I'm also an Arkansas history nerd. My preferences lean toward nonfiction works about Arkansas. In the cover story for today's Perspective section, I trace the history of the University of Arkansas Press. What follows is a list of several books the press has released during the past couple of years. I've read and can recommend all the books on this list, which is geared toward lovers of Arkansas history:
• "Das Arkansas Echo: A Year in the Life of Germans in the Nineteenth-Century South" by Kathleen Condray: A thriving population of German-speaking immigrants in the late 19th century supported three German-language newspapers in Arkansas. A complete collection of Das Arkansas Echo still exists. Condray mined that collection to show us what life was like during that period for these newcomers.
Kirk is the George W. Donaghey Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and author or editor of 10 books. His detailed account of Rockefeller's first 44 years gives insight into a man who would become one of the most important figures in 20th-century Arkansas.
• "Better Living By Their Own Bootstraps: Black Women's Activism in Rural Arkansas, 1914-1975" by Cherisse Jones-Branch: This book represents the first major study of Black women's activism in rural Arkansas. Jones-Branch highlights everyone from teachers to home demonstration agents employed by the Cooperative Extension Service.
Jones-Branch is the James and Wanda Lee Vaughn Endowed Professor of History at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. She says her book provides the women profiled "with the visibility in the historical record that they so rightly deserve. ... African American women's rural uplift activism throughout Arkansas resulted from the groundswell of grassroots networks they cultivated and utilized within and beyond their communities."
The Ku Klux Klan in 1920s Arkansas: How Protestant White Nationalism Came to Rule a State" by Kenneth Barnes: In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan had more than 150 Arkansas chapters and tens of thousands of members. Barnes says the Klan established Little Rock as a seat of power second only to Atlanta. Klansmen led businesses and held elected offices throughout the state.
Barnes is now retired following a distinguished career as a history professor at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. He says: "The information for this study has come largely from newspapers of the 1920s. The modern reader would be surprised at how public the Klan made its activities. The KKK frequently sent letters to local newspapers, describing the organization's goals and activities."
Jerome and Rohwer: Memories of Japanese American Internment in World War II Arkansas": This is a collection of brief memoirs written by former internees of the two Arkansas camps and their close family members. It was edited by Walter Imahara and David Meltzer. The relocation centers in southeast Arkansas were the two camps farthest from the West Coast.
The accounts describe life in the barracks, fields, mess hall and gathering places. The collection is the only work composed solely of autobiographical remembrances of life in Jerome and Rohwer. It's likely the last book of its kind as remaining internees die.
• "Queen of the Hillbillies: Writings of May Kennedy McCord": The woman once known as First Lady of the Ozarks and Queen of the Hillbillies spent half a century sharing the history, songs and stories of the Ozarks through radio programs and newspaper columns. This collection of her work was edited by granddaughter Patti McCord and Missouri State University professor Kristene Sutliff.
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