The Tar Heel State
A History of North Carolina
Milton Ready
In the last three decades North Carolina has witnessed a remarkable growth in population, economic development, and political importance, and it now ranks as the tenth
most populous state in the Union. The Tar Heel State: A History of North Carolina
constitutes the most comprehensive and inclusive single-volume chronicle of the state’s
storied past to date, culminating with an attentive look at recent events that have transformed North Carolina into a southern megastate.
The first such volume in more than two decades, Milton Ready’s work offers a distinctive view of the state’s history that integrates tales of famous pioneers, statesmen,
soldiers, farmers, captains of industry, and community leaders with more marginalized
voices, including those of Native Americans, African Americans, and women. Ready
gives readers a view of North Carolina that encompasses perspectives from the coast,
“tobacco road,” the Piedmont, and the mountains.
Ready revisits dramatic struggles of the American Revolution and Civil War, the
early history of Cherokees, the rise of industrial mills, and the changes wrought by
modern information-based technologies since 1970. Mixing spirited anecdotes and
illustrative statistics, Ready describes the rich Native American culture found by John
White in 1585, the chartered chaos of North Carolina’s proprietary settlement, and the
chronic distrust of government that grew out of settlement patterns and the colony’s
early political economy. He challenges the perception of relaxed intellectualism attributed to the “Rip van Winkle” state, the notion that slavery was a benign institution in
North Carolina, and the commonly accepted interpretation of Reconstruction in the
state. Ready also discusses how the suffrage movement pushed North Carolina into a
hesitant twentieth-century progressivism.
In perhaps his most significant contribution to North Carolina’s historical record,
Ready continues his narrative past the benchmark of World War II and into the twentyfirst century. From the civil rights struggle to the building of research triangles, triads,
and parks, Ready recounts the events that have fueled North Carolina’s accelerated
development in recent years and the many challenges that have accompanied such rapid
growth.
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Milton Ready is professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina at
Asheville. The author of books on Georgia
and North Carolina history, he received the
E. Merton Coulter Award for his writing of
Georgia history. He holds a Ph.D. in history
from the University of Georgia. Ready lives
in the mountains of western North Carolina.
THE TAR HEEL STATE
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