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Carolyn Schriber

Carolyn Schriber

About

I am a retired college professor who specialized in medieval European history  After many years of writing academic monographs, I am now indulging my love of the Civil War by writing historical fiction. But along the way, I've also learned a great deal about today's publishing atmosphere. That experience has led me to publish a handbook on avoiding the traps of self-publishing. "The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese" draws on my adventures while writing "A Scratch with the Rebels" and "Beyond All Price."

Learning to Breathe Fire: The Rise of CrossFit and the Primal Future of Fitness

Learning to Breathe Fire: The Rise of CrossFit and the Primal Future of Fitness

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<p><b>The absorbing, definitive account of CrossFit's origins, its explosive grassroots growth, and its emergence as a global phenomenon.</b><br /> <br />One of the most illuminating books ever on a sports subculture, <i>Learning to Breathe Fire </i>combines vivid sports writing with a thoughtful meditation on what it means to be human. In the book, veteran journalist J.C. Herz explains the science of maximum effort, why the modern gym fails an obese society, and the psychic rewards of ending up on the floor feeling as though you're about to die. <br /> <br />The story traces CrossFit’s rise, from a single underground gym in Santa Cruz to its adoption as the workout of choice for elite special forces, firefighters and cops, to its popularity as the go-to fitness routine for regular Joes and Janes. Especially riveting is Herz’s description of The CrossFit Games, which begin as an informal throw-down on a California ranch and evolve into a televised global proving ground for the fittest men and women on Earth, as well as hundreds of thousands of lesser mortals. <br /> <br />In her portrayal of the sport's star athletes, its passionate coaches and its “chief armorer,” Rogue Fitness, Herz powerfully evokes the uniqueness of a fitness culture that  cultivates primal fierceness in average people. And in the shared ordeal of an all-consuming workout, she unearths the ritual intensity that's been with us since humans invented sports, showing us how, on a deep level, we're all tribal hunters and first responders, waiting for the signal to go all-out. </p>

Story Behind The Book

This is Volume Two of a projected three-volume series that follows the Grenville family from the Civil War into the twentieth century. "Yankee Reconstructed" tells the stories of the tumultuous years of Reonstruction, 1867 through 1877.

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Reviews

<p>One beta-reader, Paul Hedden, wrote:</p> <div class="yiv0356982024"><font face="times new roman, new york, times, serif" size="3"><span class="yiv0356982024">An outstanding primer to Reconstruction in South Carolina.</span></font></div> <div class="yiv0356982024"><font face="times new roman, new york, times, serif" size="3"><span class="yiv0356982024">Well-constructed and historically accurate novel</span></font></div> <div class="yiv0356982024"><font face="times new roman, new york, times, serif" size="3"><span class="yiv0356982024">Relates the sad story of Reconstruction in South Carolina</span></font></div> <div class="yiv0356982024"><font face="times new roman, new york, times, serif" size="3"><span class="yiv0356982024">2<sup class="yiv0356982024">nd</sup> novel of the Grenville family in South Carolina is a fascinating review of South Carolina history from colonial days through the end of Reconstruction in 1878.<span class="yiv0356982024">  </span></span></font></div> <div class="yiv0356982024"><font face="times new roman, new york, times, serif" size="3"><span class="yiv0356982024">What passed during Reconstruction still remains today as the standard of inter-racial behavior, public and private.</span></font></div> <div class="yiv0356982024"><font face="times new roman, new york, times, serif" size="3"><span class="yiv0356982024">Plots and sub-plots illustrating this little understood period in South Carolina’s history.</span></font></div> <div class="yiv0356982024"><font face="times new roman, new york, times, serif" size="3"><span class="yiv0356982024">Discussion of problems still plaguing contemporary South Carolina and their source. The development of South Carolina’s educational system.<span class="yiv0356982024">  </span>The source of the State’s Right to Work law.</span></font></div> <div class="yiv0356982024"><font face="times new roman, new york, times, serif" size="3"><span class="yiv0356982024">Many facts and minutiae of South Carolina's’ early buildings and the industries and societies that used these edifices and resources including enslaved craftsmen.<span class="yiv0356982024">  </span>The character Henry conveys remarkable insight into todays’ conflict of religion and politics in a democracy.</span></font></div> <div class="yiv0356982024"><font face="times new roman, new york, times, serif" size="3"><span class="yiv0356982024">Additionally the fascinating bit of the history of the Carolina Marsh Tacky, a horse breed found here in South Carolina. Also the Sheldon Church, “Flemish” bond brick laying.</span></font></div> <div class="yiv0356982024"><font face="times new roman, new york, times, serif" size="3"><span class="yiv0356982024">The excesses of the Reconstruction (Black Republican) legislature.</span></font></div> <div class="yiv0356982024"><font face="times new roman, new york, times, serif" size="3"><span class="yiv0356982024">Remarkably well researched as to details.<span class="yiv0356982024">  </span>Demonstrates the deep understanding of the most current of historical research including the post-Civil War sociology of death, the legal confusions of Andrew Johnson’s approach to Reconstruction; the development of the SC Reconstruction Constitution.<span class="yiv0356982024">  </span>Imparts a good sense of the fear, on the part of the white population, of the idea of equality of the races and its consequences today.<span class="yiv0356982024">  </span>Evocative of the constant threat of violence, political and racial or both throughout the State in this period.</span></font></div> <div class="yiv0356982024"><font face="times new roman, new york, times, serif" size="3"><span class="yiv0356982024">Introduces to the general public the many personalities that shaped post-Civil War thought in South Carolina:<span class="yiv0356982024">  </span>Robert Smalls, Benjamin Randolph, Wade Hampton and Rufus Saxon. And other, less notable but not of less importance, people who implemented the ideas of reconstructing South Carolina:<span class="yiv0356982024">  </span><span class="yiv0356982024"> </span>e.g. Laura Towne and the Penn School and its details. </span></font></div> <div class="yiv0356982024"><font face="times new roman, new york, times, serif" size="3"><span class="yiv0356982024">Reflects the total chaos that paralyzed South Carolina in the post war years. </span></font></div>