TThe South Carolina Encyclopedia

Walter Edgar

Walter Edgar received his A.B. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the U.S. Army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.

In 1972 he joined the faculty of the History Department and in 1980 was named director of the Institute for Southern Studies. Dr. Edgar is the Claude Henry Neuffer Professor of Southern Studies and the George Washington Distinguished Professor of History.

The South Carolina Encyclopedia
Edited by Walter Edgar

The South Carolina Encyclopedia is a comprehensive single-volume reference for just about anything anyone would want to know about the Palmetto State’s rich cultures and storied heritage, from prehistory to the present day. The encyclopedia is the result of a six-year collaboration between the Humanities Council SC, the Institute for Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina, and the University of South Carolina Press. Under the editorial direction of distinguished historian Walter Edgar, five hundred ninety-eight contributors have come together to write more than one million words depicting the representative people, places, and things that define South Carolina.
The encyclopedia is an authoritative, entertaining compilation of essays on a broad array of topics ranging from war and politics to arts and recreation, from agriculture and industry to popular culture and ethnicity. Among the nearly two thousand entries are such diverse subjects as the Boykin spaniel, John C. Calhoun, Sarah Moore Grimké, Hootie and the Blowfish, Indian mounds, Matthew J. Perry, Rainbow Row, Surfside Beach, and white lightning. The palmetto bug, Lizard Man, and okra are all here, as are hurricanes, the Orangeburg Massacre, and yellow fever. Included as well are essays on every South Carolina county, every town with a population of two thousand five hundred or greater, and all elected governors and U.S. senators from the state. Famous figures and infamous characters, historic events and tragic moments, celebrated creatures and provocative lore, staple crops and new industries, the encyclopedia catalogs all of this and much more.
As diverse as the populations that live within the thirty-one thousand square miles that make up the Palmetto State, the entries included in The South Carolina Encyclopedia were chosen to best represent the many facets of our shared experiences that remind us of who we are, where we come from, what we have in common, and why we are distinctive.
The South Carolina Encyclopedia is a comprehensive introduction to the state for students and newcomers, and a treasure trove of rich details and lively insights for those already steeped in South Carolina’s history and culture. With its accessible format, four hundred black-and-white and forty color illustrations, and seventy-eight original maps, this volume invites a broad readership and placement in classrooms, libraries, archives, government offices, businesses, economic development agencies, media newsrooms, and—of course—home bookshelves. As the single most inclusive reference for all things South Carolinian, this truly is a people’s encyclopedia.
8½ x 11, 1120 pages, 400 b&w, 40 color illus., 78 maps
Hardcover, $75.00 ISBN10 1-57003-598-9/ ISBN13 978-1-57003-598-2

SOUTH CAROLINA HISTORY

The first comprehensive history of South Carolina published in nearly fifty years, Walter Edgar presents a sweeping narrative of a state with an illustrious, sometimes infamous, past. He describes in very human terms 475 years of recorded history in the Palmetto State, including the experiences of all South Carolinians - rich and poor; male and female; those with roots in Africa and in Europe as well as Native Americans. In an eminently readable presentation, Edgar uses letters, diaries, and other writings to let voices from the past take part in telling the state's fascinating story.

760 PAGES. 1998. ISBN 10: 1-57003-255-6, ISBN 13: 978-1-57003-255-4: Hardcover $45.00

PARTISANS AND REDCOATS: The Southern Conflicts that Turned The Tide of the American Revolution

In South Carolina, the Revolutionary War was all but a first Civil War, with Tories and Rebels—sometimes from the same family—viciously fighting one another from the beginning of the conflict in 1775 to the colonists' victory in 1782. In this gripping, thoroughly researched volume, Walter Edgar brings to life the battles, the people, and the land that were a crucial front line in the struggle for independence.

224 pages. 2001. Softcover, ISBN 0-380-80643-6, $12.99**

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