Alabama: A History

Alabama's is a story, believes author Virginia V. Hamilton, that bears scrutiny by Alabamians and outsiders alike if they would understand the present. Pause for a moment before a gallery of fading portraits, and you will sense the beginnings of Alabama's troubled history--homespun pioneers gripped by "Alabama fever," chained and manacled black people quietly awaiting a slave trader's order to move on, newly rich planters and iron barons holding tightly to the reins of power. You will also be ca