JAMES SEAY BROWN JR. TO PRESENT BOOK TALK ON MARCH 28 AT 12:00 PM

Distracted By Alabama: Tangled Threads of Natural History, Local History, and Folklore

Montgomery, AL (03/23/2023) – On Tuesday, March 28 at 12:00 pm CT, author James Seay Brown Jr. will present a book talk on his recent publication Distracted by Alabama: Tangled Threads of Natural History, Local History, and Folklore at the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH). The program will be held in the ADAH’s Joseph M. Farley Alabama Power Auditorium. It will also livestream through the ADAH’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Admission is free.

In 1971 Brown moved to Birmingham with his young family to start his first full-time teaching job in the history department at Samford University. He soon began regularly exploring many of Alabama's rivers, especially the Cahaba River, and much of the state's countryside. At about the same time, he became particularly interested in folkways and their connection to the local community. Distracted by Alabama traces a personal, historically informed, and idiosyncratic profile of a region in transition in the mid to late twentieth century and includes insights drawn from Brown’s academic career and his work with a variety of Birmingham-area community organizations. 

James Seay Brown Jr. is emeritus professor of history at Samford University. A few of his works include Fairy Tales, Patriotism, and the Nation-State: The Rise of the Modern West and the Response of the Worlds and Up Before Daylight: Life Histories from the Alabama Writers’ Project. He has served as president of the Alabama Folklife Association and remains active in academic and community life.

Copies of Distracted by Alabama are available for purchase in the ADAH’s online Museum Store, Alabama Original.

For additional information call (334) 353-4636. A recording of the book talk will be available on the ADAH’s YouTube channel shortly after the presentation.

The Alabama Department of Archives and History is the state’s government-records repository, a special-collections library and research facility, and home to the Museum of Alabama, the state history museum. It is located in downtown Montgomery, directly across Washington Avenue from the State Capitol. The ADAH is open Monday through Saturday from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. The EBSCO Research Room is closed on Mondays. To learn more, visit www.archives.alabama.gov or call (334) 242-4364. 

Alabama Department of Archives & History 

624 Washington Ave., Montgomery, AL 36130

www.archives.alabama.gov

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