Customer Reviews

The South Carolina Encyclopedia

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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These types of books are becoming popular. You can buy them for quite a few cities, states and regions now: Chicago, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Appalachia, etc... As you might expect, any attempt to cram hundreds of years of history, millions of diverse people and hundreds of places into a thousand pages or so needs to be appreciated for breadth rather than depth. Don't come here looking for an architectural survey of the state, or a penetrating analysis of slavery versus states' rights, or a profound discussion of the differences between German Lutherans and Swiss Calvinists. It's not here. What is here is better than any travel guide, and more efficient than any comprehensive history tome. This is the best one of the lot, I've found. You're not going to be upset by glaring omissions or factual error. It's well done, and it's an attractive book. Perhaps most important, Dr. Edgar is THE South Carolina authority, with a swift command of this state's rich history, towns, institutions and important people. As a native Southerner, and ever-moving nomad, this book makes me homesick. That's a good sign.

There are single books on South Carolina that are available for the serious student. For example The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina: 1514-1861 will give one a sweeping history of the early origins of SC (early 16th century) up to 1861.

But for the interested student, researcher, or just plain SC admirer one can't go wrong with this excellent resource: The South Carolina Encyclopedia.

It is compiled by almost 600 authors. The selections are balanced to give the reader a macro view of South Carolina, not just from an historical perspective. I keep it nearby when I'm reading a book about SC or even a magazine article or a web page.

Each article usually is followed by 2-3 recommended books for further reading. There is a nice index too.

One thing that would have made this resource better would have been to bold type each item entry within the text of each article. In other words, one might be reading about Beaufort and find a word in bold in the article (i.e., Robert Smalls) which would key the reader that 'Robert Smalls' also has an article entry for the encyclopedia.

It would have also been nice had the editors suggested a few other 'related' articles for each entry.

Highly recommended. Every public library should own this.

With almost 600 contributors, this work is the most thorough I have seen! The index is helpful when searching for specific information. What a job it must have been to go through everything and to get it organized!

This was bought as a gift. I was very impressed with the book, and so was the recipient. It would make a great addition to the bookshelf of anyone with an interest in South Carolina.

This encyclopedia has been very useful to me as I do research in preparation for writing my family's history. I am learning a lot about South Carolina that I never knew about even though I am a native.

When I look at some of the entries in the Encyclopedia, I found unfortunate errors and very superficial research. The entry on Orangeburg County relies on the 1898 (that's right, 108 years old) history of the county by Alexander Salley, an ancient secondary source notorious for its inaccuracies. Several entries describe the early Swiss settlers (who dominated the earliest settlement of several large SC counties) as Lutherans, when in fact they were overwhelmingly Swiss Reformed, or Calvinist. Familiarity with primary sources would have told the authors and editor this. When we look for the settlers in Swiss parish records, they are in Reformed congregations. When we find records of the ordinations of ministers (prior to Giessendanner converting to the established Church of England in order to be paid by the colony) they are Reformed ordinations in Europe (for example Zubly, Theus) or Presbyterian if in South Carolina (for example, Giessendanner). When knowledgeable contemporaries refer to the religion of the Swiss settlers in Carolina, they say or imply that they were Reformed or Calvinist. Even Reimensperger's brochure encouraging Swiss to settle in Carolina specifies that potential settlers should be Reformed. Secondary sources would also provide the same information. Modern histories of the Presbyterian and Lutheran denominations in South Carolina acknowledge that the Swiss immigrants were Reformed. The Lutherans appear in SC only with the somewhat later immigration of Germans, who differed from the Swiss in other aspects of culture and history, as well as in religion. It is hard to understand how such a basic error regarding a significant part of early settlement in the state could be made in the Encyclopedia. Another entry tells us that the most "vibrant" German-speaking community in SC was in Charleston. I'm afraid the authors didn't have much information on which to base a comparison.

I'm sure that the Encyclopedia is much more accurate in areas closer to the editor's areas of research, but I would have to evaluate the work as uneven in quality.

Does not have Wyboo in book.
Otherwise a great source of information on everthing