The most thorough history of Alabama’s Madison County region, widely available for the first time The 1956 dissertation by Frances Cabaniss Roberts is a classic text on Alabama history that continues to be cited by southern historians. Roberts was the first woman to earn a PhD from the University of Alabama’s history department. In the 1950s, she was the only full-time faculty member at what is now the University of Alabama in Huntsville, where she was appointed chair of the history department in 1966. Roberts’s dissertation, “Background and Formative Period in the Great Bend and Madison County,” remains the most thorough history of the region yet produced. While certainly a product of its era, Roberts work is visionary in its own way and offers a useful look at Alabama’s rise to statehood. Thomas Reidy, editor of this edition, has kept Roberts’s words intact except for correction of minor typographical errors and helpful additions to the notes and citations. His introduction describes both the value of Roberts’s decades of service to UAH and the importance of her dissertation over time. While highlighting the great intrinsic value of Roberts’s research and writing, Reidy also notes its significance in demonstrating how the practice of history—its methods, priorities, and values—has evolved over the intervening decades. In her examination of Madison County, Roberts spotlights exemplars of civic performance and good community behavior, giving readers one of the earliest accountings of the antebellum southern middle class. Unlike many historians of her time, Roberts displays an interest in both the “common folks” and leaders who built the region—rural and urban—and created the institutions that shaped Madison County. She examines the contributions of merchants, shopkeepers, lawyers, doctors, architects, craftsmen, planters, farmers, elected and appointed officials, board members, and entrepreneurs.

A delightful new book from Tom Brandon, "2013 Steve Harvey Bus Driver of the Year," reminds us of the wisdom of children and their uncanny ability to teach adults a thing or two. Mr. Brandon's School Bus, published by NewSouth Books, collects in one volume the insightful and often humorous conversations children have had while riding on Brandon's big yellow school bus over the years. You know the things your child hears at home that you don't want repeated elsewhere? Tom Brandon says you can count on them to be told with gusto on the way to school. So climb on board and, as "Mr. Mucus" would say, "Sit back and enjoy the ride." Hey, there are some things you just can't make up. Of author Tom Brandon, Larry Lee, Alabama's foremost education blogger, says, "Each school bus is a little magic kingdom where fantasies come alive and the sweet innocence of childhood sometimes meets reality. With the keen eye and ear of a good storyteller, Tom Brandon has chronicled the great adventures of his riders with a talent that makes you see the smile and hear the giggles. Thanks to him for doing so."