Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Totem Rituals and the American Flag (Cambridge Cultural Social Studies)

Book Description

The authors argue that American patriotism is a civil religion organized around a sacred flag, whose followers engage in periodic blood sacrifice of their own children to unify the group. Using an anthropological theory, this groundbreaking book presents and explains the ritual sacrifices and regeneration that constitute American nationalism, the factors making particular elections or wars successful or unsuccessful rituals, the role of the mass media in the process, and the sense of malaise that has pervaded American society during the post-World War II period.

Customer Reviews:

AN INSTANT CLASSIC.......2001-06-25

This is a great work of social science, one of the most significant books of our time. Marvin and Ingle state that "The underlying cost of all society is the violent death of some of its members." In contrast to the view that societal violence is something that occasionally "happens" in spite of our best efforts, the authors argue that violence is INHERENT WITHIN THE VERY NATURE AND STRUCTURE OF "SOCIETY."

Many writers speak about the naturally "aggressive" nature of human beings. Marvin and Ingle understand that violence has a deeper source, namely the societal compulsion to SACRIFICE ITS OWN MEMBERS IN THE NAME OF THE SACRED (NATIONAL) IDEAL. It is this SACRIFICAL meaning of violence that human beings refuse to perceive.

The authors state that "OUR DEEPEST SECRET, THE COLLECTIVE GROUP TABOO, IS KNOWLEDGE THAT SOCIETY DEPENDS ON THE DEATH OF SACRIFICIAL VICTIMS AT THE HANDS OF THE GROUP ITSELF."

Our capacity to understand the nature of human society requires perceiving this relationship between sacred groups and collective violence. This book represents a significant step toward revealing and articulating this relationship.

Book Description

This must-have third revised and newly expanded edition of the only single reference source for information about state symbols features over 300 information updates plus three new chapters, updated license plate illustrations, and a newly formatted design for ease of use. Libraries that hold earlier editions of this work need this edition to keep their information on the states and territories current. With the addition of new chapters on state and territory universities, state and territory governors throughout U.S. history, state professional sports teams, and a complete revision of the chapter on state and territory fairs and festivals, the work now totals 17 chapters of essential information that is a treasure trove for students. This completed redesigned reference work features chapters on state and territory names and nicknames, mottoes, seals, flags, capitals, flowers, trees, birds, songs, legal holidays and observances, license plates, postage stamps, miscellaneous designations, fairs and festivals, universities, governors, professional sports teams, and a bibliography of state and territory histories. The work features full-color illustrations of every state and territory seal, flag, flower, tree, bird, commemorative postage stamp, and license plate (updated for this edition).

Customer Reviews:

For looking up anything state-related!.......2002-03-17

Collaborative written by Benjamin and Barbara Shearer, and now available in an updated and expanded third edition, State Names, Seals, Flags, And Symbols: A Historical Guide is a comprehensive, authoritative, superbly presented reference on everything from American state legal holidays, fairs, and festivals to individual state capitols and mottoes. With a full-color section featuring illustrations of every state's seal, flag, flower, tree, bird, commemorative postage stamp and license plate, State Names, Seals, Flags, And Symbols is a first-rate, highly recommended reference for looking up anything state-related!

Under Two Flags: The American Navy in the Civil War (Bluejacket Books)

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Under Two Flags: The American Navy in the Civil War (Bluejacket Books)
William M. Fowler Jr.
Manufacturer: US Naval Institute Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1557502897

Book Description

Vividly written and well researched by a noted historian of the period, this succinct history credits the Union Navy as an essential element in the northern victory. Neither ponderous nor hagiographic, the work presents characters and events that have been previously neglected and offers candid assessments of officers, men, and material. Originally published in 1990, when it was a Military History Book Club selection, the work is considered a must for Civil War buffs. It is an authoritative and gripping story of the battles waged.

Book Description

This book lays out a strong and simple argument for what's wrong with America, what's right with America, and the importance of faith and family--the glue that holds the country together.

Customer Reviews:

dern good.......2005-04-22

I aprove of this here paper binding cuz it's good for beatin the henderson boy who lives of the other side of our compound when he listen's to that thar hippity-hop music or whatever it is. Chuck Danieels is doing our land a service by standing up to liberals, commies, and the trilatteral commision. I hope is next book of learning squiggles confronts the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. THem shady folks have been reading my mind with them sattelites for tooo long.

How does he keep track of all the people he hates?.......2004-08-26

He seems to have more love for land than the people that live on it. And there doesn't appear to be any logic behind his hate. He just hates people because they are not exactly the same as he.

He likes NASCAR? What a shock!.......2004-04-30

If wrapping yourself in the flag was all it took to be a great patriot, Daniels would win the "Patriot Of The Year" award hands down. Its great we live in country where people can express their views (no matter how extreme) and not have to worry about reprisal. Yet, after reading through this book I get the feeling Charlie Daniels is more interested in making America conform to his arbitrary standards, rather than embracing the concept of a truly free society which our flag represents. I feel Mr. Daniels totally misses the point of the flag by going on a one-sided tirade, dismissing his political opponents as freedom-hating anti-American infidels.

Having said that, there is something for everyone in this book. Obviously conservatives will love it because it echoes everything Rush, Hannity, et al have been screaming about for years. Liberals with a sense of humor will get a big chuckle, while freethinking agnostic moderates such as myself regard this book as proof that neither the left or the right controls the printing press...yet!

Whether you agree with his politics or not, Charlie Daniels is an American, just like Sean Penn. The fact that neither one of them is in jail or dead for expressing their passionate political views is very comforting. Let's just hope neither guy ever becomes president.

If you're a close-minded conservative or an open-minded liberal, then give this book a try. However, if you're an Islamic lesbian Barbara Streisand fan of French heritage, you probably won't enjoy Mr. Daniel's take on "The Flag".

If he cracked open a history book instead of his mouth..........2004-04-17

One sentence from this book will suffice to show the author's grasp of history: "The French are afraid of their own shadow. The only war they ever won was the French Revolution, and that was only because they were fighting themselves."
What about the Hundred Years War, Mr. Daniels? What about the Thirty Years War? Not a resounding triumph, but settled on French terms. What about World War I? Yes, they took a lot of unnecessary casualties in that war. Dirty little secret, Mr. Daniels: so did we.
You wanna dwell on World War II? Sure, the French got their butts whipped. They still did much better than we would have done, had we had to fight Hitler on land in 1940.
It's deeply ironic that Daniels has morphed into the kind of back country ignoramus that he satirized in "The Ballad of the Uneasy Rider."

More than a singer a man of common sense.......2004-04-15

Patriotism is great love for your country and no one has exemplified this more than Charlie Daniels. With songs like "In America" and now with this book Charlie Daniels is a true American and his book is one of the best I have read in quite some time.

Ain't No Rag is more than a simple tale of how this great nation has become and what freedom means and what it costs. Ain't No Rag is the personification of what every American should strive for.

Daniels pulls no punches and stops the "political correctness" in every page of every chapter. Daniels takes on the "Elite Left" wing, Hollywood, and all those who bash the president. Daniels gives praise to those who deserve it and respect to those who serve this country.

If you want a good old fashion helping of common sense and sensibility than get a hold of this book quickly. Regardless if political persuasion, with an open mind everyone should find this interesting if not enlightening.

Average customer rating:

Such Pretty Pictures of Our Flag.

America, America ...

A true coffee table book

Stunning, inspiring, and grand...

"Long May It Wave"

Long May She Wave: A Graphic History of the American Flag
Kit Hinrichs , and Delphine Hirasuna
Manufacturer: Ten Speed Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Flag: An American Biography

American Flags: Designs for a Young Nation

Stars and Stripes: Patriotic Motifs in American Folk Art

Stars and Stripes: The Story of the American Flag

Drawing on America's Past: Folk Art, Modernism, and the Index of American Design

ASIN: 1580082408

Book Description

The Revolutionary Congress resolved in 1777 that "the flag of the United States be 13 stripes, alternate red and white, that the Union be 13 white stars in a blue field representing a new constellation." Since that time, the American flag has been raised high in wartime triumph and peacetime celebration; burned in fervent protest; sewn lovingly onto quilts, caps, pillows, and bags; appropriated by the commercial sphere to sell goods as varied as cigars, designer clothing, and rock-and-roll albums; and faithfully honored every 4th of July to celebrate America's independence. Far from being a static symbol, though, the flag has been subjected to countless graphic interpretations over its 223-year history, each version owing more to the personality of the maker than to established formal conventions. And nowhere are these continual changes better viewed than in the collection of over 3,000 Stars and Stripes artifacts amassed by graphic designer Kit Hinrichs, partner in the international design consultancy Pentagram. On exhibit in 2000 at the American Institute of Graphic Arts in New York and at the San Jose Museum of Art, Hinrichs's collection was hailed as a marvel of folk history and a time capsule of cultural commentary. The collection ranges from Civil War-era banners and Native American braided moccasins to an early 20th-century "friendship" kimono and original flag art by several of world's leading designers. In its deluxe format and over 500 illustrations, LONG MAY SHE WAVE gives wide berth to the flag in all its manifestations, and the result is a stunning visual history of America's most treasured symbol.

Customer Reviews:

Such Pretty Pictures of Our Flag........2005-08-20

With the 9/11 display at the local history center, I took pictures of the tattered flag and other quilts and such there and at the Dogwood Festival quilt shows. Always, the flag is a major item in the photography exhibit.

In Tennessee, we've had some stubborn retaliations about the original flag. According to this book, the first flag was the one used in the Civil War (which the KKK) adopted, the Confederate fighting flag. I had read and related how Betsy Ross had not designed the American Stars and Stripes but merely sewed it for her friend, George Washington. It seems that many primary school teachers were instructing the young minds that Betsy Ross had indeed made it from her own design. She used her own material, true, as she was a seamstress and used what she had on hand with this request for a national flag with no preparation.

Thank God for the South being first again! Even after the American Revolution in which we were granted our freedom from the British, we continued to use the (red,white&blue) color combination (Spain has yellow and red) as no one was in a hurry to be original. They came up with something in 1777, a year after the Constitution was signed in Philadelphia.

A nearby high school has had their Rebel flag taken from them after all of the heritage and history of the school. In Nashville, a crude silver & gold statute of Nathan Bedford Forrest, as designed and welded by a local attorney, was installed out by I65 with several Rebel flags in a semi-circle. Much was made of this desecreation to a united nation, and they were told to remove them promptly. Years later, they are still in place where they can be seen by all of the travelers going South of Nashville and the locals as they use the Interstate to work.

A flag is a flag is a flag. In the review I did about Civil War poems and songs, there were some about the Stars & Stripes as important to all of the soldiers. In Knoxville, the families were split and all I knew about this dat-blame war was that it was 'brother against brother.' That's how it was in this town and the counties surrounding the Smoky Mountains as shown so clearly in the movie, 'Cold Mountain.'

We paid for a U. S. flag which had hung over the Capital building in Washington, D.C. at the urging of Robin Beard, later an ambassador to (?) He was our district representative and I had chased him down the halls with my red, white and blue hat flapping.

The flag is a symbol of this country and decorates the caskets of all veterans. It is a venerable treasure, but I let my brother take the one off my dad's, as he already had the one from his son's coffin earlier. Neither died in any war, but had been a member of the armed forces of this country. The flag is for all of us to revere and every family should own one. I know someone who said he would hang the Confederate flag out of his office window if he could get away with it, and yet his family were for the North. He is not a Rebel, nor ever would be, so I was proud of his claims, which proved to be false. He just likes to write controversial things to create some kind of action. This is such a boring, old town. The flag perks up any rally, picnic or gathering (political or non-political). Everyone in America loves that glorious old flag which stands for freedom.

America, America ..........2002-08-06

Beautiful book of American flag items from long ago to today. What a wonderful collection and interesting items. I love just looking and looking.

A true coffee table book.......2001-11-10

This book is fascinating. It is one you can pick up and browse a bit and become lost in the art and imagery of an icon that is so familiar we rarely take a good look at it. By sharing his collection with us, Mr. Hinrichs takes us beyond the simple stars and stripes to a visual history of our country.

Anyone familiar with graphic design should recognize Mr. Hinrichs' work. The overall presentation of the piece is incredible. I call it "the true coffee table book" because I think it is one can be opened and looked at and enjoyed a few pages at a time, and isn't that the purpose of a coffee table book?

The timing of the work is fascinating. Although initially published this spring, it is extremely appropriate for the new wave of patriotism that has swept this country since the tragic events in September.

Stunning, inspiring, and grand..........2001-09-28

I stumbled on this title when it appeared as the centerpiece to a local store display of flag books that went up in the wake of September 11th. The stunning production and the breadth of material represented provide a truly unique insight into the power of the American flag as a symbol (of freedom, to be sure, but also as a symbol of revolution, grief, and pride). If you want the full impact of the flag's place in our history, as a graphic element that appears in everything from memorials to toys to pop art to protest banners (and more), this is the book. The text is limited but insightful, just enough to complement the tremendous variety of objects from the author's personal collection. I never failed to find new wonders on each page (including manifestations of the flag I would never have imagined), and in sum the book also amounts to a testament to American ingenuity. There's nothing else like it.

"Long May It Wave".......2001-07-17

It is hard to see why the authors of "Long May She Wave" chose to burden it with a title that not only parades a demeaning stereotype misrepresenting objects as female, but rudely misquotes the words of our national anthem to do so. A check of the Smithsonian Institution's excellent web page on the history of the Star Spangled Banner and the drafting and publication of the National Anthem confirms that no one associated with the flag or the anthem ever referred to it as "she" as this book title so insultingly does. In documents from those patriots who made the famous banner, used it in battle, preserved it for posterity, and memorialized it in the inspiring poem that became our national anthem, the flag is sensibly termed it, not the coy and historically false "she" invented by the authors of this book. Since the the title signalled the authors' disregard for historical accuracy, I left it on the display shelf unopened.

William Faulkner: Novels 1926-1929: Soldiers' Pay / Mosquitoes / Flags in the Dust / The Sound and the Fury (Library of America)

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Soldier's Pay best book I've read so far in LOA series
for the sound and the fury
Beautiful edition of Faulkner's first four novels including the masterpiece "The Sound and the Fury"
All of Faulkner's novels now available in exquisite Lib/America eds!
The Library of America's exquisite hardcover collection of four of William Faulkner's classic literary works

William Faulkner: Novels 1926-1929: Soldiers' Pay / Mosquitoes / Flags in the Dust / The Sound and the Fury (Library of America)
William Faulkner
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1931082898

Book Description

The Library of America edition of the novels of William Faulkner culminates with this volume presenting his first four, each newly edited, and, in many cases, restored with passages that were altered or (in the case of Mosquitoes) expurgated by the original publishers. This is Faulkner as he was meant to be read.

In these four novels we can track Faulkner's extraordinary evolution as, over the course of a few years, he discovers and masters the mode and matter of his greatest works. Soldiers' Pay (1926) expresses the disillusionment provoked by World War I through its account of the postwar experiences of homecoming soldiers, including a severely wounded R.A.F. pilot, in a style of restless experimentation. In Mosquitoes (1927), a raucous satire of artistic poseurs, many of them modeled after acquaintances of Faulkner in New Orleans, he continues to try out a range of stylistic approaches as he chronicles an ill-fated cruise on Lake Pontchartrain.

With the sprawling Flags in the Dust (published in truncated form in 1929 as Sartoris), Faulkner began his exploration of the mythical region of Mississippi that was to provide the setting for most of his subsequent fiction. Drawing on family history from the Civil War and after, and establishing many characters who recur in his later books, Flags in the Dust marks the crucial turning point in Faulkner's evolution as a novelist.

The volume concludes with Faulkner's masterpiece, The Sound and the Fury (1929). This multilayered telling of the decline of the Compson clan over three generations, with its complex mix of narrative voices and its poignant sense of isolation and suffering within a family, is one of the most stunningly original American novels.

The editors of this volume are Joseph Blotner and Noel Polk. Joseph Blotner, who wrote the notes, is professor of English emeritus at the University of Michigan. Biographer of William Faulkner and Robert Penn Warren, he is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and the French Legion of Honor. Noel Polk is professor of English at Mississippi State University and editor of The Mississippi Quarterly. He has edited the texts in all five volumes of William Faulkner's novels for The Library of America.

In his first four novels, William Faulkner moved beyond early experiments to discover the themes and style of his maturity. With Soldiers' Pay, a sardonic distillation of postwar disillusionment, and Mosquitoes, a freewheeling roman à clef satirizing the writers and artists of his New Orleans milieu, Faulkner served his restless apprenticeship as a writer of fiction before settling in Flags in the Dust (first published in truncated form as Sartoris) on the material that would chiefly engage him: a mythic Mississippi region dense with ancestral memories and echoes of the Civil War. The volume concludes with what many consider Faulkner's greatest work, The Sound and the Fury, a novel of family torment whose audacities of form and fearless explorations of the inner life continue to astonish. The newly edited texts in this volume include passages altered or in some cases expurgated by the original publishers.

Customer Reviews:

Soldier's Pay best book I've read so far in LOA series.......2007-08-29

Back a few years ago, I bought the entire series of Library of America books, some 173 books, each with as many as 1,600 small-print pages. Typically, each volume contains several books (say novels) by an author.

The quality of the writing they have selected is marvelous. There are very few "dogs". Below are my ratings of all the stuff I've read so far (a miniscule fraction of the total library), along with, of course, my completely nonsensical (often sports or pop culture) author nicknames.

And they keep sending me new books faster than I can read the existing ones...

Practically all that I've read ranges from good to fantastic, and I stop reading ones I don't like, so almost all of the books cited below are worthy by my standards. No stars means good, * means especially good, ** means great, and I think I also gave one book (Soldier's Pay by Faulkner) ***. The numbers are the series # of the book out of the 173 published so far.

A book of Henry James' fiction (not in the LOA series) that I read about 3 years ago got me started on this quest, a supplement to my quest of playing the entire history of baseball via APBA.

1. Herman "Franks" Melville: Typee* ("Idyllic") 316 pps
1. Herman "Franks" Melville: Omoo ("Picks up where Typee left off") 330 pps

2. Nathaniel "Nate the Skate" Hawthorne: Assorted Stories ("Some hard to follow") 301 pps

4. Harriet "and Ozzy" Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin** ("Uncle Tom is no 'Uncle Tom'") 520 pps

5. Mark "Shania" Twain: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer* ("Hilarious moments for a different kind of Tom") 216 pps

10. Nathaniel "Nate the Skate" Hawthorne: Fanshawe* ("Young scholar, romance, skullduggery") 114 pps

6. Jack "Gene" London: The Call of the Wild ("Savage") 86 pps
6. Jack "Gene" London: White Fang* ("Roger Vick-type dog-fighting
action") 198 pps

8. William Dean "Bailey" Howells: A Foregone Conclusion* ("Gripping, intricate romance") 172 pps
8. William Dean "Bailey" Howells: A Modern Instance ("Marriage gone awry in repressed times") 418 pps

11. Francis "Shibe" Parkman: Pioneers of France in the New World** ("What it was REALLY like") 330 pps
11. Francis "Shibe" Parkman: The Jesuits in North America* ("More of these accurate depictions") 382 pps

14. Henry "Don" Adams: Democracy** ("Real politics 1800's-style")

16. Washington "Dr. J" Irving: Early writings ("Boring at times") 87 pps

18. Stephen "Whooping" Crane: Maggie: A Girl of the Streets ("Fascinating but grim") 74 pps
18. Stephen "Whooping" Crane: The Red Badge of Courage* ("True face of war") 134 pps

19. Edgar "Teletubbie" Poe: Assorted Stories ("Truly weird") 188 pps

29. Henry "Edgeron" James: Washington Square* ("Plain woman trapped") 190 pps

30. Edith Wharton "School": The House of Mirth* ("Reese Witherspoon plays role in movie") 348 pps

33. Frank "Chuck" Norris: Vandover and the Brute ("Wolf-man emerges") 260 pps
33. Frank "Chuck" Norris: McTeague** ("Greed prevails") 312 pps

35. Willa "Thrilla" Cather: Assorted stories ("Oblique") 76 pps

36. Theodore "Early" Dreiser: Sister Carrie** ("Young lives go opposite directions") 456 pps

37. Benjamin "Joe" Franklin Assorted Writings* ("Brilliant satire") 87 pps

39. Flannery "Father" O'Connor: Wise Blood ("Liked better at 25") 132 pps

55. Richard "Gary" Wright: Lawd Today!** ("Unforgettable humor, violence") 220 pps

59. Sinclair "Jerry" Lewis: Main Street* ("Small-town USA") 486 pps

69. "Ornery" Sarah Orne Jewett: Deephaven* ("Atmospheric")

72. John "Franken" Steinbeck: The Pastures of Heaven** ("Modern Gothic") 170 pps

74. Zora Neale "Zorro" Hurston: Jonah's Gourd Vine ("Black preacher")

97. James "I think I'm going" Baldwin: Go Tell it on the Mountain ("Conversion experience") 216 pps

101. Eudora "The Explorer" Welty: The Robber Bridegroom ("Ridiculous fairy tale") 88 pps

103. Brockden "Les" Brown: Wieland* ("Early Gothic chills") 228 pps

111. Henry "Etta" James: Assorted Stories 1864-74** ("Consistently compelling") 430 pps

117. F. Scott "Ella" Fitzgerald: This Side of Paradise* ("Ultimately sublime") 252 pps

126. Dawn "Boog" Powell: Dance Night* ("Small-town romance in 1920's") 204 pps

134. Paul "Super" Bowles: The Sheltering Sky* ("Sophisticates lost in Africa") 252 pps

148. James T. "Turk" Farrell: Young Lonigan* ("Coming of age in tough streets") 176 pps

164. William Faulkner "Pontiac, Buick, GMC Trucks": Soldier's
Pay*** ("Unique, gripping") 256 pps
164. William Faulkner "Pontiac, Buick, GMC Trucks": Mosquitos** ("Indescribable romp") 284 pps
164. William Faulkner "Pontiac, Buick, GMC Trucks": Flags in the Dust ("Doomed family") 336 pps
164. William Faulkner "Pontiac, Buick, GMC Trucks": The Sound and the Fury ("Bewildering") 268 pps

for the sound and the fury .......2006-11-04

The Sound and the Fury is such a wonder of book, that I give this publication 5 stars just for providing us, finally with this beautiful edition. I haven't read the first three of these books, because they seem to be by an author who hasn't yet found his voice. Just to throw this out there, but I'd love to have his complete short stories (with notes) in this format. Don't you agree, Faulkner lovers?

Beautiful edition of Faulkner's first four novels including the masterpiece "The Sound and the Fury".......2006-08-30

We all owe the wonderful Library of America a great deal for publishing the volumes of William Faulkner's complete novels. It has taken more than twenty years to bring them out and now concludes with his first four novels. These were published from 1926 until 1929. This volume includes "Soldier's Pay", "Mosquitoes", "Flags in the Dust", and "The Sound and the Fury".

"Soldier's Pay" is a first novel and shows it. While it has some fine moments and shows Faulkner's style of presenting "reality" without context and focusing on emotional interiors and the aspects of life that we tend to hide even from ourselves, it is not a great work. However, it is still worth reading. The central figure is a disfigured and dying pilot brought home from the war by strangers into a complex family dynamic that is made much worse because the pilot was thought dead, but is now alive and horribly disabled.

I personally found "Mosquitoes" to be all but unreadable. It is too self-indulgent with a delight in talking about intimate things as if that were profound. No thanks.

"Flags in the Dust" was published in part as "Sartoris" in the late twenties. In 1973, Random House published the complete text as far as it could be restored. It reads much differently than his first two novels and it is here that the voice starts sounding like a mature and confident Faulkner. It concerns multiple generations that fester into ruin and misery of all kinds that seem to include perverse sexual relations and alcoholism. Yes, there is also racism in the books, but the books are not racist because the attitudes of the characters are consistent with their times and do not include any sympathy from Faulkner that I can find. And his is a worldwith living memories of the tragic Southern experience of the Civil War and the shock and loss of the Great War (WWI)for the living generation.

The volume ends with Faulner's first clear masterpiece, "The Sound and the Fury". While all Faulkner's prose is not easy to read and requires constant attention and often some re-reading, this book also has multiple unannounced perspectives and shifts in narrator. At the end of the book is an appendix that was first written by Faulkner for "The Portable Faulkner" edited by Matthew Cowley in 1946. You might want to read this first if you want to understand the story more clearly the first time through. However, it could be argued that you shouldn't because the confusion and disorientation is part of the reading experience that author wants you to have as you work through his story.

It is clear to me that Faulkner is a great master of prose and that his works are great treasures in the English language. However, his ethos is quite foreign to me. I do not find great value in reading about lives of misery, incest, adultery, perversion, ruin, and loss. Is that really all there is to human life? Not in my more than fifty years of experience. And since Faulkner was a young man when he wrote these works, what did he really know about life and what was just rumor and hearsay?

Still, the use of language is powerful and unique. Attempts have been made to copy aspects of his style, but none can come closer than mannerisms. Faulkner's was a genius that not only included his words, but in the way he conveyed reality. We don't experience our lives with chapter headings or with moments clearly delineated as part of this or that. We construct our filing system for events in retrospect. So, Faulkner presents us his stories in ways that require us to ask ourselves what is happening, what just happened, did anything happen? Where does this go? Who is this? Why the different names for the same people? Why the same names for different people? It is working through these and every other question that occurs to you that you come to an understanding of the work. And your understanding will almost certainly be personal and different from almost everyone else.

This is a fine volume with reliable texts for these important works, a chronology of Faulkner's life, notes on the texts, and a beautiful binding with materials and type that add to the quality of the reading experience.

All of Faulkner's novels now available in exquisite Lib/America eds!.......2006-04-15

Although chronologicallly the four novels in this volume (which includes Faulkner's masterpiece The Sound and the Fury) are Faulkner's first, this is the last volume of his novels to come off the presses of the Library of America. This is a landmark event in the world of Belles Lettres, not just American literature! The first volume (Novels 1930-35) was published in 1985, making the publication of the definitive texts of the novels of William Faulkner a 21-year enterprise. Kudos to Library of America and editors Noel Polk and Joseph Blotner.

For those who haven't heard of them, the Library of America (LOA) is a non-profit venture with the mission of publishing the definitive texts of the best of American literature in uniform clothbound editions designed to last. (Google them to find out more about their mission and for a complete list of titles in print and forthcoming.) But these are not just handsome books or cheesy Franklin Mint style collectables. Establishing the best texts for the works selected for the series is a difficult and tricky enterprise, and the most qualified scholars are sought to take on the series' diverse authors. For Faulkner this editorial task fell to two of the most prominent Faulkner scholars around, Joseph Blotner (also his biographer) and Noel Polk. LOA does not clutter up its pages with footnotes and does not commission literary introductions for its volumes, so the casual reader may be unaware of the extensive amount of scholarship that goes on "behind the scenes." As noted in brief "Notes on the Text" to the Novels 1926-1929, "By preserving Faulkner's spelling, punctuation, and wording, even when inconsistent or irregular, the Polk texts strive to be as faithful to Faulkner's usage as surviving evidence permits. In this volume, the reader has the results of the most detailed scholarly efforts thus far made to establish the texts of Soldier's Pay, Mosquitoes, Flags in the Dust, and The Sound and the Fury" (p. 1175).

Since the publisher's own description of this volume here on Amazon.com doesn't point this out, it should be noted that the version of The Sound and the Fury published by LOA includes the "Appendix (Compson: 1699-1945)" which does not exist in all editions of the novel still in print. Although this Appendix was first published in 1945 as part of The Portable Faulkner (16 years after the novel itself was published), I always found it perverse and annoying that it was excluded from all but the Modern Library edition of the novel. (After all, if readers want the experience of reading the novel in the pristine form of the 1929 first edition, all they have to do is ignore the Appendix.)

I don't know what else, if anything, of Faulkner's output LOA intends to publish going forward (short stories, screenplays, speeches, letters, poetry?), but these five volumes of novels contain (arguably?) the best works of American fiction by any author. Each volume is a handy size (though some contain four novels, they are all the size of one of Faulkner's novels as orinally published), and set in large and readable type. Buy them all and you can own all of Faulkner's best work without giving up three bookshelves to store them!

The Library of America's exquisite hardcover collection of four of William Faulkner's classic literary works.......2006-04-08

Faulkner Novels 1926-1929 is The Library of America's exquisite hardcover collection of four of William Faulkner's classic literary works: "Soldier's Pay", "Mosquitoes", "Flags in the Dust", and "The Sound and the Fury". Like all volumes in this publisher's authoritative texts of literary classics, Faulkner Novels 1926-1929 is a compact hardbound volume with a ribbon for easy bookmarking sewn into the spine. A chronology and sections of notes on the text as well as Faulkner's life round out this definitive "must-have" edition, ideal for public and college libraries as well as private reading shelves.

Colors and Blood: Flag Passions of the Confederate South

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A brilliant work by a sensational historian

Colors and Blood: Flag Passions of the Confederate South
Robert E. Bonner
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 069111949X

Book Description

As rancorous debates over Confederate symbols continue, Robert Bonner explores how the rebel flag gained its enormous power to inspire and repel. In the process, he shows how the Confederacy sustained itself for as long as it did by cultivating the allegiances of countless ordinary citizens. Bonner also comments more broadly on flag passions--those intense emotional reactions to waving pieces of cloth that inflame patriots to kill and die.

Colors and Blood depicts a pervasive flag culture that set the emotional tone of the Civil War in the Union as well as the Confederacy. Northerners and southerners alike devoted incredible energy to flags, but the Confederate project was unique in creating a set of national symbols from scratch. In describing the activities of white southerners who designed, sewed, celebrated, sang about, and bled for their new country's most visible symbols, the book charts the emergence of Confederate nationalism. Theatrical flag performances that cast secession in a melodramatic mode both amplified and contained patriotic emotions, contributing to a flag-centered popular patriotism that motivated true believers to defy and sacrifice. This wartime flag culture nourished Confederate nationalism for four years, but flags' martial associations ultimately eclipsed their expression of political independence. After 1865, conquered banners evoked valor and heroism while obscuring the ideology of a slaveholders' rebellion, and white southerners recast the totems of Confederate nationalism as relics of the Lost Cause.

At the heart of this story is the tremendous capacity of bloodshed to infuse symbols with emotional power. Confederate flag culture, black southerners' charged relationship to the Stars and Stripes, contemporary efforts to banish the Southern Cross, and arguments over burning the Star Spangled Banner have this in common: all demonstrate Americans' passionate relationship with symbols that have been imaginatively soaked in blood.

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A brilliant work by a sensational historian.......2002-10-01

Don't be fooled by all those boring end notes at the back of the book. Colors & Blood is a real page turner. Sure it's also a profound and thought-provoking meditation on the meaning of symbols in the development of a nation's conscience. But it also tells a great story, a story that should be handed down from generation to generation. Look no further for the perfect gift for your dad the Civil War buff, your mom the cook book buff, or your neice, nephew, aunt, uncle, son, daughter, grandparent or in-laws. Colors & Blood has something for everyone. Plus the photo of the author on the dust jacket is pretty cute.

Planting the American Flag: Twelve Men Who Expanded the United States Overseas

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Planting the American Flag: Twelve Men Who Expanded the United States Overseas
Peter C. Stuart
Manufacturer: McFarland & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0786429836
Release Date: 2007-02-09

Product Description

A few sea captains, a couple of college professors, a battle-hardened general, a senator, a congressman, and a knavish adventurer: What could such men have in common? In addition to an eye upon the broader world and a streak of independence, each had a vision of the United States as a model sovereign. All were part of an American effort to create an overseas empire--one that would avoid the mistakes of the European powers and redefine the face of imperialism. Beginning with the 1839 voyage of Captain Charles Wilkes that opened American relations with Samoa, here are biographies of 12 men instrumental in the incorporation of America's five island dependencies. Besides Wilkes, it covers Richard W. Meade III, who negotiated a treaty with Samoa; Albert B. Steinberger, premier of Samoa; Henry Glass, who took Guam for America; Nelson A. Miles, who led the 1898 conquest of Puerto Rico; B. F. Tilley, first governor of American Samoa; Joseph B. Foraker, first congressional overseer of the possessions; William A. Jones, anti-imperialist and reformer; Frank McIntyre, military administrator of America's holdings; Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., governor of Puerto Rico; Paul M. Pearson, first civilian governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands; and Anthony M. Solomon, who inaugurated the acquisition of the Northern Mariana Islands in 1963.

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Mary Emmerling's American Country Flags
Mary Emmerling
Manufacturer: Clarkson Potter
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0517583666
Release Date: 1991-10-08

Book Description

Mary Emmerling presents a fun, moving, joyous, and colorful celebration of the symbol that represents America at its best. In a style both charming and unabashedly patriotic, Mary shows how the Stars and Stripes turns up on garden fences, Navajo rugs, quilts, pottery, pillows, and other pieces of authentic Americana. Full-color photographs.

Flags of the American Civil War (3): State & Volunteer (Men-at-Arms)

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Flags of the American Civil War (3): State & Volunteer (Men-at-Arms)
Philip Katcher
Manufacturer: Osprey Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1855323176
Release Date: 1993-11-25

Book Description

Most Civil War soldiers, although they served in a national Union or Confederate Army, fought under a state designation and often felt that they were representing their state as much as their country. So it was only natural that many carried state flags, or national flags with state seals and mottos, as their regimental colours. Complemented by many photographs and illustrations, incuding eight full page colour plates by Rick Scollins and Gerry Embleton, Philip Katcher's engaging and informative text explores the flags of the State and Volunteer troops of the American Civil War.

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