charity1313's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
4.0
History with depth, emotion, heart, insight, and a bit of humor. Not a lot though. Because this book documents the hard lives of hard people in a hard place. He makes it clear that the purpose of the book is so the stories of the working class whites of the cotton mills in the south won't be forgotten and he meets that purpose. I have a strong emotional attachment to the book due to my own family history in impoverished cotton picking across the south (though my family was part of the Okie migration), so it may have biased my opinion but that's okay. These reviews are written as my personal experience with the book and what I wish to remember. I came away with it as a 5 star because I can't imagine how it could be improved upon. Vivid, heart-wrenching accounts of the difficulties endured by generations thanks to the greed of men and unrestrained capitalism. What bears repeating and remembering is that just as the deplorable conditions of working in a cotton mill reached some level of improvement and the employees earned a small measure of respect....that same greed and capitalism simply shifted production to places where a new set of workers live with disease, near starvation, brown lung, and loss of life/limbs. It's simply easier for us to stomach since it's no longer right in our own front yard.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Physical abuse, and Terminal illness
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