Morbid Romantic

Book Review & Personal Blog

So, internet, I take it you’ve heard about the new FTC regulation placed on bloggers, correct?

The FTC will require that writers on the Web clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products. The commission also said advertisers featuring testimonials that claim dramatic results cannot hide behind disclaimers that the results aren’t typical.

The gist is this: where you have anything good and sacred in this world, there will be people who practice unethical behavior. The book blogger community is, as a whole, an honest community. In my time, I have not met many who were not overall very good, honest bloggers. Most book bloggers such as myself also endorse products and receive free merchandise for review. Once you enter this realm, you really start encountering people who run blogs solely to get products and money. They are even willing to sell out their own opinion for a few freebies and a few bucks, giving dishonest and positive reviews to placate their sponsor. This IS unethical behavior.

And this is, of course, what I hope the new FTC regulation will stat to put a stop to.

Naturally, it means that all of us must abide by the rules. But, I am a big time rule player. I like them, I understand them, and I figure if I am not doing anything wrong, it is an easy transition to make. I also have a sitewide disclosure for sponsored posts, but I am going to include after every book and product review if I received the item for free. My reviews have always been honest, though, free gifts or not. As a community, we have a responsibility to protect ourselves and each other.

Title: We Mean to Be Counted: White Women and Politics in Antebellum Virginia
Author(s): Elizabeth R. Varon
Genre: Nonfiction – History
Finished: September 28, 2009
Rating: 4 Stars

The historical consensus is that white women in the antebellum period were excluded from political participation. Varon argues that elite middle class women were active in political participation, but they did not attempt to occupy the public sphere of men. Instead, women organized benevolent societies, worked as mediators, petitioned, volunteered, wrote, and attended public meetings. This book is not to show us women were always a cohesive force with a long term goal of suffrage or equality, indeed not because Southern women were generally quite content with the social order. We Mean to be Counted merely rejects the premise that women were entirely excluded from politics by showing that, no, there were women involved. Whether 10 or 10,000, women still found a place for themselves and their talents.

According to Varon, women were believed by their nature to be disinterested, moral forces of restraint and education for men and children. In occupying a public sphere through political activity, women were fulfilling the duties of their private sphere of motherhood and wifedom. Organizations such as girl schools and colonization societies were seen as perfect for the nature of a woman, and any political knowledge passed on to her through participation in parties such as the Whig party (Whig Womanhood) was only so that she could use her intelligence to form a patriotic family. Initially also, Southern women were to act as sectional mediators between the North and South. As time went on, though, and slavery debates heated up, the concept of “Confederate motherhood,” with its fervent belief in preserving the south as it was.

Varon has written a well rounded perspective on elite white antebellum women and their roles in politics, which she supports convincingly with her source usage. By refuting a popular and generalized claim that women were not politically active in this time, she contributes new information that is unique and important not only to southern history, but women’s history and political science. The book is easy to read, flows coherently, and is made interesting by her inclusion of actual quotes and manuscript snippets.

The only weakness to be found in this book is that it is absent anything related to women other than the elite class with the occasional middle class woman thrown in and a small inclusion on African American women after the war. The book would have presented a more complete picture of women in the antebellum period if it included some information about lower class women. Though lacking influence, common women still would have had ideas and opinions political in nature, and would have communicated them to one another by some means. It would seem by the evidence Varon gives that the political participation of women was very large in influence and widespread among the gender, but it must be taken into account that she is speaking of a portion of the female population, not just ‘white women’ in general. The authority with which Varon speaks could be misleading in this way. Virginia was a unique state in the South, though, and by isolating it from the rest of the United States, we see just how much it was. This fact must be kept in mind while reading lest the mistake of made of assuming the entire south was like Virginia.

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Disclaimer(s):

- More can be found in my Reviews section.
- If you would like me to review your book, send an email to me at morbidromantic@gmail.com. Read my Book Review Policy for more information.

I know I am always on here encouraging people to purchase hosting and buy their own domain name, but I really feel it to be an asset to anyone who runs a website. Not only does it make you more unique, but it gives you more room to customize and do what you want with your space. Finding a proper web host is often times the most daunting part of the process, and inexperienced people choose not to pay for hosting because the entire process seems to confusing. Well, I recommend using a site like Web Hosting Geeks to help you find the web hosting that is right for you. They have special sections devoted to blog hosting, budget hosting, PHP hosting, reseller hosting, etc, so that you can find the webhost that best fits your specific needs. It cannot get any easier than that. And they also give you create tips on how to start out in the web world, such as with their article, Establishing Your Online Presence With WordPress Hosting. I highly recommend this website to anyone who wants to find hosting. Like I’ve said, having your own domain and hosting is great and I encourage everyone who runs a blog to eventually look into it.

Title: The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866
Author(s): Charles E. Rosenberg
Genre: Nonfiction – History
Finished: September 25, 2009
Rating: 4 Stars

In the Republic era of America, people were assaulted daily by their own visions of success, failure, the expectations and weaknesses of a still developing concept of democracy, poverty, and illness. One such illness, Cholera, infected America three times during this period: 1832, 1849, and 1866. In America, “Cholera represented a constant and randomly reoccurring stimulus against which the varying reactions and systems of Americans could be judged”, and it caused gradual changes in social attitudes, government, religious thought, and medicine as people tried to understand and cope with the disease. Historians have recently given little attention to defining and then writing about the social changes brought about by cholera, both as a process and its final result. It is part of history’s recent interest in social aspects such as family and school, which medicine is a part of because the two are linked by every day life concerns.

The Cholera Years is an interesting and easy to read book. One of its strengths lies in its readability and in how it engages the reader through primary sources. Historical books that tell stories and relate true life accounts and words are more interesting than those that simply move from one fact to the next. Also, Rosenberg is very organized in his presentation of information. The sections, chopped up by cholera year, follow the same patterns as far as how information is addressed. As a result, though we are reading from one year to the next, the progressions of society and thought are easy to follow and connect together. It actually made more sense this way than if Rosenberg had approached the book topically, which would have jumped around and only confused. Unfortunately, as a weakness, Rosenberg is very repetitive. A lot of information and points are stressed repeatedly throughout the book, and in that way it sort of losses focus a few times.

Rosenberg gives an annotated bibliography at the end of his book, which lists aids, manuscripts, public documents, newspapers, printed medical documents, other printed material, and secondary sources consulted. He does make note in his section on printed material other than medical literature that he has not listed all the documents consulted because they are too numerous, but instead listed those that are most interesting or relevant, which he also does with newspapers. The primary sources include such documents as hospital reports, newspapers, Board of Health and committee minutes, and religious sermons. As such, we are provided with a lot of “from the mouth” accounts of cholera to support the progressions in thought and practice that Rosenberg takes us through from one outbreak to the next.

This book fits well into the genre of medical history, as well as cultural history because Cholera had a direct and distinct impact on life, the concept of a person, social equality, and medical care. You won’t get the sort of copious gory details that medical history books are known for, which is a shame, but you will certainly come out of reading the book understanding a bit more how America evolved into the country it is now, and how something like one disease could shape a nation.

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Disclaimer(s):

- More can be found in my Reviews section.
- If you would like me to review your book, send an email to me at morbidromantic@gmail.com. Read my Book Review Policy for more information.

We have winners for the contest to win one copy of To Tempt the Wolf by Terry Spear…

Out of 38 entries, the winning numbers are:
16

Winner:
Gaby @ Starting Fresh

I am going to email all of you now and request your address. Remember, no PO Boxes and no one from any country but the US and Canada. If you do not get my email and you are a winner, leave me a comment here or send me an email at morbidromantic[@]gmail.com. Please send me your address in 3 days or else I will have to choose a new winner in your place. I would like to thank the Sourcebook for the opportunity to give out this amazing book.

The winner for the 18×24” Poster from Uprinting!

I am going to send your email address over to Uprinting, and they will contact you to let you know how to get your poster!