In their book, Reconstruction beyond 150: Reassessing the New Birth of Freedom, Vernon Burton and Brent Morris have brought together the best new scholarship, synthesizing social, political, economic, and cultural approaches to understanding a crucial period in our country’s history. They talk with us about how the their project came about, and about how many "reconstructions" our country has seen since the Civil War ..read more

This week, we will be talking with Dr. Judith Bainbridge about her book, A Short History of Greenville (2024, USC Press). The book is a concise and engaging history that traces Greenville, SC's development from backcountry settlement to one of America's best small citiesIn our conversation with Judith we will concentrate the growth Greenville's textile industry and its demise, the economic decline of the city, and its rebirth as a haven for business and tourism in the twenty-first century ..read more

In his new book, The Miraculous Art of Jazz, Benjamin Franklin V, Distinguished Professor of English, Emeritus, at the University of South Carolina, has gathered reviews of hundreds of recordings written over his 40-year career as a jazz writer.In our conversation his love for jazz and blues shines through. And the reviews he has collected in his book are as vital and important as ever – for listeners new to Jazz as well as long-time listeners who want to take a deeper dive into the music ..read more

This week, we will be talking with J. Drew Lanham, about his new book, Joy Is the Justice We Give Ourselves (2024, Hub City Press). The book is a sensuous collection of Drew's signature mix of poetry and prose, a lush journey into wildness and Black beingDrew Lanham notices nature through seasonal shifts, societal unrest, and deeply personal reflection and traces a path from bitter history to present predicaments, mining along the way the deep connection to ancestors through the living world ..read more

This week on the Journal we will be talking with Alan Pell Crawford about his book, This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America's Revolutionary War in the South (2024, Alfred A. Knopf). In his book Alan tells the story of three-plus years in the Revolutionary war, and of the fierce battles fought in the South that made up the central theater of military operations in the latter years of the War. And it was in these bloody battles that the British were, in essence, vanquished ..read more

"Ichnography of Charleston, South Carolina"(Library of Congress) For centuries residents of Charleston, SC, have made many attempts, both public and private, to manipulate the landscape of the low-lying peninsula on which Charleston sits, surrounded by wetlands, to maximize drainage, and thus buildable land and to facilitate sanitation. In her book, Lowcountry at High Tide: A History of Flooding, Drainage, and Reclamation in Charleston, South Carolina (2020, USC Press), Christina Rae Butler uses three hundred years of archival records to show not only the alterations to the landscape past and ..read more

One of the Davis brothers who operated the Davis Battery Electric company in Greenville, 1930. <br/><br/><br/>(Courtesy of Bobbie Jean Rovner, Greenville) This week we will be talking with Diane Vecchio about her book, Peddlers, Merchants, and Manufacturers: How Jewish Entrepreneurs Built Economy and Community in Upcountry South Carolina (2024, USC Press). In the book, Diane examines the diverse economic experiences of Jews who settled in Upcountry (now called Upstate) South Carolina. Like other parts of the so-called New South, the Upcountry was a center of textile manufactu ..read more

In 1976, the Cowpens, SC, Bicentennial Committee decided that the next town festival would be called the Mighty Moo Festival in honor of former crewmen of the USS Cowpens WWII aircraft carrier. Over the years since, many veterans who served on the ship during the war have attended the festival along with their families. Today, the town continues to celebrate the service of the carrier each father's day. In his book, The Mighty Moo: The USS Cowpens and Her Epic World War II Journey from Jinx Ship to the Navy’s First Carrier into Tokyo Bay, Nathan Canestaro tells the story of the ship and its u ..read more

Two of four slave cabins restored at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens in Charleston. May 17, 2023(Victoria Hansen / South Carolina Public Radio) This week we're talking with Joseph McGill and Herb Frazier, authors of Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery. Since founding the Slave Dwelling Project in 2010, Joseph McGill has been spending the night in slave dwellings throughout the South, but also the North and the West, where people are often surprised to learn that such structures exist. Events and gatherings arranged around these overnight stays have provided a ..read more

Bombardment of Fort Sumter(Artist unknown / From the collections of Fort Sumter Fort Moultrie National Historical Park) This week we'll be talking with Richard Hatcher, author of the book, Thunder in the Harbor: Fort Sumter and the Civil War. Construction of Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor began after British forces captured and occupied Washington during the War of 1812 via a naval attack. The fort was still incomplete in 1861 when the Battle of Fort Sumter occurred, sparking the American Civil War. In writing Thunder in the Harbor, Rick Hatcher conducted the first modern study to document t ..read more