South Carolina: On-The-Road Histories

A handy guidebook highlighting major historical figures, key events, and cultural icons from Andrew Jackson to James Brown, Kenneth Townsend sheds light on one of the country’s oldest and loveliest states: South Carolina.

Today tourists flock to the warm waters of Myrtle Beach, explore refurbished plantations, and stroll the picturesque streets of old Charleston. In this history of the state, Kenneth Townsend examines the rich and complicated past of these places. Beginning with the area’s earliest settlers, Townsend traces the state’s integral role in the American Revolution and its rise as an agricultural powerhouse; the Civil War and the legacy of slavery; its recent economic reemergence after the Civil Rights era.

Kenneth Townsend is a professor of American History at Coastal Carolina University in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He is the author of World War II and the American Indian, and he is currently writing a book on the American home front in World War II and a textbook on Native American cultures and history.