Books published by Mercer University Press

William Rhadamanthus Montgomery (1839-1906) was present at some of the most memorable battles of the Civil War. Among them were Chickahominy, Seven Pines, Malvern Hill, Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredricksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and Cold Harbor. Wounded seven or eight times, Montgomery remained in service throughout the entire war. After the war, he returned to Marietta where he lived out the rest of his days. The diary and the letters contained herein is a testament to his time as a soldier during the Civil War. But as the diary and letters indicate, the war was not the end all of his life. His loyalty for the South was surpassed only by his loyalty for and to his family.

In examining the course of the debate between the philosophies of Rousseau and Wollstonecraft in the first seventy years of the nineteenth century, several important conclusions have been reached. First, a much more diverse spectrum of women's exercise existed in the antebellum era than is currently described in modern historical texts. Second, several exercise systems had significant links to an ideal of womanhood - called in this text Majestic Womanhood - which directly competed with the prevailing construct of the ideology of True Womanhood articulated by historian Barbara Welter. Third, purposive training mattered in the lives of American women influencing them physically, intellectually, and emotionally. In many instances this training empowered women to step beyond the confines of their separate sphere of domestic duty and involve themselves in the world outside their homes.

The Forgotten "Stonewall of the West" for the first time rightly places Major General John Stevens Bowen into top ranking as one of the best division commanders who fought for the Confederacy. The case is made repeatedly throughout this book that Bowen, even more than General Pat Cleburne, was entitled to a lofty reputation - more indeed than any other Confederate general in the West. This book parallels the lives of Bowen and General Ulysses S. Grant. Bowen and Grant were West Pointers and St. Louis neighbors who faced each other both before the war and on some of the great battlefields during the war. Because General Bowen died of disease in July 1863 immediately after the fall of Vicksburg, his story, until now, has been almost forgotten. From Shiloh to Vicksburg, General Bowen was the type of bold commander - whether commanding a regiment, brigade, or division - who led his men at the head of the charge. In his first battle, for example, Bowen's closest brush with death came when he led his brigade's charge at Shiloh. And, like General Grant, Bowen's aggressive, hard-hitting style continued as he rose in rank, reaching a climax during the decisive Vicksburg campaign. While the legend of General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson made the Stonewall Brigade famous, Bowen played a key role in molding the First Missouri Confederate Brigade into a lethal fighting machine, which had a better combat record than the immortalized Virginians. But because the Missouri Brigade has for so long been ignored by historians, Bowen's reputation has likewise suffered in the historical memory.

Volume 2 of the Mercer Commentary on the Bible (MCB, 1994), the fascicle edition, comprises commentaries on the so-called "historical" books of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, along with several appropriate articles from the Mercer Dictionary of the Bible (MDB, 1990; 5th corrected printing, August 1997). This convenient yet thorough text is for the classroom and for anyone who wishes to focus on the study of the Old Testament "historical" books. Other volumes in the series focus on other appropriate groups of canonical and deuterocanonical writings (Prophets, Torah, Gospels, and so forth -- see p. vii for list). Each volume includes the complete MCB commentaries on the focus texts and several relevant articles from MDB.

Georgia's music history is diverse in that it covers gospel singer Thomas Dorsey, soul singer James Brown, opera singer Jessye Norman, country singer Alan Jackson, folk singer Hedy West and symphony and choral conductors Robert Shaw and Yoel Levi. They Heard Georgia Singing provides brief musical biographies of the men and women who have made major contributions to Georgia musical history either as natives or as personalities within the context of Georgia music.

The names, we sometimes say, have been changed ""to protect the innocent"". As regards those agents in KGB networks in the US, their presence and their deeds were known, but their names were not. This is the story of how those names became known and how the not-so-innocent persons to whom those names belonged were finally called to account.

"The historian", Henry James said, "essentially wants more documents than he can really use". Indeed, the documents provide context and content, without which meaningful recounting of history may be impossible. Where documents are lacking, history becomes the telling of educated guesses and informed theories based on the mute testimony of whatever artifacts, if any, are available. There is, however, no lack of documentation for the ongoing "Fundamentalist-Moderate Controversy" in the Southern Baptist Convention. In fact, disciplined selection is necessary to keep this collection within manageable limits. The present selection is excellent: all sides are represented and the events of the ongoing SBC "holy war" are replayed by the news releases, sermons and addresses, motions and resolutions through which those events originally were played out. The documents have been changed only to fit these pages. This is not all the story, but it is a good part of the story of a people called Southern Baptists. It is a story we all need to know and remember. We cannot undo or redo what has been done. We can learn from what has happened. What is history for? Not just for the historian, but for all of us, these primary and key "documents of the controversy" tell the story. Walter Shurden's overview and introductions along with his annotated chronology set the stage, reminding us where we were when. Then the reporters and preachers, the movers and shakers, the principals and sometimes even pawns go to "Action!" and tell the story in their own words, which, after all, is the way it happened.