Lorin Lee Cary

Books

Fiction

Quick and Quirky, Stories and Photos

A collection of flash fiction pieces, with quirky photos in between each one.

The Custer Conspiracy

An old diary reveals secrets about General George Armstrong Custer.

California Dreaming

Herb and Donna head to warmer climes after retirement, hauling an odd homemade trailer.

Historical Studies

No Strength Without Union, Workers in Ohio, 1803-1980

This is a pioneering study of workers at the state level, and because Ohio was such a critical industrial state, it is central to understanding the industrializing experience. It is a richly illustrated volume and provides handy statistical appendices. The book does not focus exclusively on unionized workers; it takes a broad perspective and looks at the working class. The book won the Ohio Academy of History's publication award.

Slavery in North Carolina, 1748-1775

"[Makes] a very important contribution to the study of early American slavery by showing . . . what it is possible to learn from relatively little in the way of conventional sources."--Journal of Southern History

"A marvelously thorough work. . . . It will stand for many years as a monument to its field."--Mississippi Quarterly

"Kay and Cary have made an important contribution to our understanding of American slavery. They remind us that both the South's peculiar institution and its system of race relations were more dynamic than is often assumed."--Southern Cultures

"Readers interested in colonial slavery need to become familiar with this book. Its main value is in forcing us to rethink what we believe about acculturation and the nature of slave society in early America."--Journal of American History

"Interesting, insightful, and necessary for a full understanding of slavery in colonial North Carolina as well as more broadly in the British-American empire."--North Carolina Historical Review

"Michael Kay and Lorin Cary make it possible for us to understand how much of pre-Revolutionary North Carolina functioned, and how an enduring segment of its population (African in origin) made its way in a new world. The scope of research, the reach of learning, and the wisdom of interpretation in this book are enormous."--William S. Price Jr., North Carolina Division of Archives and History

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Bio

Quick and Quirky Stories and Photos (2024), Lorin Lee Cary's latest book, links his interest in flash fiction with his love of photography. Cary is a long-term member of the Cambria Writer's Workshop, one of the oldest critique groups in California. His stories have appeared in Corvus Review, Fiction on the Web, Horror Sleaze Trash, Impspired, 101 Words, and others.

Cary's other books include The Custer Conspiracy (Book Baby, 2009), California Dreaming (Scarlet Leaf, 2017), and (based on interviews with Lu Chi Fa) My Good Fortune: Memoir of a Chinese Orphan's Success in America (BookLocker, 2019).

His interest in photography began as a kid and blossomed in later years. He has won awards for images in Nantucket, Toledo, Las Vegas, and Cambria. Photos have been published in Typehouse Magazine, Crux, and Carolina Muse.

Previously, Cary taught Labor and Social History at the University of Toledo and, as a Fulbright Senior Scholar, at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. In addition to many articles and essays, he co-authored No Strength Without Union: Ohio Workers 1803-1980 (Ohio Historical Society, 1982) and Slavery in North Carolina, 1748-1776 (University of North Carolina Press, 1995). Both won the Ohio Academy of History's Distinguished Book Award.