Friday, February 20, 2015

The Most They Ever Had

Rick Bragg, The Most They Ever Had (Blackstone Audio, 2009).

Several years ago I listened to the unabridged audio version of this book read by the author, Rick Bragg.  For some reason, I never wrote a review of it at the time.  I recently re-listened to the book and highly recommend it.  I am sure the written copy is also excellent (I am a big fan of Rick Bragg’s writings), but with the audio version you can hear Rick Bragg “sing” the lyrics of his prose.  This book celebrates the life of hard working men and women who worked in the cotton mills of the American South.  It has been decades since I read James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, which was accompanied with Walker Evan’s photographs of the down and out during the Depression.  I do remember that Agee recommended his book be read aloud (I didn’t do it), but there is something about the way working people use language, that both Bragg and Agee captures, which is enhanced when audible. 

The Most They Ever Had is a tribute, a love story, to the working men and woman (and even children) in the Southern cotton mills that have mostly closed.  Bragg tells the story through the mill in Jacksonville, Alabama.  His brother worked in that huge brick building where the machines rumbled as they turned cotton into thread.   Bragg describes the building as “living” and it often consumed who worked behind its walls.  The mill ran for over a hundred years and continued on long after many other mills in neighboring communities shut down. 

Bragg presents the mill as a savior to the hill people who struggled to feed their families.  The wages were low, “but it was still more than they ever had.”  It was a regular paycheck, that was gone as soon as it arrived, but allowed people to get by.  In time, the mill became safer and children were no longer desired for their nimble fingers that sometimes were lost in the machines.  Wages rose as well as benefits.  People owned their own small homes or trailers instead of living in company housing.  And then, in 2001, after a century of operations and families that had sent generations into the mill, it closed for good.

Through extensive interviews, Bragg captures the heart of the workers at the mills.  We’re told of the excitement on Saturday afternoon baseball games in which they played company teams from other mills.  We’re told of the man who played the guitar in such an incredible way that he was invited to go to the Grand Ole Opry but wouldn’t because he couldn’t miss work.  He tells the story of soldiers from the mill who head off to war and how one, when he would dream of home, would think of the smokestack that was so high he was never lost when at home for he could always look up and find the stack.  And then there is the eccentric Old Man Greenleaf, who managed the mill for years and was hung in effigy during the labor troubles of the 1930s when the workers went on strike because he wouldn’t pay the new national minimum wage.  And there are the stories of brown lung and the people who lost their capacity to breath due to accumulating cotton dust in their lungs.  In telling these stories of people who were defined by their ability to work hard, Bragg has given voice to people who could easily be forgotten.  “It is rich people who live on in biographies; working people live on in a ledger,” Bragg notes.   But in this book, working people move out of the ledger of how many spools were spun and a part of their lives live on.  I am thankful to Bragg for the stories.

29 comments:

  1. Sounds like a fascinating read with lots of fascinating history. My dad would love this I believe.

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    1. Bragg is more a journalist than a historian, but his writing is a pleasure to read.

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  2. Bravo to their moving out of the ledger ( I like that entire quote) it sounds like a very pleasing and rewarding book. You have a talent in writing reviews, often times far better than other reviews I've read for the same book! Stay warm, and keep reading/reviewing.

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    1. Thanks for the compliment--some people must like my reviews because occasionally I have been offered books to reviews (I only accept those I want to read and always note that I've been given a book when I review one--btw, this wasn't a book that was given to me)

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  3. def cool to hear the author read it "as it should be read" and pretty cool that you can hear his 'sing' it to you...makes me think of the mines in kentucky...hearing them talk about what it was like when there was a mine...

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    1. It is a lot like underground coal mining, hard working jobs that are no longer avaiable

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  4. That had to be a very hard time to endure, and this book sounds as if the details have been recorded for all to remember.

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    1. Local history (like this) often gives us a better understanding in what's happening to people's lives.

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  5. What went on in the Souths factories was truly frightening. Owners sweated the plant long after producers in the same industry upgraded. Reading newspapers from 1890s to 1960s you'd think there was a serious lack of cash but nothing could be further from the truth. Returns on investments in labour and materiel was substantially greater than in the North. But lack of consolidation meant an incredibly top heavy management in progressively relatively smaller industries. Or your basic huge unproductive officer coup coupled with a consistent requirement to tender a dividend.
    I would really love to get this.
    In my spare time I do a bit of transcribing for the Smithsonian. And I believe they did a massive programme of recording during the 50s and 60s preserving the life records and cultures in a number of countries. A sort of cultural Peace Corp. Something like the LDS in Salt Lake or Provo digitizing and cataloging the Births deaths and Marriages data base.

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    1. Yes, a lot of people made a fortune running very unsafe mills in the south where there was a bias against unions. What are you transcribing? That sounds interesting.

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  6. I read far too few books about American and southern history like this. When I do go to history I tend to go ancient history but there are many good works about life in our own backyard. Sounds like this is one.

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  7. It's been a while since I've read a book like this one. History is something that's always intrigued me but very few history books grab my attention. Thanks for letting us know about this one.

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  8. I love books about history, thanks by this!

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    1. Have you read OPen Veins of Latin America? It isn't journalistic history like Bragg's work, but is interesting. http://sagecoveredhills.blogspot.com/2010/12/open-veins-of-latin-american-book.html

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  9. I'm going to have to get hold of this. It sounds fascinating. Thanks for your review.

    Greetings from London.

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    1. I have reviewed a number of Bragg's books and while I really like this one, I still think "Ava's Man" (about his grandfather who he never knew) is his best book.

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  10. I love Rick Bragg's writing. I'll check this one out.

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  11. Being southern, we can relate to southern writers. I love Braggs work and even have his cookbook! Times have certainly changed, and these workers deserve to not be forgotten. Thanks for the review!

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  12. As a transplant to the South, I crave those little bits of history about the people who built it with the sweat and determination that comes from a will to survive all odds. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Having lived all over the country, I have tried to read literature from each region as a way to understand. I am glad you found this review helpful

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  13. What as super interesting book . I enjoy historical books.
    Especially if you live in the area it means so much more.

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. Nice name! I am not sure I would want to meet an Angry Parsnip, but thanks for stopping by.

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    2. There is a great story behind the "angryparsnip" so I can never give it up.
      My Japanese son wants me to design a children's book about it. For his daughters class.

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  14. Thanks for joining us, sage, and for sharing the book. Cultural history - getting past the military and political to how people really lived - is always fascinating.

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    1. Yes, I agree with you, we often overlook the "important stuff for the big picture stuff.

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  15. How interesting. PEOPLE are what interest me about history--but in school we always focused on dates and events. When you see life through the eyes of those who lived it, it's far more interesting and insightful.

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