Customer Reviews

Blocton: The History of an Alabama Coal Mining Town

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The book has been in the making for over 20 years. It accurately represents the life and times of a small coal mining town. It goes from boom time through the decline of the town and to the rebuilding of its future. I am very proud to have helped with the book and also proud of its author, Charles adams. I feel that anyone wanting to read a very accurate and realisitic historical saga would benifit greatly in the reading this book.

Charles Adams has written a history that everyone who grew up in a small town wishes that someone would write about his or her home town -- a nostalgic journey back in time to the way it was. But Blocton was no ordinary small town. Adams captures the essence of a backwoods boomtown at the turn of the last century -- a colorful and detailed account of an unusual piece of Americana in rural Alabama that was as diverse in its ethnic makeup and its vitality as the melting pot of New York City was at the time. Adams documents an interesting story of a little known and out-of-the-way place where Polish and Italian miners and the Jewish merchants who served them created a community that alternately went boom and bust, that survived strikes and a fire that leveled the town, and then prospered again until the closing of the mines and the Great Depression finally turned it into a sleepy but still proud little town that attracts little attention today.

The book is well documented and is illustrated with many photographs and documents. It favorably reflects the many years of research and effort by its author to capture the substance and spirit of his home town, and it accurately tells an unusual story, because Blocton was not your ordinary little town.

This book was an amazing read ,and suprisingly keeps you wanting to read more. At first glance you might not think that the history of a small town in Alabama would be the most riveting piece of writing, but the way the history of the town develops will keep you reading hours into the night. Charles Adamas does a wonderful job of bringing the history of Blocton to you in a way that brings out a sense of pride in anyone who is from a small town.It may look like double-diamond difficulty in the length catagory, but so many great books are. If you want a book that reminds you of the amazing history behind every community in America, big and small, then check this one out.