Alabama Books

The Quilts of Gee's Bend: Masterpieces from a Lost Place

William Arnett, Alvia Wardlaw, Jane Livingston, John Beardsley

Amazon Price: $31.50 List Price: $50.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Tinwood Books Amazon Marketplace: 51 new & used starting at $25.98

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> History & Criticism -> Regional -> African American
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> History & Criticism -> General AAS
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Instructional & How-To -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

exceptional 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I remember the first time I saw photographs of the quilts of Gee's Bend in a magazine about seven years ago. I couldn't wait to learn about the amazing artists whose vision the quilts portray. This book is more outstanding than I imagined it could be. It is powerful, beautiful, sensitive, and historically accurate. I recommend The Quilts of Gee's Bend to anyone with an eye for artistic genius and a love for discovering a community of women willing to express themselves outside the box of convention. How refreshing and inspiring! Simply Exceptional!!

Editorial Review:

Since the 19th century, the women of Gee’s Bend in southern Alabama have created stunning, vibrant quilts. Beautifully illustrated with 110 color illustrations, The Quilts of Gee’s Bend includes a historical overview of the two hundred years of extraordinary quilt-making in this African-American community, its people, and their art-making tradition. This book is being·released in conjunction with a national exhibition tour including The Museum of Fine Art, Houston, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

James Agee

By: Penguin Amazon Marketplace: 10 new & used starting at $13.97

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

I thought I hated it at points, but I've never been able to get it out of my head. 4 out of 5 stars.
12 of 13 people found this review helpful.

This book is an amazing work of art. At times it's baffling, and at times almost impertinent--like when the author decides to describe every object in an entire home, and yet in all these things and in all the conflicting emotions it evokes, it creates a mood and a feeling and a setting that will seep into your skin and fog your brain for months.
The writing is beautiful, the story it tells--of poor, sharecropping, depression-era families--is heartbreaking, and the experience of reading about it all is like a baptism by fire. This book just might re-wire your brain.
I think this is a much better read than Agee's "A Death in the Family," and that one won the Pulitzer Prize. Read this, for sure.
I read it on a bus trip across Guatemala, and the way Agee's descriptions of the old southern poverty fit the poor little towns full of Guatemalan coffee pickers was uncanny.
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, and let us start with James Agee.

UPDATE: It's years later, and this book has never stopped haunting me. I think of it almost daily. If I were to review it today, I would definitely give it Five Stars.

Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt

Paul Arnett, William Arnett, Bernard Herman, Maggi Gordon, Diane Mott, Dilys Blum, Lauren Whitley, Amei Wallach, Joanne Cubbs

Amazon Price: $31.50 List Price: $50.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Tinwood Books Amazon Marketplace: 31 new & used starting at $25.00

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Fashion -> History
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> Textile & Costume
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> History & Criticism -> Regional -> African American

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Architecture of a Quilt is a facinating and amazing book. 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I am really enjoying reading and looking at the pictures of the quilts in this book. I have met several of the ladies and decendants of the Gee' Bend Quilters and find their stories so interesting. The quilts definitely do define the quilters, their strengths and weaknesses, their ups and downs. I recomend this book to anyone who holds quilts near and dear to their hearts.

Editorial Review:

In 2002, Gee’s Bend burst into international prominence through the success of Tinwood’s Quilts of Gee’s Bend exhibition and book, which revealed an important and previously invisible art tradition from the African American South. Critics and popular audiences alike marveled at these quilts that combined the best of contemporary design with a deeply rooted ethnic heritage and compelling human stories about the women. Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt is a major book and museum exhibition that will premiere at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), in June 2006 before traveling to seven American museums through 2008. The book's 330 color illustrations and insightful text bring home the exciting experience to readers while displaying all the cultural heritage and craftsmanship that have gone into these remarkable quilts.

University of Alabama Football Vault: The Story of the Crimson Tide,1892-2007

Jay Barker

Amazon Price: $32.97 List Price: $49.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Whitman Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 24 new & used starting at $26.38

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Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> Alabama
Subjects -> Sports -> Coaching -> Football (American) -> General
Subjects -> Sports -> Coaching -> Football (American) -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Wow! Every BAMA Fan should have this one! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

My husband is a diehard Bama fan, and this was just to be an addition to the collection he already has... But, this could be the best one yet. I was amazed at the amount of information, history, memorabilia, quality, everything. I was expecting another "book", not a scrapbook of Alabama football history. Way to go Barker!

A must have for every 'Bama fan. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book is more than a book. It has everything you could imagine and is very well written by former alabama QB Jay Barker. I sat, totally amazed by everything in this vault for over 2 hours, reading stories, talking to my dad about games he'd been too, having travia matches with my "know-it-all" brother, and wishing I had another book for myself. This book looks great on the coffee table of my moms house and is a suitable sub for the Bible (until mom saw it there, Apparently "The Bear" isn't God after all.). If you like 'Bama football then, this book will make you love it. This is THE GIFT for the holidays or any other special occasion.

Editorial Review:

The 114 year history of the Crimson Tide is brought vividly to life by All-American quarterback Jay Barker, coupled with historic images, artwork, and photographs that span more than 11 decades of collegiate football greatness. Additionally, this unique book gives Tide fans a veritable home archive of reproduction memorabilia representing Bama's long and illustrious history. Hardcover with slipcase, 12X10, 144 pages.

Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Revised Edition

James H. Jones, Jones

Amazon Price: $16.15 List Price: $17.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Free Press Amazon Marketplace: 77 new & used starting at $2.35

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Subjects -> History -> World -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

From 1932 to 1972, the United States Public Health Service conducted a non-therapeutic experiment involving over 400 black male sharecroppers infected with syphilis. The Tuskegee Study had nothing to do with treatment. It purpose was to trace the spontaneous evolution of the disease in order to learn how syphilis affected black subjects. The men were not told they had syphilis; they were not warned about what the disease might do to them; and, with the exception of a smattering of medication during the first few months, they were not given health care. Instead of the powerful drugs they required, they were given aspirin for their aches and pains. Health officials systematically deceived the men into believing they were patients in a government study of "bad blood", a catch-all phrase black sharecroppers used to describe a host of illnesses. At the end of this 40 year deathwatch, more than 100 men had died from syphilis or related complications. "Bad Blood" provides compelling answers to the question of how such a tragedy could have been allowed to occur. Tracing the evolution of medical ethics and the nature of decision making in bureaucracies, Jones attempted to show that the Tuskegee Study was not, in fact, an aberration, but a logical outgrowth of race relations and medical practice in the United States. Now, in this revised edition of "Bad Blood", Jones traces the tragic consequences of the Tuskegee Study over the last decade. A new introduction explains why the Tuskegee Study has become a symbol of black oppression and a metaphor for medical neglect, inspiring a prize-winning play, a Nova special, and a motion picture. A new concluding chapter shows how the black community's wide-spread anger and distrust caused by the Tuskegee Study has hampered efforts by health officials to combat AIDS in the black community. "Bad Blood" was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and was one of the "N.Y. Times" 12 best books of the year.

Carry Me Home : Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution

Diane McWhorter

Amazon Price: $11.56 List Price: $17.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Simon & Schuster Amazon Marketplace: 75 new & used starting at $0.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Bold Move 3 out of 5 stars.
5 of 8 people found this review helpful.

The book "Carry Me Home," chock full of fascinating anecdotes and factual information, reveals the guilt of a Southern, white girl...who feels a deep force inside of her to expose her ancestors' shortcomings concerning their premise for white supremacy. Torn between her family and the truth, this book is a tell-all that reveals the McWhorters' role in the opposition to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s that altered Alabama's perception of the world drastically.

Editorial Review:

"The Year of Birmingham," 1963, was a cataclysmic turning point in America's long civil rights struggle. That spring, child demonstrators faced down police dogs and fire hoses in huge nonviolent marches for desegregation. A few months later, Ku Klux Klansmen retaliated by bombing the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and killing four young black girls. Diane McWhorter, journalist and daughter of a prominent Birmingham family, weaves together police and FBI documents, interviews with black activists and former Klansmen, and personal memories into an extraordinary narrative of the city, the personalities, and the events that brought about America's second emancipation.

Always Alabama: A History of Crimson Tide Football

Don Wade

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

With twelve national championships, nineteen players and coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame, and a tradition of national achievement that reaches back to the 1920s, the University of Alabama has secured its spot as one of the most successful athletic institutions in the history of American sports. Dating back to the days when university president Dr. George H. "Mike" Denny decided football would be the university's ticket to national prominence and especially during the years of legendary head coach Bear Bryant, Alabama has produced some of the most renowned teams and players in the history of the game.

Always Alabama tells the complete story -- through the eyes of dozens of Alabama insiders and vanquished opponents from the first Crimson Tide team in 1892 right on through the thrilling 2006 Cotton Bowl victory. Don Wade delivers a detailed look at the long and illustrious story of Crimson Tide football. Relive the exhilarating moments of triumph, including:

• Alabama's victory over University of Pennsylvania in 1922, a conquest that put Alabama football on the map
• The Tide's upholding the honor of the South with her victory at the 1926 Rose Bowl
• The stories that made Bear Bryant famous and every player who ever played for him a genuine tough guy
• All twelve of the program's national championships
• Those special moments when Alabama both defeated and lost to bitter rivals Auburn and Tennessee

And hear from the great players -- early legends such as Harry Gilmer and Vaughn Mancha, and larger-than-life heroes such as Lee Roy Jordan, Ken Stabler, and Ozzie Newsome -- and from scores of other players -- some famous, some not so famous -- who have personal stories to tell about the pride and privilege of wearing the red jersey.

With both black-and-white and color photos to help guide the way, Always Alabama is the definitive history of one of the most storied college football programs in the country and a book no college football fan can live without.

Black in Selma: The Uncommon Life of J.L. Chestnut Jr. (Fire Ant Books)

J L Chestnut

Amazon Price: $23.66 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Fire Ant Books Amazon Marketplace: 36 new & used starting at $8.49

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> African-American & Black
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

“The autobiography of J. L. Chestnut is the story of Selma’s first black lawyer and prodigal son, but it is also part of the history of the race, sweeping biblically from enslavement by segregation to freedom to the ambitious aftermath of redemption.”

 —New York Times Book Review

 

 “Unfolds with the richness that one expects in a nove. . . .Less about the famous civil rights figureheads like Adam Clayton Powell, Martin Luther King Jr., and Stokely Carmichael (though the author has his say about all of them) than the grass-roots folks who lived in Selma before the era of freedom riders, and remained there, toiling for social change, after the national leaders and media left. [This book] brims over with the social texture and political life of a Southern town raised to the level of a national symbol.”

—Los Angeles Times

 

“A valuable addition to the literature on civil rights. . . .It illuminates the personal isolation and frustration that make activism a high-risk endeavor.”

—Journal of American History

Bear's Boys: Thirty-Six Men Whose Lives Were Changed by Coach Paul Bryant

Eli Gold, M.B. Roberts

Amazon Price: $16.49 List Price: $24.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Thomas Nelson Amazon Marketplace: 44 new & used starting at $3.91

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Subjects -> Entertainment -> Humor -> Sports
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> Alabama
Subjects -> Sports -> Football (American) -> College & University

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Bear's Boys is a collection of inspiring stories featuring 36 men whose lives were altered by their encounter with the legendary coach while they were players and coaches at Alabama. The stories of star players such as Joe Namath, Ken Stabler, Marty Lyons, Bob Baumhower, Ozzie Newsome, and Gene Stallings show how the Coach forever changed them as young men and ball players on the field and later in life after football.

When Bob Baumhower was released from the Dolphins in 1986, he immediately did what Coach Bryant would have done: he made a plan. Instead of feeling sorry for himself, he snapped into practical mode. First, he sold his boat and his big house. Then, he systematically began exploring business opportunities and setting goals for the next several decades of his life. When he started his first restaurant, he knew he had yet another chance to apply the principles he learned on the football field in real life. "Coach Bryant said there's a lot of blood, sweat and guts between dreams and success," Baumhower said. "That's true in the restaurant business. . . . Today, every success I have, every win that I have, in my opinion, came from the fact that Coach Bryant cared enough to talk to me and turn the light on for me

Includes stories for such men as Bob Baumhower Jeremiah Castille Paul Crane Sylvester Croom John Hannah Dennis Homan Scott Hunter Lee Roy Jordan E. J. Junior Woodrow Lowe Gaylon McCollough Don McNeal Mal Moore Joe Namath Billy Neighbors Ozzie Newsome Ray Perkins Gary Rutledge Howard Schnellenberger Ken Stabler Gene Stallings Dwight Stephenson Richard Todd Pat Trammell Tommy Wilcox