Dr. Frances Roberts' 1956 Ph.D. dissertation, "Background and Formative Period in the Great Bend and Madison County," will be published next year in conjunction with the state's 200th anniversary celebration. The effort was undertaken by Dr. Thomas Reidy, a lecturer in the Department of History at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), with the assistance of Jessica Brodt, a Ph.D. student in the Department's graduate program, and at the behest of the Alabama Bicentennial Commission.