodology, that they were generally competent soldiers and indispensable in defeating the Army of Northern Virginia. He also examines the issue of financial motivation, concluding that the volunteers of 1862 may have been more driven by economic incentives than once thought, and 1864 recruits were less driven by this than typically described. Thus, Rutan concludes that the Union "high-bounty" men do not deserve the scorn heaped on them by early volunteers and subsequent generations of historians.

A literary hike through Ohio's oldest national park An anthology celebrating the biodiversity and staggering beauty of Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Light Enters the Grove collects 81 poems, each of which reflects its author's unique connection to a living organism found within the park--ranging from white-tailed deer to brown bats and from Japanese honeysuckle to bloodroot. Additionally, each poem is paired with an artistic depiction of the poem's subject that reinforces the rich relationship between artists and the natural world. Editors Charles Malone, Carrie George, and Jason Harris provide a stirring introduction to this emotional journey through the park. Renowned writers featured in the volume include Kari Gunter-Seymour, poet laureate of Ohio, and Deborah Fleming, whose book Resurrection of the Wild won the 2020 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. This collection invites readers to look further into their own experiences and memories of the park, to reflect on their relationships to its species, and to recognize the importance of preserving the lives and habitats of our nonhuman neighbors.

The story of LeBron James through the eyes of a Cleveland sports insider LeBron James has been a polarizing yet beloved figure for sports fans around the world, possibly nowhere more so than in northeast Ohio, where he grew up. He began his basketball career hailed as "the chosen one," a beacon of hope for a Cleveland team that had never won an NBA championship. He was then denounced for "the Decision" to leave and pursue his trophy dreams with the Miami Heat. The prodigal son subsequently returned to the Cavaliers, fulfilling "the Promise" to bring ultimate victory to Cleveland in 2016. From the time James was a high school sophomore, former Cleveland Plain Dealer sports columnist Bill Livingston covered every step of his journey from a hot-headed teenager flouting league rules to a basketball icon and activist, one who even founded a school in his hometown. In this engaging new biography, Livingston intertwines research, interviews, game highlights, and his firsthand experience with James and Ohio sports. Livingston's perspective and incisive wit give a unique view not only into James's evolving motivations, philosophies, and relationships but also to the characters and actions that have defined the Ohio chapters of his career. This book is not only for fans of LeBron; it is for anyone seeking to understand his very personal relationship with northeast Ohio: what he means to the region and how the region shaped him.

Winner of the 2023 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize Opium and Ambergris is the haunting debut collection by poet Colin Dekeersgieter, whose lyric poems scrutinize a family's history with addiction, death, and mental illness. Reeling from the loss of his brother to a heroin overdose, Dekeersgieter grieves while doing his best to keep his suicidal mother alive and raise his family. As a result, these poems shift between historical retellings and urgent examinations of love. In the title poem, "opium" is associated with death and "ambergris"--a substance formed in sperm whales' digestive tracts and valued by many cultures for over one thousand years--is associated with love. As family history, death, trauma, and duty become entwined with the acts of living, suffering, growing, and writing, these metaphorical categories become essentially interchangeable. Opium comes from the beautiful poppy; ambergris is an ingredient still used in high-end perfumes to help the fragrance last longer, yet it is extracted from dead whales. Thus, "opium" and "ambergris" come to represent the possible coexistence of love and loss. With many poems written in emergency departments, behavioral wards, and intensive care units, Dekeersgieter does not just honestly chronicle a family crisis but seeks to survive through poetry.

Fighting Nathan Bedford Forrest in North Mississippi During the summer of 1864, a Union column commanded by Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson Smith set out from Tennessee with a goal that had proven impossible in all prior attempts--to find and defeat the cavalry under the command of Confederate major general Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest's cavalry was the greatest threat to the long supply line feeding Sherman's Union armies as they advanced on Atlanta. Joined by reinforcements led by Lt. Gen. Stephen Dill Lee, Forrest and his men were confident, and their morale had never been higher. However, for two weeks, Smith outmarched, outfought, and outmaneuvered the team of Lee and Forrest. In three days of bitter fighting, culminating in the battle at Harrisburg, the Confederates suffered a staggering defeat. Work for Giants focuses on the details of this overlooked campaign and the efforts, postbattle and postwar, to minimize the outcome and consequences of this important Union victory.

George Gordon Meade has not been treated kindly by history. Victorious at Gettysburg, the biggest battle of the American Civil War, Meade was the longest-serving commander of the Army of the Potomac, leading his army through the brutal Overland Campaign and on to the surrender of Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox. Serving alongside his new superior, Ulysses S. Grant, in the last year of the war, his role has been overshadowed by the popular Grant. This first full-length study of Meade's two-year tenure as commander of the Army of the Potomac brings him out of Grant's shadow and into focus as one of the top three Union generals of the war. John G. Selby portrays a general bestride a large army he could manage well and a treacherous political environment he neither fully understood nor cared to engage. Meade's time as commander began on a high note with the victory at Gettysburg, but when he failed to fight Lee's retreating army that July and into the fall of 1863, the political knives came out. Meade spent the winter of 1863-64 struggling to retain his job while the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War sought to have him dismissed. Meade offered to resign, but Grant told him to keep his job. Together, they managed the Overland Campaign and the initial attacks on Petersburg and Richmond in 1864. By basing his study on the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, original Meade letters, and the letters, diaries, journals, and reminiscences of contemporaries, Selby demonstrates that Meade was a much more active, thoughtful, and enterprising commander than has been assumed. This sensitive and reflective man accepted a position that was as political as it was military, despite knowing that the political dimensions of the job might ultimately destroy what he valued the most, his reputation.

Djelloul Marbrook started writing poems in Manhattan when he was fourteen. In his thirties he abandoned poetry after publishing a few poems in small journals, but he never stopped reading and studying poetry. Then at age sixty-seven, appalled by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the poet within awakened. Stuffing sky-blue notebooks in his pockets, Marbrook began walking around Manhattan determined to affirm his beloved home in the wake of the nihilistic attacks. Far from Algiers emerged from hundreds of poems he has composed in the years since. Marbrook's voice speaks to anyone who has ever had doubts about belonging. Born in Algiers to an American artist and a Bedouin father and arriving in America as a gravely ill infant, Marbrook has contemplated this issue throughout his life. Far from Algiers explores "belonging" in a society that is in denial about its own nativist sentiments. It speaks of the struggle to belong in a culture that pays lip service to assimilation but does not fully accept anyone perceived as "foreign." Marbrook examines this issue with unflinching honesty. Anyone rejected by a family member or neighbor or coworker will relate to these well-crafted and moving poems.

Winner of the 1997 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize "The Apprentice of Fever is a brilliantly corporeal first book...rooted in the day-to-day life of a man implicated in the AIDS epidemic, living on the edge, crossing, transforming and transgressing boundaries, always, always paying an extreme and active attention, which is the apotheosis of compassion, which is an act of love..." "Tayson's voice is unmistakable: direct, witty, passionate and desperate, in poems with the crucial acid to etch themselves into the reader's consciousness." --from the Introduction by Marilyn Hacker, Judge

Examining the life of an early advocate of the legal rights of Black Americans In this brisk, engaging exploration of 19th-century radical reformer and abolitionist Wendell Phillips, Peter Charles Hoffer makes the case that Phillips deserves credit as the nation's first public interest lawyer, someone who led the antebellum crusade against slavery and championed First Amendment rights and equality for all Americans, including Black people and women. As a young lawyer, bored and working at a languishing practice, Phillips nonetheless believed that the law would serve as the basis for meaningful social change, including the abolishment of slavery. While many believed the US Constitution was a virtually faultless, foundational document for governance, Phillips viewed it as deeply racist, proslavery, and, therefore, in contradiction to the Declaration of Independence. Unsurprisingly, many of Phillips's ideas were viewed as controversial and unpopular at the time, even with other abolitionists. He frequently disagreed with more conservative politicians, including Abraham Lincoln. But beyond merely criticizing the Constitution, Phillips subscribed to a "democratic positivist" belief, which contends that law is the central component of a strong democracy and that law can and should be changed by the will of the people. Thus, he believed it was critical to change public opinion on issues like slavery, which in turn would help change laws that legalized the institution. Throughout his life, he used his impressive skills as an orator to raise awareness to the horrors of enslavement, appealed to Americans' consciences, and directed them to act through voting and lawmaking. Democratic positivist approaches like his have continued to be used by lawyers to influence social reforms ranging from the civil rights movement of the 1960s to advocacy for unhoused people to abolishing America's carceral state, and Hoffer persuasively argues that Phillips's influence has been long ranging and is still recognizable in contemporary America's political landscape.

Going behind the scenes with a veteran member of the White House press corps Steven L Herman, chief national correspondent for the nonpartisan, government-funded Voice of America (VOA), weaves together memoir and history to pull back the curtain on the inner workings of the White House press corps, giving readers a rare glimpse into the historic and current relationship between the president and the press. Herman traces the trajectory of his career as a journalist--from learning to be skeptical of government officials' statements when he worked as a novice reporter covering nuclear testing in Nevada in the 1970s to understanding the power of on-the-ground social media coverage after the Fukushima disaster in 2011 and facing the challenges of covering the Trump administration. He reflects on the experience of reporting on a president who once called journalists "enemies of the people"--and indeed, former president Trump singled out VOA, accusing the organization of being not a voice of America but rather a voice supporting Moscow's and Beijing's interests. Under questionable circumstances, top VOA executives lost their security clearances, and a dossier was prepared on Herman in an effort to remove him as White House bureau chief. With journalistic independence under threat, Herman feared not only for his career but also for "the soul of Voice of America." Throughout Behind the White House Curtain, Herman convincingly argues that public access to accurate, unbiased information is essential to a healthy and peaceful democracy, and that journalists can and should play a key role in pressing government officials to be truthful and transparent. At a time when misinformation is rampant and the need for unbiased coverage of current events is more urgent than ever, Herman reminds readers that freedom of the press is a foundational American right.

Examining how a civilian organization used the Civil War to advance their religious mission Tabernacles in the Wilderness discusses the work of the United States Christian Commission (USCC), a civilian relief agency established by northern evangelical Protestants to minister to Union troops during the American Civil War. USCC workers saw in the Civil War not only a wrathful judgment from God for the sins of the nation but an unparalleled opportunity to save the souls of US citizens and perfect the nation. Thus, the workers set about proselytizing and distributing material aid to Union soldiers with undaunted and righteous zeal. Whether handing out religious literature, leading prayer meetings, preaching sermons, mending uniforms, drawing up tailored diets for sick men, or bearing witness to deathbed scenes, USCC workers improvised and enacted a holistic lived theology that emphasized the link between the body and soul. Making extensive use of previously neglected archival material--most notably the reports, diaries, and correspondence of the volunteer delegates who performed this ministry on the battlefront--Rachel Williams explores the proselytizing methods employed by the USCC, the problems encountered in their application, and the ideological and theological underpinnings of their work. Tabernacles in the Wilderness offers fascinating new insights into the role of civilians within army camps, the bureaucratization and professionalization of philanthropy during the Civil War and in the United States more broadly, and the emotional landscape and material culture of faith and worship.

How five beloved Cleveland theaters escaped the wrecking ball and inspired city-wide urban renewal Shortly after World War I ended, five new theaters were constructed in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, all within a two-block radius. The concentration of these venues, which featured movies, vaudeville, and "legitimate" theater, became known collectively as Playhouse Square. For 50 years, the State, Ohio, Hanna, Allen, and Palace theaters enjoyed varying degrees of financial success until television, suburbanization, and urban decline darkened four of their marquees by the end of the 1960s. In the 1970s, with the shuttered theaters facing demolition, groups of like-minded Clevelanders united to fight to save the Square, influencing the city's establishment to create formal plans to renovate the theaters and ensure their financial viability. Playhouse Square and the Cleveland Renaissance tells the story of how the rejuvenation of Playhouse Square became one of the main catalysts for Cleveland's larger comeback from postindustrial decline, inspiring and serving as a model for other urban renewal efforts across the city. John Vacha is the first to write a comprehensive, in-depth account of Playhouse Square's history, beginning with the Square's 1921 opening and describing how the COVID-19 pandemic once again left its theaters temporarily empty before their triumphant reopenings in 2022. Richly illustrated and featuring interviews with the central figures involved in saving the Square, Playhouse Square and the Cleveland Renaissance is a powerful story that will appeal to theater history buffs and preservationists alike--reminding readers of the significant role the performing arts serve in shaping a city's culture.

A line-by-line analysis of one of Hemingway's greatest novels Published in 1940, Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls is widely considered a masterpiece of war literature. A bestseller upon its release, the novel has long been both admired and ridiculed for its depiction of Robert Jordan's military heroism and wartime romance. Yet its validation of seemingly conflicting narratives and its rendering of the intricate world its characters inhabit, as well as its dense historical, literary, and biographical allusions, have made it a work that remains a focus of interest and study. Alex Vernon, in this contribution to the Reading Hemingway series, mines the historical record to unprecedented depths, examining Hemingway's drafts and correspondence, synthesizing the body of literary criticism about the novel, and engaging in close textual analysis. As a result, new and important insights into the complex situation of the Spanish Civil War--integral to the novel--emerge, enriching our understanding of the novel. Through Vernon's comprehensive work, contemporary readers and scholars are reminded that For Whom the Bell Tolls is still vital, significant, and relevant.

The remarkable life of a noteworthy--yet overlooked--Union general turned Reconstruction-era politician A central figure in Reconstruction-era politics, Adelbert Ames and his contributions during a significant and uncertain time in American history are the focus of Michael J. Megelsh's fascinating study. As Megelsh discusses, Ames's life took many compelling turns. Born on Maine's rocky shore in 1835, he served as a Union general during the American Civil War and was heralded as one of the young stars whose leadership was integral in helping the Union to victory. He briefly remained in the army after the conflict, stationed in Mississippi, where he entered the political arena. During his four-year tenure as a Republican US senator representing Mississippi, Ames exhibited a growing commitment to civil rights and battled for the protection of freedmen in the halls of Congress, even when it drew ire and damnation from his colleagues. In 1874, Ames was elected governor of Mississippi and tried to create a free and prosperous state rooted in protecting civil rights and promoting economic liberty. This meant challenging the growing brutality and unruliness of the white populace and a burgeoning Democratic Party. For the first time, Ames's confidence faded as his struggles intensified and political enemies sought to impeach him, culminating in a trial that captivated local and national media. This contentious battle led to Ames's resignation from office and the end of Reconstruction in Mississippi. Ames's once-promising political career, too, was over. But Ames's later years remained thrilling. He helped the townspeople of Northfield, Minnesota, defeat Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang in a gunfight during an attempted bank robbery in 1876. When the Spanish-American War began in 1898, Ames, though now in his sixties, volunteered to join the fight and served in Cuba. While Adelbert Ames has appeared in many texts as a secondary character, Megelsh's work unearths Ames's important and underappreciated contributions to a transitional time in American history and politics.

Illuminating the central struggle in The Lord of the Rings to deepen understanding of the whole of Tolkien's legendarium In this remarkable work of close reading and analysis, Thomas P. Hillman gets to the heart of the tension between pity and the desire for power in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. As the book traces the entangled story of the One Ring and its effects, we come to understand Tolkien's central paradox: while pity is necessary for destroying the Ring, it cannot save the Ring-bearer from the Ring's lies and corruption. In composing The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien explored the power of the Ring and the seeming powerlessness of pity. All the themes his mythology had come to encompass--death and immortality, fate and free will, divine justice and the problem of evil, power and war--took on a new dimension in the journey of Frodo Baggins. Hillman's attention to specific etymologies and patterns of words used in the text, complemented by his judicious use of Tolkien's letters, earlier drafts of the novels, and Tolkien's essays, leads to illuminating and original insights. Instead of turning his interpretation to allegory or apologetics, Hillman demonstrates how the story works metaphorically, allowing Tolkien to embrace both Catholic views and pagan mythology. With this fresh understanding of familiar material, Pity, Power, and Tolkien's Ring will ignite new discussions and deeper appreciation among Tolkien readers and scholars alike.

The characters of the Funky cartoon universe deal with the challenges of middle age This latest installment of The Complete Funky Winkerbean presents the comic strips from 2008, 2009, and 2010 and ushers the original Funky characters into middle age. In true Funky fashion, the characters have to grapple with very serious issues: nearly fatal car crashes, a war abroad, and a tanking economy at home. These years also mark the first appearance of Cayla, and her arrival on the scene is where cartoonist Tom Batiuk's new time-jump era begins to coalesce and take on its unique identity.

A governor embraces patriotism over partisanship in a crucial Union state Before his election to the state's executive office in 1861, David Tod was widely regarded as Ohio's most popular Democrat. Tod rose to prominence in the old Western Reserve, rejecting the political influence of his well-known father, a former associate justice of Ohio's Supreme Court, a previous member of the Federalist Party, and a new, devoted Whig. As a fierce Democratic Party lion, the younger Tod thrilled followers with his fearless political attacks on Whig adversaries and was considered an unlikely figure in the battle to keep the Union intact. However, the Civil War and the serious consequences of its potential outcome came to outweigh his loyalty to the Democratic Party. Placing the restoration of the Union above all else, Tod eagerly shed his partisan identity to take up the Union cause. As governor, he quickly pledged Ohio's support to the nation's leader, President Abraham Lincoln. Tod rallied Ohioans to support the war and equipped scores of physicians and nurses with medical supplies to tend to Ohio's wounded soldiers. He also had to protect the state's borders from invasion by developing defenses at home. Despite his patriotic service, partisan politics and political intrigue denied Tod a second term. The Political Transformation of David Tod chronicles Tod's unwavering support for the Union and describes the importance of a politician's loyalty to country over partisanship.

A photographic exploration of one of Ohio's most remarkable landmarks Nearly 100 years after its construction, the Thomas J. Moyer Ohio Judicial Center in Columbus, Ohio, is finally receiving the artistic recognition it deserves in this richly illustrated book. In the early 1920s, when plans for the Ohio Judicial Center building were initially conceived, American culture and politics were in a period of transition and turbulence. The country emerged from World War I, moved through the Roaring Twenties, and then sank into the Great Depression. To counter the effects of this economic crisis, public art was often commissioned for government buildings, including the Ohio Judicial Center, which was completed in 1933 and showcases work from 12 artists. Featuring more than 100 photographs taken by Richard W. Burry, Art and History in the Ohio Judicial Center is the first book to celebrate the building's impressive architectural detail and highlight its 200 Art Deco- and Beaux Arts-style murals, reliefs, and mosaics. Burry tells the story of the public art in the Ohio Judicial Center and provides illuminating historical context, helping the present-day reader to understand the building's art not only from a contemporary perspective but also through the eyes of those living almost a century ago.

An in-depth look at of a vitally important but little-known heavy artillery regiment of the Civil War In early 1864, many heavy artillery regiments in the Civil War were garrisoning the Washington defenses, including the Fifteenth New York. At the same time, newly minted Union general in chief Ulysses S. Grant sought to replenish the ranks of the Army of the Potomac, and the Fifteenth became one of the first outfits dispatched to Major General George Meade at Brandy Station. Composed of predominantly German immigrants, members of the Fifteenth not only endured the nativist sentiments held by many in the army, but as "heavies" normally stationed to the rear, they were also derided as "band box soldiers." The men were still struggling to adjust to their new roles as infantrymen when they experienced combat for the first time at the Wilderness. Despite lacking infantry training and adequate equipment, they persisted. From the Wilderness to Appomattox describes how the Fifteenth continued to hone their skills and distinguish themselves throughout the Overland, Petersburg, and Appomattox Campaigns, eventually witnessing the surrender of Robert E. Lee's vaunted Army of Northern Virginia. Drawing on a wealth of previously unmined primary sources, Edward A. Altemos pays tribute to the Fifteenth, other heavy artillery regiments, and the thousands of immigrants who contributed to the Union army's victory.

Close reading and analysis of Hemingway's most ambitious posthumous novel Published in 1986, Ernest Hemingway's novel The Garden of Eden is a literary landmark. Hemingway periodically worked on the novel from 1946 until his death in 1961, and the result is a complex novel that explores the origins and uses of creativity and grapples with issues of gender, sexuality, and race. Set in the 1920s, a young American writer, David Bourne, and his wife, Catherine, test the heteronormative expectations of their time through nighttime experiments with gender identity and when they both fall in love with the same woman. In Reading Hemingway's The Garden of Eden, Carl P. Eby examines Hemingway's original unrevised manuscript in relation to Scribner's highly edited edition. The product of 30 years of research, this volume is the first to clarify for readers which parts of the original work had been retained, altered, and discarded in the publisher's text. No other treatment of the text has been so thorough in its analysis and annotations. This volume gives the Scribner's edition and the original manuscript equal consideration, helping readers to better understand the relationship between both versions of the novel. Reading Hemingway's The Garden of Eden will be an essential text in Hemingway criticism, offering new, exciting insights into how the book was written, edited, and received by audiences.

The story of one Ohio senator's impact on the early abolition movement More than 175 years after his death, Senator Thomas Morris has remained one of the few early national champions of political and constitutional antislavery without a biography devoted to him. In this first expansive study of Morris's life and contributions, David C. Crago persuasively argues that historians have wrongly marginalized Morris's role in the early antislavery movement. Morris was the first member of the US Senate to defend abolitionist positions in that body. Confronted with Southern demands for Congressional action to silence abolitionists and endorse slavery, he asserted that a proslavery interpretation of the Constitution was a distortion of the text. Instead, he argued, the Constitution neither identified people as property nor granted Congress the power to establish slavery in the territories or the District of Columbia. Although far outside the 1830s political consensus, Morris's ideas were quickly adopted by the nascent antislavery movement and became the cornerstone of antislavery political beliefs. Ultimately expelled from the Ohio Democratic Party and denied reelection to the Senate, within a decade his ideas would shape the core principles of both the Free-Soil and Republican Parties' platforms. The Creation of a Crusader fills an important gap in understanding the early American antislavery movement and sheds light on Morris's overlooked yet significant influence.

Both memoir and environmental commentary, this unique and classic work by Louis Bromfield engages and educates us as he demonstrates the importance of sustainable agriculture practices--not only for restoring the land but for restoring the home of the people who live there.

At 3 a.m. on February 21, 1865, a band of 65 Confederate horsemen slowly made its way down Greene Street in Cumberland, Maryland. Thinking the riders were disguised Union scouts, the few Union soldiers out that bitterly cold morning paid little attention to them. In the meantime, over 3,500 Yankee soldiers peacefully slept.Within thirty minutes McNeill's Rangers had kidnapped Union generals George Crook and Benjamin Kelley from their hotels and spirited them out of town. Despite a determined effort by Union pursuers to intercept the kidnappers, the Rangers reached safety deep in the South Fork River Valley, over fifty miles away. Not long afterward, the generals were shipped to Richmond's Libby Prison. Southern general John B. Gordon later called the mission "one of the most thrilling incidents of the war."In September 1862, John Hanson McNeill recruited a company of troopers for Col. John D. Imboden's 1st Virginia Partisan Rangers. In early 1863, Imboden took most of his men into the regular army, but McNeill and his son Jesse offered their men an opportunity to continue in independent service; seventeen soldiers joined them. In the coming months, other young hotspurs enlisted in McNeill's Rangers. Operating mostly in the Potomac Highlands of what is now eastern West Virginia, the Rangers bedeviled the Union troops guarding the B&O Railroad line. Favoring American Indian battle tactics, they ambushed patrols, attacked wagon trains, and heavily damaged railroad property and rolling stock.Phantoms of the South Fork is the thrilling result of Steve French's carefully researched study of primary source material, including diaries, memoirs, letters, and period newspaper articles. Additionally, he traveled throughout West Virginia, western Maryland, southern Pennsylvania, and the Shenandoah Valley following the trail of Captain McNeill and his "Phantoms of the South Fork."

While French fashion has historically set the bar across the Western world, the cultural influences that inspired it are often obscured. Dressing à la Turque examines the theatrical depictions of Ottoman costumes, or Turkish dress, and demonstrates the French fascination for this foreign culture and its clothing. The impact, however, went far beyond costumes worn for art and theater, as Ottoman-inspired fashions became the most prominent and popular themes in French women's fashion throughout the 18th century. The newly invented fashion press used Ottoman-inspired styles to reconcile fashion consumption with Enlightenment dress reforms. At the same time, Turkish-inspired fashions were increasingly associated with long-criticized ideas about luxury, stereotypes about the connection between a woman's interest in fashion and "lascivious" behavior, and French perceptions of the Ottoman Empire. This backlash is epitomized by the public criticism of Queen Marie-Antoinette, who popularized Turkish-inspired fashion, embraced a lifestyle of excess, and is still remembered for her singular sense of style. Kendra Van Cleave includes numerous detailed images and dress patterns, enhancing her rich discussion of French styles during this important era.

While the taking of hostages by both the Union and the Confederacy was common during the Civil War, it was unique for an individual state government to engage in this practice. The Governor's Pawns examines the history that led to the taking of political prisoners in western Virginia, the implementation of a hostage law by Virginia's pro-Union government in 1863, and the adoption of that law by the newly recognized state of West Virginia. The roots of state hostage-taking took hold prior to the Civil War. Sectional politics between eastern and western Virginia and their local communities, as well as long-standing family rivalries, resulted in the extreme actions of secession and war. Randall Gooden uses genealogical sources to tell the fascinating stories of individuals swept up in the turmoil, including hostages and their captors, freedmen, and government and military officials. Gooden emphasizes the personal nature of civilian arrests and hostage-taking and describes the impact on communities and the families left scarred by this practice. The Governor's Pawns takes readers into the city streets, state and national capitol buildings, army camps, jails and military prisons, hospitals, and graveyards that accompanied the tit-for-tat style of pointedly personal warfare.

Charles J. Mills, the scion of a wealthy, prominent Boston family, experienced a privileged upbringing and was educated at Harvard University. When the Civil War began, Mills, like many of his college classmates, sought to secure a commission in the army. After a year of unsuccessful attempts, Mills was appointed second lieutenant in the Second Massachusetts Infantry in August 1862; however, he was seriously wounded at Antietam a month later. Following a nearly yearlong recovery, Mills eventually reentered the service as a staff officer, although he remained physically disabled for the rest of his life. He was initially with the Ninth Corps during the Overland and Petersburg Campaigns and later at the Second Corps headquarters. During his time in the army, Mills served under seven different generals and witnessed some of the most intense fighting of the war. Mills's letters to his family offer enlightening insights about the Civil War in the East as seen from the perspective of an educated, impressionable, and opinionated Bostonian Brahmin. Compiled, edited, and privately published in a limited edition in 1982 by the late Gregory A. Coco, Through Blood and Fire did not achieve widespread attention and has been out of print for decades. This new edition of the Mills letters, extensively revised and edited by J. Gregory Acken, incorporates additional letters and source material and provides exhaustive annotations and analysis, revitalizing this important primary source for understanding a crucial era of our history.

The first full biography of Warren Lewis, brother and secretary of C. S. Lewis Detailing the life of Warren Hamilton Lewis, author Don W. King gives us new insights into the life and mind of Warren's famous brother, C. S. Lewis, and also demonstrates how Warren's experiences provide an illuminating window into the events, personalities, and culture of 20th-century England. Inkling, Historian, Soldier, and Brother will appeal to those interested in C. S. Lewis and British social and cultural history. As a career soldier, Warren served in France during the nightmare of World War I and was later posted to Sierra Leone and Shanghai. On his retirement from the army, he became an active member of the household at the Kilns, the residence outside Oxford that he co-owned with his brother and Mrs. Janie Moore, and he played an important role in the relationship between his brother and Joy Davidman, the woman who became C. S. Lewis's wife. A talented writer and accomplished amateur historian, Warren also researched and wrote seven books on 17th-century French history. Inkling, Historian, Soldier, and Brother examines Warren Lewis's role as an original member of the Oxford Inklings--that now famous group of novelists, thinkers, clergy, poets, essayists, medical men, scholars, and friends who met regularly to drink beer; discuss books, ideas, history, and writers; and share pieces of their own writing for feedback from the group. Drawing from Warren Lewis's unpublished diaries, his letters, the memoir he wrote about his family, and other primary materials, this biography is an engaging story of a fascinating life, period of history, and of the warm and loving relationship between Warren and his brother, which lasted throughout their lives.