The book Sergeant York: An American Hero was written by David D. It was copyrighted in 1985 by the University Press of Kentucky. The book covers the life of Alvin York from 1887 to 1964. This book covers from his birthplace in the Valley of the Three Forks of the Wolf River nestled in the Cumberland Mountains of the Fentress County, Tennessee which was a few miles from the Kentucky border to his time spent in the Army in Europe. .
The author's thesis is telling the story of an unlikely hero. I believe this book is to inform people of how a poor Tennessee family produced an American Hero even through many struggles, one such struggle was to even sign up for the mandatory draft. He went from being a son in a large family that had to take over trying to make the family's income by running his father's blacksmith shop and quitting school way too early in life to being a wild young man that spent way too much time in bars to seeking God so that he could date his neighbor then truly becoming a believer in God and struggle with the convictions of following God's word and registering for the mandatory draft for World War I. .
In the beginning of the story, we learn about the heritage of our main character Alvin York. Guns were a major part in his life. He was an avid hunter, not for sport though for necessity. He was the third of eleven children. Church and school played a minor part in his life. When Alvin was in Third Grade, his father was kicked by a mule and soon died from complications of the kick. He was forced then to continue working at his dad's blacksmith shop until it burned down as he was the oldest child still home.
On October 18, 1918, while serving in WWI, he found himself alone being that his unit just came under attack. York single-handedly took on and defeated a machine gun nest. He killed a group German soldiers that had been shooting at him. He then captured 132 German soldiers, by himself.
