Alabama History

The book, Alabama Short Stories, Volume 1, is the companion to the Alabama Short Stories podcast. This Audiobook is a compilation of the first three seasons of the podcast. There are thirty stories about artists, inventors, athletes, and exceptional people from Alabama. There are icons we know and love and alien encounters. You can hear the stories individually on the podcast feed or all together in this audiobook.

In the 13th century, Moundville was one of the largest Native American settlements north of Mexico. Spread over 325 acres were 29 earthen mounds arranged around a great plaza, a mile-long stockade, and dozens of dwellings for thousands of people. Moundville, in size and complexity second only to the Cahokia site in Illinois, was a heavily populated town as well as a political and religious center. Moundville was sustained by tribute of food and labor provided by the people who lived in the nearby floodplain as well as other smaller mound centers.

In Bloody Tuesday, John Giggie powerfully recovers one of the last great untold stories of the civil rights movement and its role in the reckoning with America's ongoing struggle for racial justice.

The Rise and Decline of the Redneck Riviera focuses on the stretch of coast from Mobile Bay and Gulf Shores, Alabama, east to Panama City, Florida—an area known as the "Redneck Riviera." Jackson explores the rise of this area as a vacation destination for the lower South's middle- and working-class families following World War II, the building boom of the 1950s and 1960s, and the emergence of the Spring Break "season." While his major focus is on the social, cultural, and economic development, he also documents the impacts of natural disasters and politics of beach access.

This serves as the first volume of a series covering the amazing 50 states. It looks at the facts about each state, its history, and interesting little tidbits of information about each. In this volume, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, and California are covered.

In this personal narrative, Jourden H. Banks who had been a slave for 29 years criticizes racism and slavery in specific detail, recommending that ex-slaves stand united in leveraging economic and political resources.

In the summer of 1962, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) began to express interest in targeting one of the South's most brutally segregated cities. Nicknamed “Bombingham”, the city had witnessed the bombing of over a dozen Black homes and churches in the previous five years. A victory in Birmingham was a goal that would embolden the Civil Rights Movement like never before. Together with Ralph Abernathy and other SCLC leaders, King recruited and organized volunteers for sit-ins, demonstrations, boycotts, and protests throughout the city.

In July 1862, Confederate Captain Raphael Semmes took command of a secret new warship. At the helm of the Alabama, he became the most hated and feared man along the Union coast, as well as a Confederate legend. Now, with unparalleled authority, depth, and a vivid sense of the excitement and danger of the time, Stephen Fox describes Captain Semmes's remarkable wartime exploits.

An outstanding primary source of Southern life during the Yankee blockade, the book is a memoir of daily life on a Southern plantation during the Civil War. The narrative provides details on a wide spectrum of issues of historical interest.

Very few institutions in American sports can match the enduring excellence of the University of Alabama football program. Across a wide swath of the last century, the tradition-rich Crimson Tide has claimed twelve national championships, captured 25 conference titles, finished 34 times among the country's top ten, and played in 53 bowl games.

Beside the Troubled Waters is a memoir by an African-American physician in Alabama whose story in many ways typifies the lives and careers of Black doctors in the south during the segregationist era while also illustrating the diversity of the Black experience in the medical profession.