Charles R. Mack

A folk pottery pilgrimage that finds a southern art form at a crossroads. Traveling the back roads of North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, Charles R. Mack spent the summer of 1981 talking with the potters who produced the face jugs, mugs, and plates that had skyrocketed in popularity in the late 1970s and collecting examples of their wares. He was, in effect, taking the pulse of a southern folkway on the brink of transition. With the benefit of a quarter century of hindsight, Mack has now gathered these interviews into ""Talking with the Turners"", a single volume that documents the world of southern pottery as it shifted from the production of utilitarian wares to the aesthetic realm of folk art. In their own words the turners, most of whom are now deceased, explain what it means to be a potter, to be part of a profession that passes from generation to generation, to experiment with new designs while continuing to produce traditional forms of ceramics. Arranged thematically, the interviews emerge as an open dialogue among the participants - the type of backroom shoptalk that collectors and scholars are rarely privileged to share. In addition to the centerpiece interviews - many of which are also featured on an accompanying audio CD - Mack includes numerous color and black-and-white photographs of the potters, their shops, and their wares. Mack's extensive commentary sets these particular potters in the context of the larger American ceramics tradition, explains pottery techniques, and summarizes recent changes in pottery making. ""Talking with the Turners"" is augmented by an introduction by Lynn Robertson, director of the McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina, and a foreword by William R. Ferris, the founding director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi.

The subject of growing scholarly appreciation and interest, Francis Lieber (1798-1872) gained international renown as one of nineteenth-century America's preeminent public intellectuals. He is also recognized as one of the most distinguished faculty members in the University of South Carolina's institutional history. With Francis Lieber and the Culture of the Mind, Charles R. Mack and Henry H. Lesesne draw together an international group of scholars from fields as diverse as Lieber's own multifaceted interests - cultural studies, history, law, linguistics, art history, philosophy, religion, and political science - to commemorate and reevaluate the German-American thinker's legacy to the twenty-first century.

"Not only is this a well-written book, it is an unusually valuable contribution to the field of Renaissance Studies."---Norman Land, University of MissouriUtilizing a variety of examples from the artistic production of medieval and Renaissance Europe, Looking at the Renaissance presents a holistic interpretation of the origins and characteristics of the threshold period to our modern age. Charles R. Mack illustrates the Middle Ages as a time of fragmentation in which the world was comprehended in piecemeal fashion. However, he states that the Renaissance advanced a unified idea made possible by the resurrection of a melioristic vision of man's role within a Divine Plan. Looking at the Renaissance argues in favor of the now-disputed notion of "historical periods" while continuing to uphold the importance of the antique revival in shaping the cultural character of the age. Mack offers a new contextual approach to appreciating not only the art but also the cultural entirety of the Renaissance period. By suggesting certain key ingredients common to all Renaissance creations and activities, Mack facilitates a better understanding of the revolutionary character of the era. As a compact, yet broadly considered treatment of the era, Looking at the Renaissance would be an extraordinary addition to the library of both scholars and students studying classics, art, culture, literature, and history.

"Not only is this a well-written book, it is an unusually valuable contribution to the field of Renaissance Studies." ---Norman Land, University of Missouri Utilizing a variety of examples from the artistic production of medieval and Renaissance Europe, Looking at the Renaissance presents a holistic interpretation of the origins and characteristics of the threshold period to our modern age. Charles R. Mack illustrates the Middle Ages as a time of fragmentation in which the world was comprehended in piecemeal fashion. However, he states that the Renaissance advanced a unified idea made possible by the resurrection of a melioristic vision of man's role within a Divine Plan. Looking at the Renaissance argues in favor of the now-disputed notion of "historical periods" while continuing to uphold the importance of the antique revival in shaping the cultural character of the age. Mack offers a new contextual approach to appreciating not only the art but also the cultural entirety of the Renaissance period. By suggesting certain key ingredients common to all Renaissance creations and activities, Mack facilitates a better understanding of the revolutionary character of the era. As a compact, yet broadly considered treatment of the era, Looking at the Renaissance would be an extraordinary addition to the library of both scholars and students studying classics, art, culture, literature, and history.