Alabama Books

This is an excellent source for a look into America's real past.

In 1966 Sam Hill published his classic assessment of the white Southern church which, on the whole, failed to speak redemptively in the midst of the civil rights movement. By its focus on personal religious experience and its failure to speak and act prophetically, the white churches did not address a word of reconciliation in a world of racial conflict. Thirly years later Hill has focused on purity of belief as the central theme of Southern religion. In asserting a doctrinal orthodoxy and denouncing specific ethical practices (abortion and gay rights, for example), Southern churches have turned inward in an effort to cleanse and purify themselves. We are in the debt both of the University of Alabama Press for reissuing the books and of Sam Hill for his new introductory essay.

Anyone who has seen Rock City, wandered the grounds of Graceland, hiked in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, or watched the mermaids swim at Weeki Wachee knows the southern United States offers visitors a rich variety of scenic, cultural, and leisure activities. Tourism has been, and is still, one of the most powerful economic forces in the modern South. It is a multibillion-dollar industry that creates jobs and generates revenue while drawing visitors from around the world to enjoy the regionÒs natural and man-made attractions.

This collection of 11 essays explores tourism as a defining force in southern history by focusing on particular influences and localities. Alecia Long examines sex as a fundamental component of tourism in New Orleans in the early 20th century, while Brooks Blevins describes how tourism served as a modernizing influence on the Arkansas Ozarks, even as the region promoted itself as a land of quaint, primitive hillbillies. Anne Whisnant chronicles the battle between North Carolina officials building the Blue Ridge Parkway and the owner of Little Switzerland, who fought for access and advertising along the scenic highway. One essay probes the racial politics behind the development of Hilton Head Island, while another looks at the growth of Florida's panhandle into a "redneck Riviera," catering principally to southerners, rather than northern tourists.

Southern Journeys is a pioneering work in southern history. It introduces a new window through which to view the region's distinctiveness. Scholars and students of environmental history, business history, labor history, and social history will all benefit from a consideration of the place of tourism in southern life.

This book lives up to the promise of its title; there are very nice ideas for quick decorating, when company is coming, and for making a new home "yours". The gorgeous photos in the large format book illustrate the concepts beautifully, and there are lots of nitty-gritty hands-on tips and illustrations.

Years ago this book was my introduction to the world of Christenberry's amazing photography and I find it to still be his best collection. His haunting, stark images of rotting buildings, rusted signs, odd churches, weird kudzu landscapes and other rural scenes recall a rural South of the 60's and 70's that is forever in my own mind as someone who grew up there (most of the photos are from that time period). His work can be compared to Walker Evans, but for me Christenberry surpasses his elder. This book is worth its weight in gold with red clay dust sprinkled on top. A work by a true master with a gifted eye for a disappearing world.

This book is an absolute authoritative history of the College of Community Health Sciences brought to you by an exceptional young author. Patricia J. West (with the help of Will Coggins) took the task of writing a thoroughly engrossing and spellbinding story of the history of a very successful college located at the University of Alabama. She shares the story of its initial planning stages, opening, growing pains, and finally it's establishment and location in a brand-new facility. She brings the characters to life and makes the reader beg for more. This book should also serve as a model for future books written about the history of the colleges.

A wonderful moving book which takes the reader into the mind of a young boy and into the world of Alabama in the 1950s.

Thoroughly researched and written by James Atkinson, a retired historian and archaeologist who studied the Chickasaw for most of his professional career, this book is a must have for any scholarly library. Using both historical and archaeological data, the author provides an excellent comprehensive history of the Chickasaw Indians. This book is a must have for archaeologists and historians working in Mississippi and the southeastern United States. Anyone interested in the Chickasaw will certainly benefit from reading this book.

Split-Gut Song: Jean Toomer And The Poetics Of Modernity explores what it means to be a modern African-American poet by scrutinizing Jean Toomer's body of work, in particular "Cane", which was first published in 1923 and widely hailed as ushering in a truly artistic African-American literary tradition. Yet Toomer's experimental literature has often been viewed in terms of political radicalism rather than literary radicalism. Associate Professor of English Karen Jackson Ford offers a close analysis of Toomer's poetry, letters, and essays, extracting an analysis that explores a contradiction between traditional lyric poetry and the crushing pressures of modernity. Toomer's efforts to better understand and convey the tangled complexity that was race and art in 20th century America shines through in this articulate and carefully thought out work of literary criticism.

This special edition is superb...the pictures, the text, just excellent! If you love Alabama or even just Southern football, this is a real must for any collector. I wish Sports Illustrated did one of these on every team.