The Most They Ever Had Book Review

Cory W. Smith Mrs. Huskinsson position 101 18 November 2012 Book Review The close to They forever Had The most They Ever Had is a baloney of suffering, hard work, and sacrifice. It is a collaboration of interviews conducted on the textile workers of the indite cotton fiber mess about in Jacksonville, aluminum. The author of the book, twine Bragg, compiles the stories of these people because he is one of them. He was raised in Jacksonville, Alabama. His sr. brother, Sam, worked at the torpedo. Bragg wrote this invoice of his people because it was a apologue that needed to be heard.The Most They Ever Had governs the simple lives of the men that ripe wanted to befool a living to support a family and make it through this sustenance to get to the next. The title is so fitting because they lived such(prenominal) simple lives that the submarine coming to town meant extract. It meant having a somewhat stable job and the dexterity to buy a house and put sustenance on the t able. It was, in fact, the most they ever had. The job came with a price, however. The workers paid for their means of survival with their health. They worked unventilated rooms saturated with lint.The constant inhalation of these minute particles at long last caused damage to the workers lungs causing a disease called brown lung. Because the job was so sought after, the workers could lose their job for the smallest mishaps, even missing one twenty-four hour period of work due to illness. The workers could be sick as dogs, but they would lighten clock in a put in their routine hours. Their daily struggles can teach the readers a lessonto never take things in lifespan for granted. These workers labor tirelessly day in and day out just to put a roof over their familys head and food on the table.They worked in terrible conditions, but they rarely complained because they appreciated what they had. That, I believe, is a main purpose behind this book. Not only to tell the readers th e stories of these true American heroes, but also to teach them this valuable lesson. The Profile cotton hero sandwich clean-cuted its doors in Jacksonville, Alabama in 1905 and remained open until 2001 when it shut down without warning and left the workers still exhausting to allowance off mortgages with no pension. Bragg tells the stories of the mountain people from this region just trying to get by paycheck to paycheck. He insights us on the tyrant lallygag owners and managers.He also informs us of the tragedies the workers endured like Charlie Hardys story of how he, one of the silk hat front-porch guitar pickers, alienated his picking arm to a mould in the mill and had to give up his talent. Or the tragic story of Leon Spears, the 65 year old man that began working at the mill when he was seventeen that has to carry an oxygen tank close by because of the damage done to his lungs by the cotton filled air of the mill. Bragg explains how the decompose bosses would blame the workers troubled breathing on hangovers and laziness rather than scant(p) working conditions.Still, however, the workers would show up day after day because they knew that the mill gave them a means of survival. The workers of the mill never gave up hope, though, that things would get better, and, eventually, they did. over time conditions improved. Profile mill workers, in time, earned one of the best blue collar paychecks in the foothills. The book is informative because it does exactly thatit informs. If I had not read this book, I would have never learned the stories of these suffer Americans and their families. It tells you what life in a mid 20th century mill town was like.Bragg doesnt stop at informative, however. He portrays the workers stories in a way that one becomes attached to them. Bragg writes in such an eloquent and descriptive manner that by the end of the book, one believes that he or she actually knows the mill workers of Jacksonville, Alabama. One of the most amazing components of this book, in my opinion, is that the workers living this catastrophe didnt even realize that they were living one. It was just their life. They worked in such harsh working conditions and under such greedy bosses, but they didnt look at themselves with pity. They didnt complain.They did what they had to do to support their family and to make ends meet. some other intense part of the book for me was reading Charlie Hardys story. Charlie lost his arm to a machine and by result had to give up on his talent of guitar playing. Since I am a musician myself, I can hardly imagine what it would feel like to be told that I would never be able to play the guitar again. Rick Braggs The Most They Ever Had is amazing book of conquest over struggle. The mill workers of Jacksonville, Alabama gave life and limb to provide for their family and never gave up hope that someday things would get better.They never gave up on their families that depended on that paycheck. The Most They Ever Had shows that things in life dont always come at large(p) and that we must work hard for the things in life we love most. I highly recommend this book to anyone that likes a good conquest story because thats what this story boils down to. Its the story of how the workers of the Profile cotton mill trying to overcame the struggles of everyday life in the textile mill of Jacksonville, Alabama. Works Cited Bragg, Rick. the most they ever had. San Fransisco MacAdam/Cage, 2009. Print.