The Most They Ever Had

By: Rick Bragg

Narrated by: Rick Bragg

In 2001, a community of people in the Appalachian foothills had come to the edge of all they had ever been. Across the South, padlocks and chains bound the doors of silent mills, and it seemed a miracle to blue-collar people in Jacksonville, Alabama, that their mill still bit, shook, and roared. The mill had become almost a living thing, and they served it even as it filled their lungs with lint and shortened their lives. In return, it let them live in stiff-necked dignity in the hills of their fathers.

In these real-life stories, Rick Bragg brilliantly evokes the hardscrabble lives of those who lived and died by an American cotton mill.

©2009 Rick Bragg (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"It is hard to think of a writer who reminds us more forcefully and wonderfully of what people and families are all about." ( The New York Times Book Review)
"Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bragg again creates a soulful, poignant portrait of working-class Southern life." ( Publishers Weekly)

painful beauty

I am not objective. I am an AL native (transplanted to TN & IN) & a die hard Rick Bragg fan. His words connect me to my family's rural Southern roots, & express what I wish I could pen. In this book, I am tangled up in his yarn on both my father's Gainesville, GA area side, & my mother's Walker County/Jasper/Sandusky side. Unlike the author, I am a city girl (Birmingham) & never lived the rural farming/factory life. Like Rick, I am on the other side of the generations that never saw an life of comfort/ease or much education. Because of them & the grace of God, I can only imagine & say thank you for what they did that I did not have to. Still, when I listen to him read the reality his kinfolk & community lived, I am swept away by the beauty of how he writes & speaks, it, as well as drawn deep into what I know is also my roots. Thank you Rick Bragg for writing. Thank you Audible for recording, as I would never read in hard copy what I will listen to on the airwaves. That's another way you can tell I am a Southerner - I will talk your ears off if you let me, & tune in for days while someone else talks to me with a good story. DO read; it won't disappoint.

Sounds like home.

Although I grew up near Houston in the shadows of plants the people and the life style share a lot with the folks in this book I enjoyed listening.

Just love the Stories and History!

This is the second book that I have finish from Rick Bragg I will most certainly read others of his in the very near future.

Fascinating, moving, and thought-provoking.

I love love this author’s work. This particular book brings images to life. This is one of the best books I have listened to all year.

My mama’s family, the Lorren’s are from Piedmont Alabama.

Amazing storytelling. My mama’s family is from Piedmont, Alabama and I’ve heard the stories of the mills. Rick I’ve read everything I can get my hands on you have written and it warms my heart every time. Thank you for telling these stories.