{"product_id":"textile-town-9781891885280","title":"Textile Town","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1816 a pair of Rhode Island brothers stopped their wagons along the Tyger River  cleared away trees and chinquapin thickets  and began construction on a rustic spinning factory. From those humble beginnings arose one of the nations mightiest textile communities  a place that by the end of the 19th century became known as \"the Lowell of the South.\" Over the course of nearly two centuries more than 100 000 people labored in the red brick cotton mills and modern textile factories in Spartanburg County  South Carolina. Textile Town is their story. One part historical narrative  one part scrapbook  one part encyclopedia  this illustrated volume presents the voices of scholars and blue-collar workers side by side in an exploration of this complex and compelling saga. Working in libraries and mill villages  more than 40 writers and historians-many of them sons  daughters  and grandchildren of textile workers-contributed to this engaging history. Major chapter authors include Katherine Cann  David L. Carlton  Philip Racine  Betsy Wakefield Teter  G.C. Waldrep III  and Jeffrey Willis. Each chapter is infused with factual material and excerpts from primary sources  such as letters  newspaper columns  and diaries. After each chapter  there are profiles of textile leaders and in-depth entries on a variety of subjects  such as mill village music  food  sports  and health issues. There are also plenty of oral histories  some collected with a microphone and others resurrected from long-buried documents. Each chapter ends with the lyrics of a song written about cotton mill life. At the back of the book is a glossary of textile terms and historical entries on 50 different textile businesses that have operated in Spartanburg County since 1816. More than 250 old photographs were collected for this work  representing mills and villages throughout the county. From the great migration from the mountains in the 1880s  to the labor conflict of the 1930s  to the wartime camaraderie of the 1940s and beyond  Textile Town tells a seminal Southern story  one that readers wont soon forget.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45647196225589,"sku":"ByrdShop_1891885286","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781891885280.jpg?v=1781689698","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/textile-town-9781891885280","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}