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80 books match the query 'Tennessee' and 5 start with f

cover of Fifty Cents and a Box Top: The Creative Life of Nashville Session Musician Charlie McCoy

Fifty Cents and a Box Top

The Creative Life of Nashville Session Musician Charlie McCoy

Charlie McCoy

West Virginia University Press, 2017

From Ann-Margret to Bob Dylan and George Jones to Simon & Garfunkel, Nashville harmonica virtuoso and multi-instrumentalist Charlie McCoy has contributed to some of the most successful recordings of country, pop, and rock music of the last six decades. As the leader of the Hee Haw “Million-Dollar Band,” McCoy spent more than two decades appearing on the television screens of country music fans around the United States. And, as a solo artist, he has entertained audiences across North America, Europe, and Japan and has earned numerous honors as a result. Fifty Cents and a Box Top: The Creative Life of Nashville Session Musician Charlie McCoy offers rare firsthand insights into life in the recording studio, on the road, and on the small screen as Nashville became a leading center of popular music production in the 1960s and as a young McCoy established himself as one of the most sought after session musicians in the country. 
 
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cover of From Frontier to Plantation In Tennessee: A Study in Frontier Democracy

From Frontier to Plantation In Tennessee

A Study in Frontier Democracy

Thomas Perkins Abernethy

University of Alabama Press, 1967

A reprint of Abernethy's excellent historical study of the state of Tennesse from its founding through the antebellum years. In documenting the development of an agrarian society on the frontier, Abernethy develops important and controversial theses on the relation between frontier life and the development of American democracy, calling into question the mythology and motives previously associated with leaders such as William Blount, Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, and Andrew Johnson.

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cover of From Hate to Hallows: Reframing Black Church Arson

From Hate to Hallows

Reframing Black Church Arson

Todne Thomas

Duke University Press, 2026

From Hate to Hallows intervenes in the public discourse surrounding the burning of Black churches in the United States—conversations largely dominated by white, conservative political imaginaries—to provide a critical account of the anti-Black racism and economic exploitation animating these acts of violence. Todne Thomas centers an ethnographic examination of a Knoxville, Tennessee, church that was burned in 2015 as the primary case study of this intervention. By exploring the congregants’ experiences and perspectives on the event, Thomas privileges Black meaning-making as a primary source of social and political analysis. She draws on their explanations for the arson to explore the social, historical, and religious contexts of white supremacy, vandalism, gentrification and urban redevelopment, and the End Times as each relate to church burning. From Hate to Hallows challenges the dominant picture of Black church arson as episodic and aberrant events and instead foregrounds them as central moments in the construction of a twenty-first-century United States steeped in racial and economic domination.
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cover of From the Fiery Furnace to the Promise Land: Stories of a Tennessee Reconstruction Community

From the Fiery Furnace to the Promise Land

Stories of a Tennessee Reconstruction Community

Serina K. Gilbert and Learotha Williams Jr.

Vanderbilt University Press, 2025

The Promise Land community, a small village west of Nashville, Tennessee was founded after the Civil War by people who had been enslaved at the Cumberland Iron Furnace. These early settlers, who included United States Colored Troops veterans, were able to purchase land and establish Black‑owned businesses. This afforded the community a level of stability that defies conventional wisdom about the post‑Reconstruction‑era South.

In time the community encompassed approximately 1,000 acres with more than 50 homes, several stores, three churches, and an elementary school. But by the mid‑twentieth century, the community had dwindled to just a handful of families. Now all that remains physically is a church and the old school building. But in the hearts of the descendants of those families, Promise Land remains a vital and thriving community of friends, family, and, albeit virtual, neighbors who continue to support each other.

This is the story of this town told through the memories of the people who lived there. Serina Gilbert grew up in the community and is now one of the revered storytellers and story‑keepers of Promise Land. Along with historian Learotha Williams, she is sharing the history of a community that thrived and continues to thrive in the face of almost insurmountable obstacles.
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cover of Frontier Swashbuckler: The Life and Legend of John Smith T

Frontier Swashbuckler

The Life and Legend of John Smith T

Dick Steward

University of Missouri Press, 2000

Few frontiersmen in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century epitomized the reckless energies of the West and the lust for adventure as did John Smith T—pioneer, gunfighter, entrepreneur, militia colonel, miner, judge, and folk hero. In this fascinating biography, Dick Steward traces the colorful Smith T's life from his early days in Virginia through his young adulthood. He then describes Smith T's remarkable career in the wilds of Missouri and his armed raids to gain land from Indians, Spaniards, and others.

Born into the fifth generation of Virginia gentry, young Smith first made his name on the Tennessee frontier. It was there that he added the "T" to his name to distinguish his land titles and other enterprises from those of the hosts of other John Smiths. By the late 1790s he owned or laid claim to more than a quarter million acres in Tennessee and northern Alabama.

In 1797, Smith T moved to Missouri, then a Spanish territory, and sought to gain control of its lead-mining district by displacing the most powerful American in the region, Moses Austin. He acquired such public positions as judge of the court of common pleas, commissioner of weights and levies, and lieutenant colonel of the militia, which enabled him to mount a spirited assault on Austin's virtual monopoly of the lead mines. Although neither side emerged a winner from that ten-year-old conflict, it was during this period that Smith T's fame as a gunfighter and duelist spread across the West. Known as the most dangerous man in Missouri, he was said to have killed fourteen men in duels.

Smith T was also recognized by many for his good works. He donated land for churches and schools and was generous to the poor and downtrodden. He epitomized the opening of the West, helping to build towns, roads, and canals and organizing trading expeditions.

Even though Smith T was one of the most notorious characters in Missouri history, by the late nineteenth century he had all but disappeared from the annals of western history. Frontier Swashbuckler seeks to rescue both the man and the legend from historical obscurity. At the same time, it provides valuable insights into the economic, political, and social dynamics of early Missouri frontier history.

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