The Reckoning, preceded by The Journey, is the second book of a series about the life and adventures of John David Yager, a young man with mixed emotions about the civil war. He became known and revered by the Native Americans as "Shenandoah, the marked warrior." In this volume, he finds a new home, thousands of miles away from his birthplace in Virginia. He meets and marries Lilly, the love of his life. He acquires land and builds a ranch along with his own breed of horses, the Appaloosas. He relies on his Christian upbringing, a learned sense of unwritten justice, and his knowledge of both white and Native American cultures as he builds a life in the untamed west. A near-death experience causes him to conclude that the Great Spirit, or God, may really be watching over him. 10% of the profit from this book will be donated to the St. Jude's children's hospital. I promise.
While congregational studies have expanded our understanding of American religion, little is known about the local practices of a single denomination at its smallest jurisdiction. This book explores how national denominational commitments are affecting the practices of local United Church of Christ congregations inside a single association in the Shenandoah Valley. Nationally, the UCC defines itself as a united and uniting church in its ecumenical work; as multiracial and multicultural in its diversity; as accessible to all in welcoming those with disabilities; as open and affirming for its LGBT members; and as a just peace church in its support of social justice. So, how fully have local congregations embraced these commitments? Might congregations be more attached to their older identities, particularly in areas where the church's predecessors were strongly rooted? Or are the national church's commitments being lived out at the grassroots level? The book measures congregational life in one of the UCC's oldest and smallest associations. Books on congregational studies either focus on a case study of a particular congregation, or large-scale surveys of U.S. congregations that explore aggregate data to explain their work. This book looks instead at a group of local congregations inside a small judicatory (the Shenandoah Association) of the United Church of Christ to explain religious life at the grassroots level.
By surveying the religiously pluralistic setting of the eighteenth and early-nineteenth-century Shenandoah Valley, Longenecker reveals how the fabric of American pluralism was woven. Calling worldliness the "mainstream" and otherworldliness, "outsidernesss," Shenandoah Religion describes the transition certain denominations made in becoming mainstream and the resistance of others in maintaining distinctive dress, manners, social relations, economics, and apolitical viewpoints.
The Battle of New Market in the Shenandoah Valley suffers from no lack of drama, interest, or importance. The ramifications of the May 1864 engagement, which involved only 10,000 troops, were substantial. Previous studies, however, focused on the Confederate side of the story. David Powell’s, Union Command Failure in the Shenandoah: Major General Franz Sigel and the War in the Valley of Virginia, May 1864, provides the balance that has so long been needed. Union General Ulysses S. Grant regarded a spring campaign in the Valley of Virginia as integral to his overall strategy designed to turn Robert E. Lee’s strategic western flank, deny his Army of Northern Virginia much needed supplies, and prevent other Confederates from reinforcing Lee. It fell to Union general and German transplant Franz Sigel to execute Grant’s strategy in the northern reaches of the Shenandoah while Maj. Gen. George Crook struck elsewhere in southwestern Virginia. Sigel’s record in the field was checkered at best, and he was not Grant’s first choice to lead the effort, but a combination of politics and other factors left the German in command. Sigel met Confederate Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge and his small army on May 15 just outside the crossroads town of New Market. The hard-fought affair hung in the balance until finally the Union lines broke, and Sigel’s Yankees fled the field. Breckinridge’s command included some 300 young men from the Virginia Military Institute’s Corps of Cadets. VMI’s presence and dramatic role in the fighting ensured that New Market would never be forgotten, but pushed other aspects of this interesting and important campaign into the back seat of history. Award-winning author David Powell’s years of archival and other research provides an outstanding foundation for this outstanding study. Previous works have focused on the Confederate side of the battle, using Sigel’s incompetence as sufficient excuse to explain why the Federals were defeated. This methodology, however, neglects the other important factors that contributed to the ruin of Grant’s scheme in the Valley. Union Command Failure in the Shenandoah delves into all the issues, analyzing the campaign from an operational standpoint. Complete with original maps, photos, and the skillful writing readers have come to expect from the pen of David Powell, Union Command Failure in the Shenandoah will satisfy the most demanding students of Civil War history.
My Shenandoah, 1966 was originally planned to merely record an objective local history, but its enthusiastic fans will assure you the book developed well beyond that into a highly readable, engrossing work for everyone. Its ample supply of endearing personal anecdotes and historical peculiarities make this local history quite an entertaining read. The book also makes the jump from mere local appeal by embracing the universal nostalgia of the era we know as The Sixties. The original motive of providing a thorough demography of the Coal Region town of Shenandoah, fifty years before its Sesquicentennial, is achieved. However, the books scope is much more universal. It is an accurate picture of a small town America in that Golden Age of our nations history; it takes all its readers back on a nostalgic tour of that extraordinary decade known as the Sixties. The first person narrative has two authors in one. Youll see the Sixties through the innocent eyes of the 9 year old who lived them. Gain his impressions of his education, his views on the towns diversity and its prejudices. Thrill in the childish enjoyment of life in small town America of this generation. But, realize that child has grown into a 59 year old historian. Explore with him the town and countys national prominence and historical figures. Look back at the Corner Stores, the Penny Candy, the Supermarkets, the Cars, the Drinking, and the Holidays. Philosophize with him over the changing times. Look back at a firsthand account of Americas most memorable decade and more.
Abstract: This paper reports the results of a feasibility study undertaken by USDA to determine the potential for 50 poultry producers to establish a marketing cooperative. The report includes financial data and the bylaws of the cooperative and may be used as a guide by other groups.
Jed Buchanan is one of the Blue Ridge mountain people displaced by the formation of the Shenandoah National Park. Through a quirk of fate he is offered a job as a farm manager on one of the loveliest farms in the Shenandoah Valley. Though he loves the life, dire danger lurks in the form of a fanatical, old-style Ku Klux Klan klavern that has been operating in the rural areas of Northern Virginia. Jed falls in love with two very different women: the beautiful, sultry sophisticate, Virginia Chadwick, whom he saves from being savaged by a vicious dog. This leads to the humble hillbilly giving regular lectures to one of the most powerful groups in Washington DC., Then theres lovely, spunky Sage Kelly, who has left three men at the altar. However, Jed has good reason to suspect that she and her brother, Tom, are members of the Ku Klux Klan. Sequel to the widely acclaimed "Falling Leaves and Mountain Ashes", this compelling epic novel, set in the1940s and 1950s, displays once again what a master storyteller George is.
