United States | The United States of Amazon

What happens when Amazon comes to town

The e-commerce giant is expanding at a rapid pace. How might that change America?

|Bessemer, Alabama

FOR NEARLY a century Birmingham, Alabama, was synonymous with steel. The suburb of Bessemer was named after Henry Bessemer, a British inventor who transformed steelmaking. Workers moved from as far away as southern Europe to toil in the Birmingham area’s mines and factories, says Henry McKiven, a historian at the University of South Alabama.

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