The Ghosts of an Empire: The History of the Alabama Fuel and Iron Company in St. Clair County

A stark account reveals how a single employer shaped lives, towns, and labor’s fate.

Imagine working for a company that owns your house, your grocery store, your church, and even your children’s schools. That was the reality of hundreds of thousands of Americans during the early twentieth century. In a world of robber barons, Big Mules, and privately owned towns, choices were limited.
The biggest Mules of them all, the DeBardeleben family, held Alabama industry with iron fists. Deep in the co...