In the early 1900s, Huntsville, Alabama, had more spindles than any other city in the South. Cotton fields and mills made the city a major competitor in the textile industry. Entire mill villages sprang up around the factories to house workers and their families. Many of these village buildings are now iconic community landmarks, such as the revitalized Lowe Mill arts facility and the Merrimack Mill Village Historic District. The "lintheads," a demeaning moniker villagers wore as a badge of honor, were hard workers. Their lives were fraught with hardships, from slavery and child labor to factory fires and shutdowns. They endured job-related injuries and illnesses, strikes and the Great Depression. Author Terri L. French details the lives, history and legacy of the workers.

Keepers is a delightful romp through religion, rebellion and rambunctiousness. French's haibun offer an artful fusion of memory tied to parenting her two boys along with her imagination steeped in regional awareness of rural Alabama where she has lived for the last thirty years. The haibun capture the authentic voice of 11-year-old JT Blankenship and are reminiscent of Twain's Huck Finn. This collection of coming-of-age stories is strengthened by French's haiku, which have the power to stand on their own. Keepers is a book that will tickle the funny bones and pull at the heart strings of young and old alike.

Cormac McCarthy's first novel, The Orchard Keeper, won the William Faulkner Award. His other books - Outer Dark, Child of God, Suttree, and Blood Meridian - have drawn a cult readership and the praise of such writers as Annie Dillard and Shelby Foote. "There are so many people out there who seem to have a hunger to know more about McCarthy's work," says McCarthy scholar Vereen Bell. Helping to satisfy such a need, this collection of essays, one of the few critical studies of Cormac McCarthy, introduces his work and lays the groundwork for study of an important but underrecognized American novelist, winner in 1992 of the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award for All the Pretty Horses. The essays explore McCarthy's historical and philosophical sources, grapple with the difficult task of identifying the moral center in his works, and identify continuities in his fiction. Included too is a bibliography of works by and about him. As they reflect critical perspectives on the works of this eminent writer, these essays afford a pleasing introduction to all his novels and his screenplay, "The Gardener's Son."

From boot-legging to ghosts and everything in between, this collection of stories shows the other side of Huntsville and its development in unexpected ways. Utilizing illustrations and advertisements, anecdotes and stories, Tom Carney has created a virtual time machine that doesn't always land where you would expect it.

Writing in 1749, Benjamin Franklin called for the creation of an educational institution in Philadelphia in which academic pursuits would be devoted to practical application for the greater good. That institution became the University of Pennsylvania. And while Franklin may not have anticipated it, since they first stepped onto campus the women of Penn have taken his concept of enlightened service and made it their own. This volume, published to mark the 125th anniversary of the first women students at Penn, depicts some of the struggles and successes of the University's female pioneers. While girls were part of Franklin's early affiliated Charity School, society at the time dictated their exclusion from more advanced study. But as the nineteenth century progressed, higher education for women gained ground in America and at Penn. By the 1920s, 17 different academic programs admitted women, and by the 1950s, the numbers of women on campus had increased dramatically—as students, as faculty, and as members of the University's board of trustees. Women were becoming an essential part of the Penn community. In his autobiography Franklin recounts his correspondence with a young friend "on the propriety of educating the female sex in learning and their abilities for study. He was of opinion that it was improper and that they were naturally unequal to it. I took the contrary side." In 2001 Penn has proven Franklin's early instinct correct, and what was once a trickle of women scholars has become a flood. Immersed in the egalitarian Penn of today, female students might take their advantages for granted. They are actively creating their own history, but they are also continuing a valuable collective tradition—Franklin's daughters all.

Harriette Arnow’s search for truth as early American settlers knew it began as a child—the old songs, handed-down stories, and proverbs that colored her world compelled her on a journey that informs her depiction of the Cumberland River Valley in Kentucky and Tennessee. Arnow drew from court records, wills, inventories, early newspapers, and unpublished manuscripts to write Seedtime on the Cumberland, which chronicles the movement of settlers away from the coast, as well as their continual refinement of the “art of pioneering.” A companion piece, this evocative history covers the same era, 1780–1803, from the first settlement in what was known as “Middle Tennessee” to the Louisiana Purchase. When Middle Tennessee was the American frontier, the men and women who settled there struggled for survival, land, and human dignity. The society they built in their new home reflected these accomplishments, vulnerabilities, and ambitions, at a time when America was experiencing great political, industrial, and social upheaval.

An anthology of more than 800 poems that were originally written in English by over 200 poets from around the world. This collection tells the story for the first time of Anglophone haiku, charting its evolution over the last one hundred years and placing it within its historical and literary context.

Beauty seems simple; we know it when we see it. But of course our ideas about what is attractive are influenced by a broad range of social and economic factors, and in Beauty and Business leading historians set out to provide this important cultural context. How have retailers shaped popular consciousness about beauty? And how, in turn, have cultural assumptions influenced the commodification of beauty? The contributors here look to particular examples in order to address these questions, turning their attention to topics ranging from the social role of the African American hair salon, and the sexual dynamics of bathing suits and shirtcollars, to the deeper meanings of corsets and what the Avon lady tells us about changing American values. As a whole, these essays force us to reckon with the ways that beauty has been made, bought, and sold in modern America.

Huntsville is a city rich in contrasts, an intriguing blend of the historic Old South and the dynamic New South of today. Historic Huntsville: A City of New Beginnings explores this fascinating region and its rise from a frontier settlement to a center for space-age achievement. Writing with style, wit, and affection, author Elise Hopkins Stephens depicts Huntsville's history through scholarly research as well as through the memories of those who lived it. The author distills a wealth of information into a lively narrative sparked with colorful anecdotes and an obvious love of the area. Settled by rugged frontiersmen like John Hunt, and aristocratic families like the Popes who came "lock, stock, and sterling silverware" from Georgia, Huntsville had its roots in contrast, thriving on the traditions of red-blooded squatters and blue-blooded squires. Here the author traces the growth years of antebellum Huntsville and the dizzying fluctuations of the cotton economy; the pathos of the war years and the personal conflicts of those who sought simply to do what was right; the rise of the textile industry and the struggles of black and white, rich and poor, to forge a new social order. World War II and the defense industry brought dramatic changes to the area, and foretold of an exciting future as scientists of the stature of Wernher von Braun, like a new aristocracy of intellect, settled in this city of the Old South. Hundreds of illustrations bring Huntsville's past to life, while a portfolio of brilliant color photographs focuses on contemporary views of the city. Biographies of many of Huntsville's businesses and organizations are highlighted in a special chapter entitled "Chronicles of Leadership," detailing their contributions to Huntsville. An illustrated timeline of significant events further enhances the text and puts it all in perspective. For both longtime residents, newcomers and friends of Huntsville everywhere, this is a volume to be treasured. It presents a uniquely comprehensive and insightful view of Huntsville, a city rich in heritage and bright with promise. Historic Huntsville: A City of New Beginnings is a book not only to inform but to delight readers for generations to come. Book jacket.