Product Description
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, also known simply as The Citadel, is a state-supported, comprehensive college located in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. It is one of the six senior military colleges in the United States, and has 14 academic departments divided into five schools offering 20 majors and 25 minors. The Citadel is best known for its undergraduate Corps of Cadets military program for men and women, which combines academics, physical challenges and military discipline. In addition to the cadet program, civilian programs are offered through the Citadel Graduate College with its evening undergraduate and graduate programs. In a partnership with the local community college, Trident Technical College, Citadel bachelor's degrees are offered to evening civilian students in Business, Civil Engineering, and Electrical Engineering. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Armed Forces Comptroller, published by American Society of Military Comptrollers on September 22, 2001. The length of the article is 3604 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: ASMC Visits...: The US Army Finance School, Fort Jackson, South Carolina.
Author: John Raines
Publication: Armed Forces Comptroller (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2001
Publisher: American Society of Military Comptrollers
Volume: 46Issue: 4Page: 20(5)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
Military training was a prominent feature of higher education across the nineteenth-century South. Virginia Military Institute and the Citadel, as well as land-grant schools such as Texas A&M, Auburn, and Clemson, organized themselves on a military basis, requiring their male students to wear uniforms, join a corps of cadets, and subject themselves to constant military discipline. Several southern black colleges also adopted a military approach.

Challenging assumptions about a distinctive "southern military tradition," Rod Andrew demonstrates that southern military schools were less concerned with preparing young men for actual combat than with instilling in their students broader values of honor, patriotism, civic duty, and virtue. Southerners had a remarkable tendency to reconcile militarism with republicanism, Andrew says, and following the Civil War, the Lost Cause legend further strengthened the link in southerners' minds between military and civic virtue.

Though traditionally black colleges faced struggles that white schools did not, notes Andrew, they were motivated by the same conviction that powered white military schools--the belief that a good soldier was by definition a good citizen. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A history that prompts broad thinking on education and society
Read one way, this is a straightforward history of military colleges and secondary schools in the American south in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Crisply organized chapters deal with the views that undergirded the military schools movement, the founding of state colleges like Virginia Military Institute and the Citadel, the many effects of the Civil War, how the South responded to the Morrill Act that established the land grant colleges, and the tensions between "militarism" and "republicanism" that the military colleges had to resolve.

There's a fine essay on the system of discipline for cadets and how it came to incorporate legal protections recognized in American society.Another chapter traces the history of the separate military schools for African-Americans (Hampton was the most famous).

Read another way, this book addresses historical narratives of the ante-bellum South, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.Andrew challenges historians who have argued that the popularity of military schooling in the South derived from slavery and racism, and he succeeds in adding more depth and texture to discussion of the issue.Southern educators and parents were affected both by regional and national culture; law; concepts of duty, honor, virtue, and citizenship; reflections on adolescence; the economic development of the south; and the evolution of thinking on education and its purposes.

This is history, but as always history sparks thinking on the present.The legacy of the cultural values that supported the military schools, a century or more later, can be seen in the number of young men and women from the South who serve in the armed forces.

-30-
... Read more

Product Description

When Nancy Mace entered the Citadel, the United States government had just recently overturned the ruling that women were not allowed to enter the "Corps of Cadets." Having grown up in a military family, Nancy was not unfamiliar with the harsh realities of military life. But upon entering those imposing gates. Nancy soon found out that she wasn't just fighting the tradition of the corps, but the culture and city that surrounded it.

Steeped in tradition and lore, the grand bastion known as El Cid is considered one of the South's most infamous and controversial institutions. Built in 1842, it has turned out a unique brand of Southern man -- and now woman. This is the true account of one young woman's battle to be a part of the long gray line. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

A Legacy of Enlightenment
As we approach the tenth anniversary of the author's entry into the Citadel, the book shows just how far we've come.In many respects, Nancy Mace is the Citadel's Jackie Robinson; the book provides a thorough exposé of how she needed to draw upon her own inner strength and integrity in the face of sustained abuse.Her story is an inspiring example of determination fueled by an unwavering focus upon the light at the end of the tunnel.And her achievement has, over time, both isolated and marginalized her detractors and their primitive belief in the superiority of men over women.By successfully venturing into one of the last refuges of institutionalized sexism, she has made both the Citadel and our society a better place to be.

Golden Ticket to Ride
I graduated from this wonderful institution known to all as The Citadel, to some as Pure Hell, and to the Mace's as their fumbling fortress.It is a total sham, everything in that book except for the names and locations.Those are true, but unless you were there at that time, or there at all, you will never get the truth.Conroy's Lord's of Discipline held more legitimacy than this book.And we all know when a book is written by 2 people, the first person spoke and the second person actually wrote.
There has yet to be a truly accurate depiction of The Citadel- maybe someone with a little bit of INTEGRITY (part of what the Citadel stresses) will set the facts straight.Until then, this book may give a few good laughs, but all in all, its more of a wive's tale than anything else.

Mostly accurate -- A story that needed to be told, though
To prove that much of what Ms. Mace states in her book is true, I, as a male cadet, waited until I was on a break at home to read her book.Being the son of a mother who graduated from a military academy, I entered this institution with a much different perspective than most incoming cadets.What I have seen and experienced over the years has blown my mind.

Nancy Mace's book does exaggerate a few things, here and there.. and as the other alum wrote, she does write about stories that are 100% common to every knob's experience (in other words, not unique to her trials).. but still, being one of the first women at this school had to be an experience unlike anything that any normal person could imagine.Whether other, narrow-minded, disgruntled old grads want to admit it, or not, Nancy Mace DID do something special...something that no other person had accomplished.Her story needed to be told, and was done so in an extremely easy-to-read, and frank fassion.

In trhe Company of Men
In 1999 Nancy Mace became the first woman to graduate from The Citadel, a military academy in Charleston, SC. The Citadel is steeped in tradition --- a tradition that included a men-only admissions policy until a court order forced the school to admit a woman in 1995. That woman, Shannon Faulkner, lasted only one week. When her turn came, Mace was determined to make it to graduation. IN THE COMPANY OF MEN: A Woman at The Citadel tells her story bluntly and honestly.

Most of IN THE COMPANY OF MEN details Mace's first semester at The Citadel. Freshman year is the most challenging year at The Citadel --- which is saying a lot since no year there is a walk in the park. Freshmen at The Citadel are referred to as "knobs" --- a reference to their shaved heads --- and are forced to live under the "fourth class system," which greatly restricts their freedom and allows upperclassmen to make their lives miserable in a variety of ways. The year is difficult for all who enter The Citadel, but for Mace and the three women who entered the school with her, the challenge was infinitely increased.

The school, its administration, students, and backers were all faced with hard questions. How short should a woman's hair be cut? What sizes do the uniforms need to be? How do you deal with a soldier who menstruates? How do you keep women knobs safe in an atmosphere where they are resented by their classmates, by upperclassmen, by alumni, and --- most oddly --- by the wives and girlfriends of Citadel students past and present? None of these questions were hypothetical for Mace. As she addresses them in her book, she does a fine job relating not only the actual occurrences, but her own emotions. She does not shy away from the feelings of helplessness that sometimes threatened to overwhelm her; nor does she turn her tale into a list of grievances for wrongs suffered, as she finds humor in many situations that may not have seemed funny at the time.

Mace's story of perseverance, both mental and physical, is inspiring. IN THE COMPANY OF MEN is not, however, a prettified tale of adversity overcome. Mace's language is direct and occasionally peppered with obscenities, and her assessments of her classmates, instructors, and the upperclassmen are unyielding --- as is her assessment of herself throughout the book.

Mace spends some pages detailing her second semester at The Citadel, including a moving description of the final challenges a knob faces before being released from the "fourth class system." The two years leading up to her graduation are summarized too briefly. A more complete description of her life as an upperclassmen --- during which knobs were subject to her whims --- would have been interesting and would have provided a better transition to the graduation scenes that end the book. Nevertheless, IN THE COMPANY OF MEN is a fascinating look at The Citadel and at the kind of person who can make it from knob to Citadel graduate.

--- Reviewed by Rob Cline (rjbcline@aol.com)

In the Company of Men Review
By Emma

Before reading In the Company of Men, I disliked all biographies and autobiographies, but while reading about Nancy Mace's life, my opinion changed.This autobiography is a funny, touching, and compelling true story about the first women to graduate from the Citadel, a strict military collage with much discipline and hazing.This is a great book, mainly for girls and women, that realizes how hard it was when men were considered superior.It gives the important message that even though the world will always be filled with mean and hurtful people, it is possible to accomplish anything, even the impossible.That is what Nancy Mace did; she was the first woman ever to graduate from the Citadel, something that seemed impossible for women before her.All females should read this book, even if they aren't interested in the military.This is a terrific autobiography! ... Read more

Product Description
This is a comprehensive accounting of how the county responded to the Civil War and the effect it had on Yadkin's citizens, civilian and military alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The Civil War And Yadkin County, North Carolina
This book, as suggested by the title, focuses on Yadkin County's contribution to the Civil War.Among the topics covered include:

1.Geographical, Economic, and Religious impact on Yadkin County during the Civil War.
2.Battles that Yadkin County soldiers fought in.
3.The Bond School House incident.
4.Stoneman's Raid.
5.Results of the war in Yadkin County.

While all of the chapters were highly readable, I especially appreciated the service history of each Yadkin County man who fought in the Civil War.The summary gives a brief description of the person's enlistment and any applicable instances (wounded or killed in battle, captured, deserted, paroled, etc.).I found this to be particularly helpful as I had some great uncles who fought for the 28th NC regiment.

A very good read.Recommended for anyone wanting to learn more about Yadkin County during the Civil War.

Must Have Book for Yadkin County Genealogists
This book was well researched, nicely written and contains wonderful facts and stories about Yadkin County, N.C. before, during, and after the Civil War.It presents actual letters from the people of that era giving their personal accounts of the horror of the Civil War and how Yadkin County residents coped with the changes that the Confederacy and War brought to them.If you are studying the family history of someone in or around Yadkin County, this book will really help you understand what your relatives went through in the early days of this section of our country.

The war within the war in western North Carolina.
A small western Piedmont county in North Carolina is the subject of this very unusual Civil War history.Written by a local historian with a richknowledge of the county and its people, the book weaves the colorfulthreads of local characters and events into the big picture of the greatestwar in our history.Battlefield stories and army life are recounted,partly in letters writen home by Yadkin soldiers in the field, but the mostintriguing events are those that occurred on the home front.In a regionof sharply divided loyalties, the woods of Yadkin County soon filled with"bushwhackers", men hiding out to escape concription into theConfederate army.The book tell of the locally famous shoot-out betweensome of these men and the Militia, of their arrest and the jail breaks thatset them free, of executions by the Home Guard, and of the treks toTennessee to join the Union army.In the last days of the war a YankeeCavalry division led by George Stoneman rode through the county andCassstevens treats us to previously unpublished stories of his famousraid.

More than a history, the book is also a genealogy.Appended listsname people who applied for pensions, men who served in the Militia, andmen exempted from military service and why.A final appendix gives Yadkinmen who served in the army with a summary of their service and, notinfrequently, the names of their parents and other relatives.This book isfor everyone with Yadkin County roots and for anyone interested in learningabout the secret little wars within the Civil War. ... Read more

Product Description
This sweeping work of cultural history explores a time of startling turbulence and change in the South, years that have often been dismissed as placid and dull. In the wake of World War II, southerners anticipated a peaceful and prosperous future, but as Pete Daniel demonstrates, the road into the 1950s took some unexpected turns.

Daniel chronicles the myriad forces that turned the world southerners had known upside down in the postwar period. In chapters that explore such subjects as the civil rights movement, segregation, and school integration; the breakdown of traditional agriculture and the ensuing rural-urban migration; gay and lesbian life; and the emergence of rock 'n' roll music and stock car racing, as well as the triumph of working-class culture, he reveals that the 1950s South was a place with the potential for revolutionary change.

In the end, however, the chance for significant transformation was squandered, Daniel argues. One can only imagine how different southern history might have been if politicians, the press, the clergy, and local leaders had supported democratic reforms that bestowed full citizenship on African Americans—and how little would have been accomplished if a handful of blacks and whites had not taken risks to bring about the changes that did come. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A look at Southern Culture in the 1950's
Read this for graduate American history course.Lost Revolutions by Pete Daniel is a book that looks at the South during the 1950's. More specifically, it is a cultural history of the American South from the end of World War II until the Freedom Summer of 1964. Daniel's thesis is, "The South that evolved in the twenty years after the war emerged out of displacement, conflict, and creativity - not tranquility" (1). Daniel covers many themes that support his thesis.Among these themes are the migration of small farmers to cities, the advent of NASCAR, Rock n' Roll, and the lost occasions to give full citizenship to African Americans. The author's intention for writing this book is twofold. First, Daniel explores the cultural achievements of the "Lowdown culture" (91). He does this by looking at how the displaced farmers kept their rural roots, despite the fact that they lived in urban areas.Second, Daniel delves into the reasons why the middle-class and upper-class South did not want to desegregate. Lost Revolutions is a fascinating cultural history that sheds light on many current issues.

Daniel discusses numerous issues that surrounded the South after the end of World War II. Primarily, the author looks at a multitude of reasons that massively shrank the number of farmers in the South. "Over a million farm operators left the land in the 1950s" (60). Ezra Taft Benson was a major contributor in the displacement of small farmers in the South. Benson was appointed the secretary of agriculture under
Eisenhower in 1952. This is about the same time that farm machinery, such as tractors, began to replace labor-intensive farming techniques. Additionally, since the Great Depression the majority of southern farmers relied on Government subsidies."Calculations, allotments, and regulations - not hard work - determined whether farmers succeeded or failed" (46). In 1959 a seventy-one-year-old Alabama farmer named E. Spech said, " ... now we can't move without a handout ... Each morning the men headed for some local restaurant for a cup of coffee while their wives sleep till noon" (59). It was obvious to many that Benson did not want to support the small farmer, but rather Agribusiness and the large farmer. Many of the white southern landowners bought more farms, machinery, and became wealthy with the support of the government. Conversely, small farmers, tenant farmers, and sharecroppers, both black and white, left their farms for the cities.

One of the themes that Daniel discusses in Lost Revolutions is the role of the government on the southern environment. As machinery cut down on the need for workers on a farm, so to did the use of chemicals. Interestingly, after World War One, two the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) teamed up with the Chemical Warfare Service to combine their chemical research. These organizations researched
chemicals like DDT, which could be used against humans or insects to shut down the nervous system. DDT and other similar chemicals were used to dust crops by plane, but usually this was done by hand to save money. The USDA even funded the dusting of private property with dieldrin, which is 20 times more toxic than DDT in order to eradicate Argentine fire ants. This supposed scourge was built up by using "Red propaganda" in order scare Americans that an invading insect was going to ruin their land.
The government would eventually spend $156 million dollars to extinguish the Argentine fire ant. This resulted in ruining the environment in many places and actually caused the ...fire ant to speed up its evolutionary cycle and spread throughout the country. The picture that Daniel paints of organizations like the USDA and the Agricultural Research Service(ARS) helps to support his thesis that the South was changing out of conflict.

Lost Revolutions gives the history of displaced southerners who banded together, despite having different skin colors. " ... when it came to exchanging something offensive to the upper class, racial barriers collapsed" (92). The Lowdown culture of the South thrived on being unruly, unrespectable, hard-drinking, and rough. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) has roots in bootlegging and quickly became something that the Lowdown culture gravitated to in the 1950s. The drivers, mechanics, and fans typically put pleasure over values by their bad behavior on and off the track. Additionally, the Lowdown culture produced, "jazz, blues, country, gospel, rhythm and blues, rock On'roll, and soul music" (122). People like Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Willie Mitchell, and Otis Redding were the sounds of the 1950s and the music had no color barrier. The culture that the displaced southerners found joy in reflected their beliefs and could have helped to end segregation in the South.The author describes the South in the 1950s by looking at the continuation of segregation as something that came from the white middle class and the elite. Daniel argues that the working-class southerners were typically not fighting against integration in the South. This is seen through the crisis at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Daniel describes why many whites and blacks feared integration at Central High School. The nine black students who attended Central were kept from major physical harm by the 101st Airborne, which was sent by President Eisenhower.Segregationists saw this action as a threat to state rights and a throwback to
Reconstruction. The strength of Daniel's account of this well-known event lies in his telling of the rest of the story. He tells how the "Littlerock Nine" were subjected to being hit, having hot soup dumped on them, seeing racial words written in the bathroom, and having to be submissive. In the end, Daniel notes the opportunity for positive integration was lost when, "Segregationists policed the color line with a vengeance and intimidated and white person who deviated from their code" (283).

Lost Revolutions is a book that looks at the driving forces behind the Southern culture in the 1950s. The author focuses on segregation as a major topic, but also looks at the cultural collision brought out by the upper-class, middle-class, and the Lowdown cultures. After WorId War II many people in the South favored integration, civil rights, and a positive change in culture. However, "The white elite engineered agribusiness, migration, and massive resistance, a counterrevolution that poisoned both the environment and race relations" (305). The damage done to race relations is to take many years to heal, and in many places is still waiting for resolution. The Blues and NASCAR are proof that race relations in the South could have come from positive cultural influence. Daniel does not look at the South as being predominantly full of segregationists. Rather, he points to lack of leadership, ignorance, and fear as the major reasons that the South had an uneasy end to segregation. Daniel claims that the working class
people of the South were swept away in the racial tension that embattled the 1950s.Segregation in the South ended through laws and intervention rather than a belief in equality. "Before they [the working-class] were divided or tamed, these people redefined the South and established enduring cultural monuments" (305).

As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I recommended this book for anyone interested in American history, civil rights era history.

Excellent appraisal of the Southern paradox
The 1950's South was both a time and a place of contradictions. On the one hand, there was a cultural revolution going on that fused both white and black musical tastes into one revolutionary music genre (rock 'n' roll) anda political revolution that went on (integration) which made the culturalachievements seem to pale in comparison. In essence, the South of the1950's was a confusing maelstrom of contradictory policies and failedopportunities for peaceful change.

So argues Pete Daniel in his book"Lost Revolutions: The South in the 1950's". Daniel's thesis isthat the South offered ripe opportunities for change during the immediatepost-World War II era but these opportunities were overlooked by the factthat warring factions between African-Americans and whites prevented tomake important cultural revolutions make a difference in the politicalspectrum. These important cultural revolutions consisted of: the importanceof rhythm and blues in forging feelings of appreciation between blacks andwhite country and western singers, the rise of NASCAR as a unifying factoramong lower-class whites to challeng the hegemony of the white middle andupper-classes, and, finally, the rebeliousness exhibited by both white andblack youth to forge a new consensus for political change. Daniel's bookdoes an excellent job of explaining both why there were contradictions inSouthern society and how these contradictions contributed to a painfullyfought battle for integration and equal rights. This is a battle which isstill being fought today but more on a state's rights and regionalisticfront than a racial front.

Daniel's book is a true lesson in primarysource research and his endnotes clearly demonstrate this. Interviews, 4pages of manuscript collection sources, and numerous prominent secondarysources fully back up a thought-provoking thesis. This book is a welcomeaddition to southern historiography. ... Read more

Product Description
Scarlett's Sisters explores the meaning of nineteenth-century southern womanhood from the vantage point of the celebrated fictional character's flesh-and-blood counterparts: young, elite, white women. Anya Jabour demonstrates that southern girls and young women faced a major turning point when the Civil War forced them to assume new roles and responsibilities as independent women. By tracing the lives of young white women in a society in flux, Jabour reveals how the South's old social order was maintained and a new one created as southern girls and young women learned, questioned, and ultimately changed what it meant to be a southern lady. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent addition to Southern history
Anya Jabour's Scarlet's Sisters is a monographic corrective to popular conceptions of Southern womanhood; it subverts "Americans' ideas about the South[,] particularly about Southern women" that continue to be shaped by Gone with the Wind (1). Adding to the "classic triumvirate of race, class, and gender", Jabour uses age as her unit of analysis in exploring the history of young white women in the antebellum South (2). Divided into eight parts, Scarlet's Sisters tracks the collective experience of over three-hundred women as they pass through shared cultural experiences of maturation and coming-of-age; adolescence, schooling, single life, courtship, engagement, marriage and motherhood are discussed in a chronological order which illuminates women's identities in flux.
Carving out a separate Southern identity from the oft-covered Victorian era, Jabour's "sensitivity to regional variations" gives southern women agency (3). Forms of resistance to the demands of Southern patriarchy were not generated by the influence of a didactic, urban-based feminism from the contemporaneous American North. Instead, Jabour asserts it is Southern women themselves who developed unique forms of resistance based on Southern cultural paradigms. Young women in the nineteenth-century South created communities in exclusively female spaces; academies, church groups, and sustained virtual communities in letter writing all served to give women a safe space to explore identities. Complicating the construction of belles as "giddy girls, fickle flirts, and husband-seeking hussies", Jabour introduces us to a world of young women who "prioritized intellectual development" in a community of their own (2, 126). "I describe... a culture of resistance" adds Jabour, a "subculture" that Southern women created to resist the imperatives of patriarchy (10, 12).
Jabour draws on archival documents, magazines, published letters, diaries and memoirs, as well as a number of monographs and secondary sources to produce an incredibly vibrant account of Southern women's lives. The book's organization gives a good sense of what it was like to grow up as young, white, and well to do in the Old South. Jabour seamlessly integrates sociological analytic tools, such as the discussion of homosocial behavior and the deconstruction of cultural conceptions of sexuality. In her chapter on schoolgirls, Jabour finesses the complexity of women's relationships. Romantic friendships often blurred the lines of the platonic and erotic; intense attachments to young female teachers, or to other peers, manifested themselves in girls' diaries. In the time before Freud, these socially-sanctioned relationships gave schoolgirls a "glimpse of an alternative to their seemingly predestined future as wives and mothers" (71). It was not at all uncommon for girls to have close physical contact with peers. Dormitory-style living "encouraged young women to form relationships with their fellow students" (64). While political lesbian separatism is still a century and a half away, this all-female academic environment was a socially-sanctioned, albeit temporary place where schoolgirls could "secure [their hearts] from becoming the slave" of any man (129). Southern women formed bonds at seminaries and academies that lasted their entire lifetime. Echoing these early experiences in school, Southern women persisted in forming all-female environments later in their lives. The "meaninglessness and melancholy" that plagued young women after graduation sharpened their fond memories of happier times spent with female friends in school (106). Left by men who joined the confederate army, some during the Civil War attempted to recreate these havens where refugee women "pooled their resources and created shared homes", much to the "delight" of all involved (265). Others worked in all-female aid societies. In any case, it was clear that the bonds formed in girlhood were a compass for guiding women to form all-female environments and communities where women were able to gain efficacy.
Overall, Scarlet's Sisters is an original, informative, and enjoyable read. It does justice to second- and third-wave feminist interpretations of gender, sexuality, and womanhood. In content and approach, this book includes a nice treatment of menstruation, a topic sparsely covered, and still stigmatized, in contemporary histories. "[F]or all of historians' efforts over the last three decades to dispel the myth of the southern lady," Jabour laments, few have gone farther than "exploding the moonlight-and-magnolias mythology" of Southern women (1, 2). With this volume, Jabour not only nuances history, but she certainly succeeds in complicating modern popular ideas of gender identity.

The Index is Worthless.
I bought this book because mentions particular people that I was interested in. I knew that it talked about them because Amazon allows us to search the book. These people were not even in the index although there are people in the index. I had to go back to Amazon to find the references. If I had seen the book in a bookstore or the library I would not have known that they were mentioned. This type of book needs a good index. ... Read more

Product Description
FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Left in charge of the family when his father leaves their South Carolina home to fight in the Revolutionary War, 13-year-old Joey Kershaw finds all his resources tested when General Cornwallis comes to town and chooses the Kershaw house as his headquarters. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The Keeping Room
The Keeping Room is an excellent 4th grade reading level book. It is a great historical fiction novel told from the perspective of a young boy-the son of Officer Joseph Kershaw.Excellent. Great read. Great history.

politically correct
This book was very ...modern.The characters were stilted stereotypes, the reasons for the comflict from either side were mentioned only breifly in passing.The ending was predictable and the book had the feeling that the author crammed in every politically correct topic that she could think of.Even throwing in remarks on topics that have absolutly nothing to do with what is going on in either dialogue or action.All in all it seems to have been written to showcase modern political correctness rather than history.

It was amazing!!
At first, when my 6th grade Social Studies teacher told us we were going to read The Keeping Room I was thinking "Oh great, a book that we're going to have to do work on." I wasn't too excited. About the time we had gotten to the end of the first chapter I had already picked out my favorite character and wanted to keep going. Of course my favorite character was none other than Euven, Joey's Quaker teacher. Joey's dad, Colonel Kershaw, went off to protect Camden, South Carolina. But General Cornwallis showed up with his men. Camden decided to surrender. Euven tells Joey that there are both good and evil men on both sides of the war, but Joey doesn't want to believe it. But sure enough he meets a man on the British's side who is a good man. Captain Harkins, one of the few nice men on the British side, protects Joey from harm caused by the other soldiers. But, try as Captain Harkins might, Joey refuses to become friends with him. I learned that anyone living in the times of the Revolutionary War would have had problems with the British. I also learned that no matter what happens never give up. Joey kept going and he never gave up because he wanted to prove to his father he could do it. But Joey finds out no matter how old, wise, or nice someone is, it doesn't mean they're always right.

It was a great historical fiction book of the RevolutionWar.
great boo

Yet another fine work of historical fiction from Myers.
In her latest offering of historical fiction for young people, Myers (Fire in the Hills, Red Dirt Jessie, Spotting the Leopard) once again paints a thought-provoking picture of a long-ago time and place while showing that many things, including relationships with family and friends, and above all, feelings, have not changed very much at all. In The Keeping Room, Myers presents an unforgettable coming of age story set during the American Revolution. Young Joey Kerhsaw longs for his beloved father, who is fighting against the English during the American Revolution. When Colonel Kershaw is captured, and the British under General Cornwallis take over the Kerhsaw home to use as their headquaters, Joey is devestated and is determined to strike back by killing a redcoat; his vengence and hatred toward the British cause one of the few good men serving under Cornwallis to be killed; Joey learns that there are good and bad men on both sides but it is too late: the damage is done. As the book closes in two thought-provoking letters between father and son, the reader realizes that Joey's opinions of slavery and war are forever changed. Joey and his family will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned. ... Read more