Book cover of City on the Verge: Atlanta and the Fight for America's Urban Future

Book description

Atlanta is on the verge of either tremendous rebirth or inexorable decline. The perfect storm for failed American urban policies, Atlanta has the highest income inequality in the entire country; urban renewal attempts that unwittingly destroyed neighborhoods; highways arrogantly blasted through the city center; the longest commutes in the nation;…

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Why read it?

1 author picked City on the Verge as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Mark Pendergrast’s approach in City on the Verge integrates insights from the realm of urban planning, history, anthropology, and politics to weave a story about Atlanta’s birth and rebirth and its development into a teeming cosmopolitan city in the heart of the American South. The history of Atlanta and Georgia is replete with struggles by civil rights activists against the scourge of racism, segregation, and violence.

Pendergrast writes about this history, tying it to a city that began as a railway stop, was burned to the ground by General Sherman during the Civil War, and has arisen from those ashes…

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Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

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