Episode 92 is live! Catherine King of the Fairhope Single Tax Corp. and Alan Samry, a Fairhope librarian and local historian, present the unusual history of Fairhope, AL, and descriptions of historic sites on tours that are part of the April 11-13, 2026, meeting of the Alabama Historical Assn.
Recording episode 93 today for release in early March. Topic is the Alabama Hist Assn 2026 annual meeting in Fairhope -- founded as a Henry George single tax colony. Episode guests will be local author and historian Alan Samry and Fairhope Single Tax Corporation director Catherine King.
Episode 92 is up. Burgin Matthews of the Southern Music Research Center Digital Archives, talks about the Center, his other projects and his books _Doc: The Story of a Birmingham Jazz Man_ and _Magic City: How the Birmingham Jazz Tradition Shaped the Sound of America_.
Ep. 91 has dropped! Dr. Tina Jones discusses the Alabama Black Belt National Heritage Area from her office at Univ. of West Alabama. She sees ABBNHA as a coordinator of local history & cultural projects. soundcloud.com/alabamahisto...
Episode 90! MSNHA Historic Resources Manager Clayton Davis discusses Alabama's Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area, its programs of work, and the US Park Service's National Heritage Area program. On all podcast platforms and on SoundCloud here: soundcloud.com/alabamahisto...
Ep 89! John Giggie discusses his book, _Bloody Tuesday, The Untold Story of the Struggle for Civil Rights in Tuscaloosa_ recipient of the AL Hist Assn 2025 Coley Book Award. John also talks about “shared authority” in community scholarship.
Transcript: tinyurl.com/3uxwr7t3
RSS everywhere.
New Episode! Dr. Virginia Cain discusses her Ala Historical Assn Milo Howard Award winning article, "Red Mountain Ladies: how Prostitution Shaped Birmingham, AL, 1871-1920" (Alabama Review, April 2023), and her similarly-themed dissertation. Available everywhere and here on Soundcloud.
New episode dropped! Dr. Pete Sparks clues us in on the Alabama Historical Association's October 24-25, 2025 Fall Pilgrimage to historic Guntersville. Hear his history of the town and description of the tours before and during the event. soundcloud.com/alabamahisto...
New Episode! Donna Castellano of the Huntsville Heritage Foundation discusses HHF receiving the AL Hist Assn 2025 Kuykendall Award for outstanding local historical society. soundcloud.com/alabamahisto...
New episode! Ala Historical Assn 2025-26 president Dr. Matthew Downs talks about his planned activities for the year, the Alabama Review journal, and about two AHA projects -- the Speakers Bureau and the AHA Marker Digital Enhancement Project. Available from all podcast hosts. Soundcloud here.
New episode (84): Chase Stephens, winner of the Alabama Hist Assn’s 2025 Wiggins Dissertation Award, discusses his work “To Obstruct and Resist: Paradise v. Allen, Integration Efforts, and the Alabama State Troopers” (Dec. 2024).
New episode (83): Theo Moore founder of Hiztorical Vision Productions received he 2025 Jakeman Award for Digital History from the AL Hist Assn. Theo discusses his company's documentary shorts on African American history in Alabama, why he founded HVP, and his vision of HVP's future.
New episode (83): Theo Moore founder of Hiztorical Vision Productions received he 2025 Jakeman Award for Digital History from the AL Hist Assn. Theo discusses his company's documentary shorts on African American history in Alabama, why he founded HVP, and his vision of HVP's future.
New episode (82): local historian Bert Harris with residents Jayson and Laura Hill, discuss the Alabama Historical Assn April 2025 meeting at Opelika. Harris speaks of Opelika's history, Jayson Hill describes the meeting's tour sites, and Laura Hill talks about Opelika's amenities.
For Holocaust Remembrance Day 2025 (Jan 27)
New episode dropped! Dr. Dan Puckett, prof of history at Troy Univ (AL) and chair of the Alabama Holocaust Commission, talks about the commission, the new state standards for social studies education (K-12), and his 2014 book _In the Shadow of Hitler_ soundcloud.com/alabamahisto...
Ep. 1 - AL History Podcast opened in 2012 with Mary Ann Neeley - scion of the history of Alabama's capital city - discussing her award-wining book, The Works of Matthew Blue: Montgomery's First Historian (NewSouth Press, 2010). Neeley "pings" off of Blue's 1878 City Directory pin portrait.
Ep. 11 - Jim Day digs deep into the history of Alabama coal mining in his Diamonds in the Rough: A History of Alabama's Cahaba Coal Fields (UA Press, 2013), from the first mines through the field's growth and demise.
Ep. 15 - Ala. Review editor Matthew Downs first book, Transforming the South: Federal Development in the Tennessee Valley, 1915-1960 (LSU Press, 2014), has become the standard interpretation of the region's 20th cen. development.
Ep. 19 - Journalist John Sledge's book, The Mobile River (U South Carolina Press, updated edition in 2024), tracks the history of this important waterway from colonial history to the present. First narrative history of this historical waterway.
Last thread on this topic!
Looking for a book on Alabama history to give as a present?
Thread 4 of 4, each highlighting 4 book-themed episodes.
Ep. 42 - Distinguished photo historian Frances Robb's masterpiece about the first century of photography and photographers in AL, Shot in Alabama: A History of Photography, 1839-1941 (and a list of photographers). One-of-a-kind in subject and value.
Ep. 23 - David Alsobrook again, this time as AHA President (2017-18) and his first book about his "growin' up place," Southside: Eufaula's Cotton Mill Village and its People, 1890 - 1945 (Mercer 2017). An examination of the Comer Mills village from a historian / participant.
Ep. 26 - Chris Haveman's Rivers of Sand: Creek Indian Emigration, Relocation, and Ethnic Cleansing in the American South (UNebraska Press, 2016) studies the longer, more nuanced history of the Creek's "trail of tears" and the choices the Creek nation faced.
Ep. 27 - Artist Laura Murray does Alabama history a bit differently. Her Amazing Alabama is (per the subtitle) "A coloring book journey through Alabama's 67 counties." Published by NewSouth Press in 2017. Crayons not included . . .
Looking for a book on Alabama history to give as a present?
Thread 3 of 4, each highlighting 4 book-themed episodes.
Ep. 28 - AHA President (2018-19) Valerie Burnes discusses her book with photographer-extraordinaire Robin McDonald, Visions of the Black Belt: A Cultural Survey of the Heart of Alabama (UA Press, 2015). Coffee-table worthy.
Ep. 31 - Tuscaloosa lawyer and historian Chris McIlwain talks about his 2 books, Civil War Alabama (UA Press, 2016) and 1865 Alabama: From Civil War to Uncivil Peace (UA Press 2017). His conclusions challenge the stereotype of AL Civil War historiography.
