The History Press [new releases]

Years ago, when travelers to northern Greenville County asked a local where the Dark Corner was, invariably their reply was, "Just a little further up the road." In those days few people wanted to admit they lived in that much storied and much maligned part of the county known as the Dark Corner. The Dark Corner in those days was legendary for its moonshine, murder and mayhem. This is the story of that well-known region. We travel back to the Dark Corner's earliest days when its only human inhabitants were the Cherokee, and we move into the present where horse farms and multi-million-dollar homes dot the countryside that once contained moonshine stills and cornfields.

Hand-colored, vivid details bring these historic photographs to life like never before. Witness the beginnings of the sweetgrass basket tradition. See the bleak devastation on Meeting Street after the Civil War. Note intense contrast in blues and grays of prisoners captured at the Battle of Bull Run. Explore the Battery as it looked in the 1800s. And dazzle in the bright fashions of flappers at the dawn of "the Charleston" dance craze. Author Mark Jones and artist Lewis Hayes bring a new vision to Holy City history.

Author and Bahá'í historian Louis Venters provides, for the first time, an overview of the first century of the Bahá'í Faith in a state with one of its strongest followings.

The Bahá'í Faith is increasingly acknowledged as South Carolina's second-largest religion, part of the social fabric of the state. The earliest mentions of the distinctively interracial, theologically innovative faith community in the state date back to the Civil War. Black, white and indigenous South Carolinians defied racial and religious prejudices to join the religion during the tumultuous civil rights era. From the visit of the first Bahá'í teacher in 1910 to the "Carolinian Pentecost'? of the 1970s and beyond, the faith has deep roots in the Palmetto State.

Author Dwayne W. Pickett details the life of William Hilton, his exploration of the Carolina coast and the founding of an iconic island.

Behind the pristine beaches and world renown of Hilton Head Island lies a history that dates back to the early exploration of the nation. In 1663, William Hilton, a mariner born in England, was hired by a group in Barbados to find new lands for them to settle. Hilton led an exploration of the Port Royal Sound area, where he named a high bluff of land Hiltons Head as a navigational marker for future sailors. The island began as a sparsely populated area on the fringe of English settlement in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, when it was called Trench's Island on some maps.

Most people thought it would take a miracle to bring the Gamecocks' women's basketball team to the nation's top teams, but Dawn Staley has always beaten the odds.

She stood at the podium on May 10, 2008, and promised to bring national prominence to South Carolina, and with a lot of hard work, Staley's vision for the Gamecocks' women's basketball team came true over the next nine years, culminating in the 2017 national championship. Her willingness to keep striving and to deliver on her promise was met with early resistance, but it paid off with several winning seasons, terrific recruits, and finally, the only prize Staley had not obtained in a lifetime of championship basketball. David Cloninger takes you on the team's journey to the national title.

Re-visit 2015-16 in Clemson football history, a truly special season. Author Larry Williams relays the details of Coach Dabo Swinney's life, his impact on Tiger Town and his mission to create an elite program on and off the field.

The 2015-16 season marked a significant moment in Clemson football history. Not only did the team play in its first national championship in thirty-four years, but the nation also finally took note of the burgeoning renaissance. When Dabo Swinney told a national television audience about his team's willingness to "bring your own guts" after an emotional win over Notre Dame, it was a spontaneous line to a television reporter in the delirious, rain-soaked aftermath of a landmark victory. But Swinney's comment also underscored the identity and drive that would fuel a truly special season. Larry Williams relays the intimate details of Swinney's life, his impact on Tiger Town and his mission to create an elite program on and off the field.

The coast of South Carolina was a hotspot for the Civil War since its beginning. Some of the stories have not been told until now.

In Defending South Carolina's Coast: The Civil War from Georgetown to Little River, area native Rick Simmons relates the often overlooked stories of the upper South Carolina coast during the Civil War. As a base of operations for more than three thousand troops early in the war and the site of more than a dozen forts, almost every inch of the coast was affected by and hotly contested during the Civil War. From the skirmishes at Fort Randall in Little River and the repeated Union naval bombardments of Murrells Inlet to the unrealized potential of the massive fortifications at Battery White and the sinking of the USS Harvest Moon in Winyah Bay, the region's colorful Civil War history is unfolded here at last.

#YeahThatGreenville is the official slogan of a city with a Southern Charm and congenial reputation. But the beauty of the Reedy River Falls cannot cover up its secret past. Theodosia Burr Alston regularly summered in Greenville prior to being "lost at sea'? in 1812. Rival newspaper editors Benjamin Perry and Turner Bynum, faced off in a fatal duel in 1832.Hugh Bramlett murdered his mother-in-law in 1919, before it was revealed that insanity populated his family tree. Genealogical researcher, Jennifer Stoy presents uncovered tales of mayhem, insanity, and a side of Greenville you didn't know existed.

Hobcaw Barony is a beloved 17,500-acre plantation and wildlife refuge on the South Carolina coast between Charleston and Myrtle Beach.

Plantation Between the Waters, by Lee Brockington, senior interpreter at Hobcaw, brings the centuries of history surrounding Hobcaw Barony to the public in remarkable clarity. The images and text provide an intimate glimpse into the lives of the people who have been connected to this unspoiled landscape for generations.

Author D. Michael Thomas presents the previously untold story of the Iron Scouts for the first time.

Serving from late 1862 to the war's end, Wade Hampton's Scouts were a key component of the comprehensive intelligence network designed by Generals Robert E. Lee, J.E.B. Stuart and Wade Hampton. The Scouts were stationed behind enemy lines on a permanent basis and provided critical military intelligence to their generals. They became proficient in "unconventional" warfare and emerged unscathed in so many close-combat actions that their foes grudgingly dubbed them Hampton's "Iron Scouts."

Anderson County, created in 1826, played a huge role in South Carolina's past. Many of those stories remain untold.

Learn the story behind the person who discovered ether and the connection to one of Anderson's stately manors. Encounter the day Anderson was taken over by armed militia--a spectacle that thousands gathered to see and that newsreels across the country covered. Discover the connection between Anderson County and one of the largest scandals in history that kept millions from winning huge prizes by eating a Big Mac. Author Liz Carey details the lesser-known history of Anderson County.

This compelling look at Charleston's twentieth-century history chronicles the changes and challenges faced by Charleston as its population exploded in response to expansion of the Charleston Navy Yard. As World War II called for the United States to flex her industrial might, the shipyard rose to meet the challenge and 55,000 new residents flooded into the city.

Charleston was unprepared for such dramatic expansion: the need for labor at the yard meant the sudden appearance of good jobs, but also resulted in severe housing shortages, food rationing and dilemmas over race and gender. Ongoing workforce shortages forced the navy to look to sources of labor previously regarded as unsuitable--African Americans and women--causing dramatic changes to the status quo.

Author and historian Fritz Hamer makes use of written documents and oral histories to argue that the war's effects pulled a reluctant "Holy City" into the twentieth century, setting the stage for further modernization and growth. Warm personal accounts from a range of individuals who witnessed the city's dramatic change provide a human element in Hamer's solid research.

Well written and imaginatively conceived, Charleston Reborn will interest the general reader as well as a wide range of historians--from students of World War II and chroniclers of gender and racial history, to urban historians and scholars of the modern American South.

Columbia, South Carolina, sits in a perfect position--each of the numerous treasures of the Palmetto State is less than a day's drive from the capital.

Near Charleston, 137 miles from Columbia, you can enjoy more than seventeen thousand square feet of shade from the iconic Angel Oak. In Blackville, 49 miles from Columbia, you can visit a natural spring that has been deeded to God since 1944. A 53-mile trip to Edgefield will put you in the heart of Peach Country, where you can see many of the peach orchards that make South Carolina one of the nation's leading producers of the sweet fruit. Join author and day-tripper Tom Poland as he maps the beautiful treasures of South Carolina.

Go inside the making of the 2018 Clemson Tigers football team, the one that vaulted to the top and became the biggest thing in college football.

From the beginning of the season, head coach Dabo Swinney's rallying cry was "joy." Each week for opponents, though, was another joyless occasion against a big orange machine that found its high gear midseason. The results shook the foundation of college football. In 2015 and 2016, the Tigers needed to bring their own guts to achieve great things. In Swinney's 10th season, they brought their own sledgehammers. Author Larry Williams, who has covered Clemson and Swinney since 2004, unearths revealing anecdotes from Dabo's tenure like you've never seen before and shares how a season dominated by Alabama hype ended up overwhelmed by a Clemson tide and a new college football dynasty.