Synopses & Reviews
Atlanta and Environs is, in every way, an exhaustive history of the Atlanta Area from the time of its settlement in the 1820s through the 1970s. Volumes I and II, together more than two thousand pages in length, represent a quarter century of research by their author, Franklin M. Garrett—a man called “a walking encyclopedia on Atlanta history” by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. With the publication of Volume III, by Harold H. Martin, this chronicle of the South’s most vibrant city incorporates the spectacular growth and enterprise that have characterized Atlanta in recent decades.
The work is arranged chronologically, with a section devoted to each decade, a chapter to each year. Volume I covers the history of Atlanta and its people up to 1880—ranging from the city’s founding as “Terminus” through its Civil War destruction and subsequent phoenixlike rebirth. Volume II details Atlanta’s development from 1880 through the 1930s—including occurrences of such diversity as the development of the Coca-Cola Company and the Atlanta premiere of Gone with the Wind. Taking up the city’s fortunes in the 1940s, Volume III spans the years of Atlanta’s greatest growth. Tracing the rise of new building on the downtown skyline and the construction of Hartsfield International Airport on the city’s perimeter, covering the politics at City Hall and the box scores of Atlanta’s new baseball team, recounting the changing terms of race relations and the city’s growing support of the arts, the last volume of Atlanta and Environs documents the maturation of the South’s preeminent city.
About the Author
"Definitive . . . An exhaustive history of the city, which, in its faithful attention to minutiae, effectively captures the flavor of Atlanta."—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"A boon to the historian, the genealogist and to the average citizen who wants to fill himself in on the background of the leading Southeastern city."—Augusta Chronicle-Herald
“A very competent and well-written history.”—American Reference Books Annual
“A very model of local historical writing . . . A history that will long stand as the definitive story of Atlanta.”—Richmond News-Leader
Table of Contents
Preface vii
Section I. The Nineteen-Forties
Introduction 3
1940 6
1941 53
1942 67
1943 91
1944 102
1945 111
1946 122
1947 132
1948 144
1949 148
Section II. The Nineteen-Fifties
1950 159
1951 167
1952 178
1953 191
1954 206
1955 218
1956 235
1957 257
1958 284
1959 299
Section III. The Nineteen-Sixties
1960 315
1961 324
1962 337
1963 365
1964 389
1965 417
1966 446
1967 457
1968 513
1969 and into the 1970s 544
Index 601