Not-So-Normal People

They became historic figures-four-star generals, political leaders, billionaires, civil rights leaders, rock stars, leaders of national service, business icons, philanthropists, and prisoners of war. As the nation celebrates its 250th birthday this epic history book of culturally grounded nonfiction stories weave like giant threads through the colorful and diverse tapestry that is the great American experience.

Fred Cole illuminates how the fabled American dream was imagined and embraced by not so normal people. He takes readers from Colonial America through eras of Civil War, Reconstruction, Civil Rights, Vietnam, the 1960s, the War on Terror, and the War on Drugs. Cole's descriptive painting of landscapes embeds readers in the striking scenery of his settings in Tennessee and throughout the Southland as he takes readers on a revealing crawl through darker sides of the American journey punctuated by his own personal experience, and argues in his redress of grievances for changes in laws and policies that make right the wrongs of past, and move us in the redemptive direction of a more perfect union both as a country and in the author's home state of Tennessee.

Not So Normal People is an easy to read sweep of American history that tells numerous stories of iconic individuals whose lives crossed paths with the author. In narrating the extraordinary life stories of his acquaintances, neighbors, and friends, an East Tennessean recounts his own uniquely interesting tale.