Customer Reviews

Encyclopedia of North Carolina

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I got the Encyclopedia of NC as a gift for my Dad. I was able to browse through it before I gave it to him. The variety of entries on North Carolina is exhaustive (the subject "privies" is included). Most entries are concise but others longer. My dad keeps it by his easy chair and reads it regularly. I can easily say it is the best gift I have given him in his 85 years. I think it belongs in at least every native North Carolinian's home.

What a wonderful book...We can`t put it in the bookcase...it stays on the table, and everyone that walks in the room picks it up.

This book has lots of wonderful information about the Tar Heel State. I recommend the book to newcomers to our state as well as to NC natives. This would be a great resource for students in the fourth grade to use.

A great book by a great historian. Not only is this an essential reference guide to all things in North Carolina, but it represents a culmination Professor Powell's career, one of North Carolina's greatest treasures. I purchased it not only because I wanted it but also as a means of honoring Professor Powell. In regard to the comment about the lack of biographies in this book, I assume that comment was made in jest. But for those not familiar with Professor Powell's previous works, he previously published (in the late 1970's and 1980's) a six volume "Dictionary of North Carolina Biographies."

Absolutely marvelous long-over-due book that gives you NC at a glance!

I am very pleased with this book. I use it quite often to read about N.C. things and places that I've always been curious about, but wasn't quite sure where to look. This book solves that problem, and having watched several interviews with Professor Powell on public television, I can obviously tell that this work is his magnum opus. It was lovingly compiled with supurb scholarly detail. For a one volume "encyclopedia," it is great. Of course its not going to be comprehensive enough for critics (despite 1237 pages), but that someone took the time to compile something like this is an achievement in and of itself. If you want to learn more about N.C. history, this is the book for you. I might add that I know the other compiler/editor, Mr. Jay Mazzocchi, and he too is a first rate mind like Prof. Powell. I recieved this book as a Christmas gift last year from he and his daughter whom I taught in an A.P. U.S. History class. I feel not only honored to have a signed copy of an outstanding N.C. history text, but have truly used it and learned new and exciting things about my home state that I did not know before.

Dr. William Powell, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina, has published this huge book which contains everything you may ever wish to know about the history of North Carolina. It is well written and easy to use.

I received this book for Christmas from my best friend. I have waited a long time for William Powell to complete his final touches on this book, and publish it.

Several thousand articles are well written and available at your fingertips. All subjects are placed in alphabetical order. The book is heavy and bulky, but easy to navigate. The book contains important information about the historical events of our great state of North Carolina.

[...]

Grab a glass of sweet tea, a fried chicken leg,and two pieces of pecan pie. Make time to read and share portions of this book with your children. Teach them how important it is to learn your state's history. Share the facts and events that not only made North Carolina great, but how North Carolina shaped the history and future of the United States of America.

Encyclopedic guides to states, cities and regions are coming hot off the presses now. I was anxiously awaiting this one, but I've come away slightly disappointed. Most obvious to me at first are the serious omissions in the book: There are absolutely ZERO biographical articles in here. What happened there? There's an article for every imaginable institution of higher learning, including many long extinct, but not an entry for James K. Polk, William Tryon, James Iredell, William Styron, James Duke, Elizabeth Dole, Andy Griffith, Michael Jordan, Jesse Jackson, James Taylor, Tori Amos or Jessie Helms. Not all North Carolina natives, mind you, but all with profound impacts on the state's history. Some general entries (such as "Mealtimes") aren't immediately applicable to North Carolina at all, but are linked by a contrived peculiarity, as could be done for many other states in the country. Otherwise, this book is a nice compilation of popular topics related to North Carolina.

This book is certainly impressive in scope and not a failure by any means, but incomplete enough to justify a much improved second edition. I know that Dr. Powell is a highly respected and beloved historian in North Carolina, and I'm not trying to diminish his accomplishment. I just think he should add a good biographer to his staff.

Dare I suggest that the Encyclopedia of "Another" Carolina is a better book? Not the content, per se, but the format and editing of that book set the standard for these large volumes. Have a look.