Want to read up on Wilmington history? Here are a few books to get you started

If you're looking to do some summer reading, why not learn a little more about the place you live?

Dozens if not hundreds of books have been written about the history of the Wilmington area. And while this story isn't meant to provide a comprehensive list it's a pretty good place to start, especially if you're a newcomer to the area or a newbie when it comes to local history.

Even you don't see yourself tackling any of these titles any time soon, I can tell you from experience that books about Wilmington history make for great gifts.

'Chronicles of the Cape Fear River: 1660-1916'

For decades, this 1915 tome by wealthy Wilmington philanthropist and businessman James Sprunt — his family ran one of the biggest cotton-exporting facilities in the world out of what is now the Cotton Exchange shopping center downtown — was considered the definitive word on Wilmington-area history. There is material of value here, but more recent historians have criticized Sprunt for giving short shrift to the concerns of Wilmingtonians who weren't rich, white and male.

'Wilmington North Carolina: An Architectural and Historical Portrait'

This 1984 book by Tony P. Wrenn, with stunning photos by Wm. Edmund Barrett, is a treasure trove for those interested in the history of individual buildings downtown, from the famous (Thalian Hall, the Bellamy Mansion) to the obscure.

'Race, Place & Memory: Deep Currents in Wilmington, North Carolina'

Margaret M. Mulrooney's 2018 book is a deep dive into the history of race relations in Wilmington, from its earliest days to the present. By turns absorbing and disturbing, it offers notable re-evaluations of such historical figures as the Revolutionary War here Cornelius Harnett, and the book's cover photo features white members of Wilmington's Kiwanis club performing in blackface during a North Carolina Azalea Festival parade in the 1950s.

'Wilmington: Lost But Not Forgotten'

Wonderful (and wonderfully illustrated) 2005 book by Beverly Tetterton, who for years ran the North Carolina Room in downtown's New Hanover County Public Library. It chronicles hundreds of Wilmington buildings that have been lost to history.

'Stories Old and New of the Cape Fear Region'

Louis T. Moore's 1956 volume contains some notably dated racial attitudes but is also a source of enduring local legends, from the Jacob's Run tunnels and the Dram Tree to the story of Samuel Jocelyn being supposedly "buried alive" in St. James cemetery.

'Wilmington's Lie'

David Zucchino's gripping and somewhat depressing account of Wilmington's 1898 coup and massacre, when whites took over the city government, killed dozens of Blacks and banished hundreds more, is the only book on Wilmington history to win the Pulitzer Prize.

More to read

"Cape Fear Lost" and "Wilmington: Then & Now" by Susan Taylor Block; "Wrightsville Beach: The Luminous Island" by Ray McAllister; "Memories Yesteryear" by Robert Martin Fales, M.D.; "A History Lover's Guide to Wilmington and the Lower Cape Fear," by Jack Fryar; "The Wilmington Campaign: Last Rays of Departing Hope," "Glory at Wilmington: The Battle of Forks Road," "Curious Tales from Old Wilmington," "More Curious Tales from Old Wilmington," by Chris Fonvielle; "The Wilmington Ten: Violence, Injustice, and the Rise of Black Politics in the 1970s," by Kenneth Robert Janken; on 1898: "We Have Taken a City" by H. Leon Prather Sr. and "A Day of Blood" by LeRae Umfleet.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Want to read up on Wilmington history? Here are a few books to get you started