The definitive history of Durham County, North Carolina

In this revised and expanded second edition of Durham County, Jean Bradley Anderson extends her sweeping history of Durham from the seventeenth century to the end of the twentieth. Moving beyond traditional local histories, which tend to focus on powerful families, Anderson integrates the stories of well-known figures with those of ordinary men and women, blacks and whites, to create a complex and fascinating portrait of Durham’s economic, political, social, and labor history. Drawing on extensive primary research, she examines the origins of the town of Durham and recounts the growth of communities around mills, stores, taverns, and churches in the century before the rise of tobacco manufacturing. A historical narrative encompassing the coming of the railroad; the connection between the Civil War and the rise of the tobacco industry; the Confederate surrender at Bennett Place; the relocation of Trinity College to Durham and, later, its renaming as Duke University; and the growth of health-service and high-technology industries in the decades after the development of Research Triangle Park, this second edition of Durham County is a remarkably comprehensive work.

"“Durham County deserves the widest possible readership. It offers an engaging perspective on familiar New South themes and an object lesson in bridging the enormous gulf that too often separates academic historians and lay readers.”" - Journal of Southern History

"“Destined to be the definitive history of Durham County for years to come.”" - North Carolina Libraries

"“Originally published in 1990 and now reissued as a revised and expanded second edition, Durham County: A History of Durham County, North Carolina, is local history in the best sense: it offers an intensive and comprehensive focus on a single place and its varied people and institutions over time. The second edition includes a new final chapter that brings Durham’s story up-to-date in the twenty-first century, as the county moved further away from its tobacco roots into a revitalizing economy based on health care, medical research, and technology.... The extensive notes and bibliography are a treasure trove of local sources, and the updated appendix tallying population statistics and listing local officeholders of all sorts will be a handy reference for researchers.”" - Journal of Southern History