Alabama Books

Author Clarke Stallworth has an enviable reputation as a talented reporter, editor, college teacher and trainer of journalists. Above all Stallworth is a great storyteller and an excellent writer. His book is a collection of short stories mostly about Alabamians during the Civil War. The tales are arranged chronologically from 1860 through the emigration of many Southerners to Brazil in 1867.

The crisp accounts portray incidents in the lives of the famous such as Confederate Army Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest as well as virtual unknowns like Confederate Army Captain William H. Lawrence and Thomas F. Dornblasser, the Union Army soldier who killed Captain Lawrence. Anyone interested in the history of Alabama and the Civil War will surely enjoy this book.

AN ORNAMENT TO THE CITY: OLD MOBILE IRONWORK features lovely full-page color photos by Sheila Hagler and accompanies an exhibit telling of Mobile's elegant ironwork, which has graced both public places and buildings alike. Mobile's ironwork once extended past the city's center and can be found all around the area: while much of it is gone today, AN ORNAMENT TO THE CITY celebrates the history and appearance of what remains. Any interested in ironworking art will find it a fine acquisition.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This volume is put together the way a good biography should be. While the analysis is not profound, the reader gets a good idea of how Underwood attained the positions he did. While it is a little startling that as late as 1907 he would still call for the repeal of the 15th Amendment, contemporary Southern politicians were taking even more extreme anti-Negro positions; e.g., James K. Vardaman, in Mississippi, was crusading for no money for schools for Negroes, and Pitchfork Ben Tillman was condoning lynching! The account of the early days that Underwood was in Congress is a bit dry, detailing as it does legislative events of little significance today. The account of the 1912 Baltimore Democratic Convention, where Underwood was a candidate for President, is full of interest. This is also true of the account of his bid for President in 1924, when he became a household name because of the 103 ballots taken at the 1924 Democratic Convention in New York which started with the booming cry: "Alabama casts 24 votes for Oscar W. Underwood." Underwood is almost unique (only Henry Clay's career is comparable) in American history in that he attained a leadership position in the United States House of Representatives (in which he served for almost 20 years) and then was elected to the Senate where he again became Democratic leader, albeit his two-term Senate career was not as successful as his House career. The account of his two campaigns for the Senate, in 1914 and in 1920, are full of interest. Anyone interested in the political history of the first quarter of the 20th century in the United States will find reading of this book of value. I know I found it easy to read and consistently attention-holding. The research is carefully done and the footnotes are appropriately detailed. The bibliography is adequate. It is always good to see a biographer who has used the Congressional Record in the way that it should be in order to relate a congressional career. This is a good book, and throws light on a fascinating period of American political history.

This was the first archaeological study in downtown Phenix City, Alabama. This work was done prior to the construction of the Amphitheatre on the banks of the Chattahoochee River. The findings include a wonderful discussion of a woman named Frances Waccisser, who endured a series of husbands and made quite a success of herself. The City of Phenix City panned the report because of its title. The title was MY idea!!!

The authors describe twentynine trips in the present state of Alabama, from saltwater trips by Dauphin Island, forays in the great delta of the Mobile and Tensaw rivers, still half intact, amazingly, various small rivers in the southern half of the state (Escatawpa, Magnolia, Hurricane Creek, Perdido, Styx, Big Escambia Creek, Choctawhatchee, Conecuh, Pea, Sepulga & Yellow), central rivers such as the Little Cahaba (the one toward Centerville), Hatchett "River" (we called it "creek" back in the day, though it is a big one), its onetime tributary Weogufka, the bit of the Coosa that's been left running by Alabama Power, a small bit of the Tallapoosa, and bits and pieces of the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River, the Mulberry Fork of the BWR, Bear and Borden Creeks, the Flint, the Sipsey Fork of the BWR (not the Sipsey over by Mississippi) and the recently imperiled Terrapin Creek (I didn't know about that one).
No Cahaba, no Little River (in May's Gulf), no Tombigbee (eliminated by the Tenn-Tom, of course), but you can't have everything, especially when Falcon Guides pretty well standardizes the length of their books.
The descriptions are as detailed as they have to be, with good maps, lists of outfitters etc, and there are quite a lot of references, including websites.
The authors end their general introduction with a discussion "So who really owns the rivers?". I remember an old bird a couple of miles below US 280 on the Cahaba, now surely howling in She'ol, who used to run out screaming when he saw canoeists preparing to portage the three-foot dam on the river beside his (at that time) country residence. The ranting and raving didn't cease when the interlopers tried portaging along the near vertical opposite bank. They were trespassing when they were on the river itself, he said.
-How's that?
-This river isn't navigable!
-Why not? (Alabama law held that waterways had to be "navigable" to be public.)
-I've dammed it up myself!
Anybody who grew up in the "state of Alabama" remembers encountering this kind of stuff.
The authors remark, offhandedly, that "some ... would just as soon take a shot at a passing canoe". In fact, when I was making my getaway from the Heart of Dixie, canoeists on the Locust Fork were occasionally the target of rifle and shotgun blasts. Did the natives believe the navigators were opponents of the local porkbarrel dam project, of stripmining or something else that paid? I couldn't tell you. Who knows whether these local patriots were the ones who burned down a couple of covered bridges thereabouts, or tried to dynamite a natural bridge up on Town Creek, or were involved in any of the rest of the idiocy and skullduggery so characteristic of the rural areas of this benighted state?
So, if you're planning to canoe on the beautiful creeks and rivers of this once very beautiful stretch of land, wrecked and befouled by the political entity called "Alabama", be prepared for some pretty savage stuff.

Beautifully written about a young girl's life during the Depression. Meg is a wee bit lazy working in the fields, but inside the house she finds a mystery. Her Papa left a trunk and its contents draw Meg like a magnet. Does she find a way for the family to rise above the devastation of the Great Depression or a treasure for the family's soul? Her determination to find out, pushes the reader forward to the last page, hoping this little girl and her family find the gold at the end of the rainbow.

Meg and her brother, Pod, capture hearts and minds, bringing joy in the middle of one of America's darkest hours.

Retired British lieutenant colonel Tony Le Tissier presents Patton's Pawns: The 94th US Infantry Division at the Siegfried Line, a close-up examination of an infantry division created late in World War II, primarily of draft-deferred university students and officer corps assembled from various domestic postings. Chapters recount how the division was incorporated into General Patton's Third Army south of the Moselle-Saar Triangle, its first combat experience during the Battle of the Bulge which entailed heavy casualties from the fierce winter weather as well as the fighting, and its application in an all-out assault to break through the Siegfried Line against entrenched defenders. A handful of black-and-white photographs and maps, as well as notes, a bibliography, and an index round out this in-depth historical chronicle of this outnumbered division and the tremendous sacrifice it paid. Highly recommended.

Picture Taker is a collection of black-and-white photography by award-winning photojournalist Ken Elkins, celebrating the daily lives of small town and rural inhabitants of Alabama. Aside from a foreword by Pulitzer Prize- winning journalist Rick Bragg and an afterword, no text distracts the reader from the poignant images of salt-of-the- earth people. Even the one-sentence captions for the photographs are grouped together at the back of the book, so as not to distract from the compelling visual experience. An exquisite portrait human pride, wit, and stoicism, amid the breathtaking Alabama countryside.

A nice coverage of the proud history of a local area. Written in a lively and altruistic prose, Martin carefully regards the many aspects of her hometown. A must read if one is a resident of Dothan, AL.

This volume is a great resource combining information from people with experience in this subject. The take on gender and rights in certain aspects of lodge construction seems a bit odd or out of place, an exercise in critical analysis for the reader who sometimes does jobs usually assigned to the opposite sex. The diverse approaches of the various authors provides insight to what is known about earthlodges, and how they fit into the bigger picture of Plains history. Not a quick read, but a good book for archaeology/ history / architecture buffs, teachers and professors. If you think an earthlodge is made of earth, you should read this book and find out the real story. If you ever wondered how people survived on the plains before insulation, heating and central air, this book is for you. Don't let the academic timbre scare you away if that's not your usual style.