In this broad, sweeping history of Durham County, Jean Bradley Anderson begins with a discussion of the geography, climate, and geology of the region from the seventeenth century to 1981, its centennial year. This remarkably comprehensive work moves beyond traditional local histories that focus on powerful families. Rather, Anderson integrates the stories of well-known figures with those of ordinary men and women, blacks and whites, to create a complex but fascinating portrait of Durham's economic, political, social, and labor history.

Drawing on extensive primary research, "Durham County" examines the origins of the town of Durham and recounts the growth of communities around mills, stores, taverns, and churches in the century preceding the rise of tobacco manufacturing. It examines all phases of life in the county: agriculture, architecture, the arts, education, industry, politics, and religion. Anderson pays particular attention to such turning points as the coming of the railroad; the Confederate surrender at the Bennett Place; the war's connection to the rise and flourishing of the tobacco industry; the move to Durham of Trinity College; the development of the Research Triangle Park and the subsequent rise of the health service and high-tech industries.