I think this will make Watergate look like childs play. Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, on Karl Roves alleged involvement in his prosecution Was Don Siegelman the victim of a Republican conspiracy led by Karl Rove, or was he perhaps the most corrupt governor in Alabama history? On February 24, 2008, 60 Minutes delivered a bombshell claims that President Bushs political advisor Karl Rove had assigned an Alabama woman to tail Governor Don Siegelman and take photos of him having extramarital sex. The piece also presented an open and shut case that powerful Republicansincluding Rove and Bob Riley, Siegelmans successor as Alabamas governorhad somehow ordered the Justice Department to prosecute Siegelman. In this book, Eddie Curranthe investigative reporter whose stories initiated the criminal investigationdelivers a far different portrait of the one-time golden boy of Alabama Democratic politics. Curran leads readers on a first-person account of his discoveries, including Siegelmans use of his office to collect more than $1.3 million in legal fees while governor; the sale of his home through a straw man for twice its value; and a host of scandals involving the likes of Waste Management Inc., and Richard Scrushy, the deeply corrupt HealthSouth Corp. chairman prosecuted along with Siegelman. The Governor of Goat Hill is both a scathing portrayal of a New South governor gone bad and an indictment of some of the top names in American journalism, who bought into a bogus conspiracy for no reason other than it led to Karl Rove. This is a book you will either love or hate. One thing you definitely wont find it to be is boring. If you believe Don Siegelman got shafted by over-zealous, intensely partisan prosecutors you will find the case presented against him in great detail, making it easier for you to contradict with opposing evidence. I consider Don Siegelman a personal friend and this book has not changed my mind. He is a man of great ability and it will be up to the reader to decide if he abused the trust that was placed in himor was the victim of a witch hunt orchestrated at the highest levels of American government. Bill Stewart, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Alabama

Few states have as colorful a political history as Alabama, especially in the post-World War II era. During the past six decades, the state played a central role in the civil rights movement, largely moved away from its earlier farm-based economy and culture, and transitioned from a relatively moderate-progressive Democratic Party politics to today's hard-core conservative Republican Party domination. Moving onto and off Alabama's electoral stage during all these transformations have been some of the most interesting figures in 20th-century American government and politics. Swirling around these elected officials in the Heart of Dixie are stories, legends, and jokes that are told and retold by political insiders, journalists, and scholars who follow the goings-on in Washington and Montgomery. In Alabama, it seems, politics is not only a blood sport but high entertainment. There could be no better guide to this colorful history than political columnist and commentator Steve Flowers.

A political satire that reimagines George Wallace's last run for governor of Alabama It's the summer of George Wallace's last run for governor of Alabama in 1982, and the state is at a crossroads. In Katherine Clark's All the Governor's Men, a political comedy of manners that reimagines Wallace's last campaign, voters face a clear choice between the infamous segregationist, now a crippled old man in a wheelchair, and his primary opponent, Aaron Osgood, a progressive young candidate poised to liberate the state from its George Wallace-poisoned past. Daniel Dobbs, a twenty one-year-old Harvard graduate and South Alabama native, is one of many young people who have joined the campaign representing hope and change for a downtrodden Alabama. A political animal himself, Daniel possesses so much charm and charisma that he was nicknamed "the Governor" in college. Nowhe is engaged in the struggle to conquer once and for all the malignant man Alabamians have traditionally called "the Governor." This historic election isn't the only thing Daniel wants to win. During his senior year, he fell in love with a freshman girl from Mountain Brook, the "Tiny Kingdom" of wealth and privilege, a world apart from his own Alabama origins. A small-town country boy, Daniel desperately wants to gain the favor of his girlfriend's family along with her mentor, the larger-than-life English teacher Norman Laney. Daniel also wants to keep one or two ex-girlfriends firmly out of the picture. In the course of his summer, he must untangle his complicated personal life, satisfy the middle-class dreams of his parents for their Harvard-educated son, decide whether to enter law school or launch his own political career, and, incidentally, help his candidate defeat George Wallace, in a close and increasingly dirty race. All the Governor's Men is a darkly comic look at both the political process in general and a significant political chapter in Alabama history. This second novel in Katherine Clark's Mountain Brook series depicts the social and political landscape of an Alabama world that is at once a place like no other and at the same time, a place like all others.

A study of how the Royal Navy defended the British Empire’s far-flung bases, from Bermuda to Hong Kong and beyond. Includes maps and photos. During the nineteenth century, the Royal Navy played a key role in defending the expanding British Empire. As sail gave way to steam power, there was a pressing requirement for coaling stations and dock facilities across the world’s oceans. These strategic bases needed fixed defenses. In Britain’s Island Fortresses, historian Bill Clements describes in detail, with the aid of historic photographs, maps and plans, the defenses of the most important islands, Bermuda, Ceylon, Hong Kong, Jamaica and Singapore, and a number of lesser ones including Antigua, Ascension, Mauritius, St. Helena, and St. Lucia. He describes how the defenses were modified over the years in order to meet the changing strategic needs of the Empire, and the technological changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution. Only three of these bases had to defend themselves in war—Hong Kong, Singapore and Ceylon—and the author relates the battles for these bases. This is a fascinating read for anyone interested in the maritime history of the British Empire.

In Alabama Getaway Allen Tullos explores the recent history of one of the nation's most conservative states to reveal its political imaginary—the public shape of power, popular imagery, and individual opportunity. From Alabama's largely ineffectual politicians to its miserly support of education, health care, cultural institutions, and social services, Tullos examines why the state appears to be stuck in repetitive loops of uneven development and debilitating habits of judgment. The state remains tied to fundamentalisms of religion, race, gender, winner-take-all economics, and militarism enforced by punitive and defensive responses to criticism. Tullos traces the spectral legacy of George Wallace, ponders the roots of anti-egalitarian political institutions and tax structures, and challenges Birmingham native Condoleezza Rice's use of the civil rights struggle to justify the war in Iraq. He also gives due coverage to the state's black citizens who with a minority of whites have sustained a movement for social justice and democratic inclusion. As Alabama competes for cultural tourism and global industries like auto manufacturing and biomedical research, Alabama Getaway asks if the coming years will see a transformation of the “Heart of Dixie.”