Writers Jay Davis and Tim Hughes first started delving into Belfast’s history as part of a research project for documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, who produced a four-hour film about the midcoast city in the 1980s.

But as they began interviewing city residents and reading old newspapers, they realized they had too much material to fit into one movie. They had the makings of a massive book on their hands. About five years later that 556-page tome, “The History of Belfast in the 20th Century,” has come to fruition.

Printed in a limited edition and only available in selected stores, the book is a lively, informative account of the last century in one of Maine’s most intriguing small cities. And although the city of Belfast is the primary subject, the book also tells the bigger story of the evolution of Maine and its coastal communities in the 20th century.

The narrative covers key events, such as the arrival of the first automobile, the construction of schools and the rise and fall of various industries, including shipbuilding, shoemaking, poultry and fish processing. Appendixes cover the obligatory lists of local politicians, such as city council members over the years; victorious sports teams; population trends; and photographs of lost landmarks.

But the usual timelines in this book include riveting trivia that might not normally find a home in history books, such as the arrest of Maine’s first drunken driver in Belfast during Prohibition.

“The major thing is that this isn’t just a history of rich white men in a community. It’s a mix of history and first-person accounts,” says Davis.

Scattered throughout, these narratives cover some major and some just interesting events.

A survivor of the 1935 wreck of the steamship of Castine off Vinalhaven, tells what happened; a poultry plant worker describes his job “sticking” chickens to get the blood out; a World War II veteran talks about hand-to-hand combat with Japanese soldiers in the South Pacific and back-to-the-landers discuss what drew them to the area in the 1970s.

In one of the book’s most amazing accounts, an elderly man tells about the day in 1937 when his father ran over him in a truck loaded with gravel. After more than a month in the hospital, the man was released, billed $50 and told he would never walk again without help. He proved the doctors wrong by practicing moving his legs in secret in the family outhouse until one day he stood up and walked from the couch to the kitchen table.

There is also a first-person narrative by Charles Cawley, whose credit-card company MBNA helped revitalize Belfast’s flagging economy in the late 1990s. Cawley’s description of his long-history with the region includes details about his grandfather who ran infant clothing factories in Belfast and Camden, and of his early visits to the area and his decision to bring some of MBNA’s operations there.

Sources for the history included interviews as well as the local newspapers. Davis read every issue of the weekly Republican Journal going back 100 years, typing out more than 180 pages of notes. In addition, the two writers worked with an advisory group made up of local historians and residents.

A back-to-the-lander who moved to the area in the 1970s, Davis knows the community’s recent history better than most since he edited the Journal for a number of years and then helped start a rival newspaper, the Waldo Independent, in 1985. A section is devoted to the battle between the two papers. Davis wrote a chapter on the changes weathered by the city politically, socially and economically in the late 1970s and 1980s, when the city became a Mecca for hippies and back-to-the-landers from “away.”

“I thought that chapter called ‘Transition’ would be the most controversial,” he says. “It is an interpretation of Belfast at a critical time in its life written by somebody who was there. I thought people would object to our account of newcomers bringing in new life.”

But the advisory committee agreed with Davis’ interpretation.

Even before the publication of this history, Belfast was perhaps the state’s best-documented community. Local politician Joseph Williamson penned a two-volume history in the early 1900s and Wisemann shot his lengthy documentary about the city in the late 1990s.

Of the initial press run of 1,000 copies, 650 had been sold by early February. The cost of the printing was covered by subscriptions and a grant from the Maine Humanities Council.

Writer Polly Saltonstall’s knowledge of Belfast history comes from her days as the editor of one of the local weekly newspapers, the Republican Journal, from 1991-1994. Her family owned the Journal from the mid-1970s until the early 1990s. “The History of Belfast in the 20th Century,” by Jay Davis and Tim Hughes with Megan Pinette, costs $90 and is available only at Mr. Paperback at Renys Plaza in Belfast, Village Soup in Belfast, or on-line at tmuse@acadia.net.