North Carolina Through Four Centuries

by William S. Powell

Overview

This successor to the classic Lefler-Newsome North Carolina: The History of a Southern State, published in 1954, presents a fresh survey history that includes the contemporary scene. Drawing upon recent scholarship, the advice of specialists, and his own knowledge, Powell has created a splendid narrative that makes North Carolina history accessible to both students and general readers. For years to come, this will be the standard college text and an essential reference for home and office.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807898987
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	01/20/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	670
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

William S. Powell is professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His many books include North Carolina through Four Centuries, which won the 1989 Mayflower Cup for Nonfiction.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

Preface

1. Natural Features and Native Peoples
2. Exploration and Early Settlement
3. A Proprietary Colony, 1663-1729
4. Royal Government
5. Colonial Society and Culture, 1729-1776
6. Colonial Economy: Agriculture, Trade, and Communication
7. Sectional Controversies in the Colony
8. A Decade of Dispute
9. Attaining Independence
10. A Free State
11. A Jeffersonian Republic
12. A State Asleep
13. The Vision of Archibald D. Murphey
14. The Constitutional Convention of 1835
15. The Whig Era, 1835-1850
16. A Change in Midstream
17. The Economy and Antebellum Society
18. The Coming of the Civil War
19. The Civil War
20. A State Made New
21. A Fresh Start
22. A Time of Readjustment
23. Great Anticipations for the Twentieth Century
24. Down But Not Out: The State Survives the Great Depression
25. New Points to Ponder in a Restless World
26. A New Face for the State
27. The State Looks to the Future

Appendixes

Further Reading

Index

Editorial Reviews

Designed as a textbook for use in North Carolina history classes, this is a useful one-volume history of the state. But there are flaws. The style is standard textbook English, making for rather dull reading. Arts and literature receive only about three pages of text, leaving the impression the state has been a vast cultural wasteland for 400 years. The emphasis is on the positive, e.g., lynching is dismissed as ``an unfortunate blot on the record of North Carolina.'' Though nothing new is added to the interpretation of the state's history, this book will no doubt become the standard state history due to its attempted comprehensiveness. Certainly no North Carolina library will wish to be without a copy.-- Melvin L. Grotberg, Hobbs P.L., N.M.

Library Journal