Tourism in the Southeast is often associated with Florida--a state that essentially defined the industry in America. Yet Alabama has a fascinating history of tourism all its own. It all began with an enterprising politician. In 1916, John Hollis Bankhead went to great lengths to ensure that one of America's first transcontinental highways went directly through Alabama. Though it was a less efficient route for highway travelers, it marked the birth of Alabama's fledgling tourism industry, which grew exponentially with each passing decade. Since he was a boy, author Tim Hollis has traveled from the Shoals to the coast and amassed an unrivaled knowledge of Alabama tourism. From restored and preserved historic destinations to campy tourist traps and outrageous roadside attractions, this is the complete story of tourism in Alabama.

Tourism in the Southeast is often associated with Florida--a state that essentially defined the industry in America. Yet Alabama has a fascinating history of tourism all its own. It all began with an enterprising politician. In 1916, John Hollis Bankhead went to great lengths to ensure that one of America's first transcontinental highways went directly through Alabama. Though it was a less efficient route for highway travelers, it marked the birth of Alabama's fledgling tourism industry, which grew exponentially with each passing decade. Since he was a boy, author Tim Hollis has traveled from the Shoals to the coast and amassed an unrivaled knowledge of Alabama tourism. From restored and preserved historic destinations to campy tourist traps and outrageous roadside attractions, this is the complete story of tourism in Alabama.

Journey along with the king of nostalgia, Tim Hollis, for a tour of lost attractions of northern, central and southern Alabama. Alabama has had an enviable success rate when it comes to tourist attractions, with some that date back to the 1930s still drawing crowds today. But many others have come and gone, sometimes leaving little evidence of their existence. Join Alabama native Tim Hollis as he revisits iconic attractions such as Canyon Land Park and Sequoyah Caverns, the floral clock at Birmingham's Botanical Gardens and the traffic safety torch held aloft by Vulcan, the iron man. Many Gulf Coast attractions are gone, including Styx River Water World and Spooky Golf, but the memories remain.

One of the earliest public historically black universities, Alabama State University is a vital source of African American excellence situated directly in the Heart of Dixie. From Marion to Montgomery tells the little-known story of the university's origin as the Reconstruction-era Lincoln Normal School in Marion, Alabama. How did a little school in Lowndes County become one of the world's most renowned HBCUs?

One of the surest ways to connect with the past is to sample what was on its plate. That's the goal with this gustatory journey through Alabama history. Sweetmeats with the governor's lonely, oft-depressed wife in 1832 Greensboro. Shrimp and crabmeat casserole at a long-departed preacher's house at the Gaines Ridge Dinner Club in Camden. Pimento cheese and tea with notes of cinnamon and citrus at the Bragg-Mitchell Mansion in Mobile. Poundcake from Georgia Gilmore's kitchen in Montgomery, where workaday freedom fighters and luminaries of the civil rights movement sought sustenance. Author Monica Tapper serves up a stick-to-your-ribs trek through Alabama history, providing classic recipes modified for the modern kitchen along the way.

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.”