Starting with the Indian tribes that once occupied north Alabama, historian Leah Rawls Atkins delves into the history of her home county with a native's love and a historian's thoroughness. The Valley and the Hills highlights the many people who have shaped the history of Birmingham and Jefferson County and traces the area's development from a scattered group of farmers to one of the nation's premier industrial cities. The book includes more than 300 photographs, paintings, postcards, advertisements, maps, and lithographs that complement the text and show how the city and country landscape and its people have changed over time.