American history is very much a part of Atlanta’s developmental past. Inside the pages of a book, you can find out about Atlanta in more ways than you might imagine.

What books should you read to learn about Atlanta? Keep reading.

6 Atlanta Books That Should Be Required Reading

That’s why we have books. Inside their pages hold the vital information that tells us where we’ve come from and where we’re going. Thanks to books, we have documented proof of Atlanta’s history so that it’s never forgotten, or repeated.

Here are some books that Atlantans should read.

House Proud: A Social History of Atlanta Interiors, 1880-1919

From middle-class cottages to Gilded Age mansions, House Proud presents a view of Atlanta, reflected through the city’s most highly prized homes. Richly illustrated with archival photographs and annotated with historical commentary, House Proud traces Atlanta’s response to national trends in interiors and furnishings and identifies those architects and interior decorators who helped craft Atlanta’s image as a City of Beautiful Homes. The interiors presented tell the story of Atlanta and its people during the dynamic decades of 1880-1919, when the city emerged from reconstruction and entered a period of notable expansion and economic progress. Images and textural commentary illustrate how the homes came to embody the aspirations of both the New South and the New Rich. Seen as proof of Atlanta’s post-war progress and artistic sophistication, homes were fundamental to the city’s ongoing efforts to promote itself and reconcile its regional past with its hopes for the future.

Atlanta’s Historic Westview Cemetery (Landmarks)

In 1884, several leading citizens purchased 577 acres to open Atlanta’s Westview Cemetery. The rolling terrain, part of which was a site in the Civil War battle of Ezra Church, became the final resting place for more than 100,000 people. Prominent locals buried here include Grant Park namesake L.P. Grant, author Joel Chandler Harris, High Museum benefactor Harriet High, Coca-Cola founder Asa Candler Sr. and Havertys founder J.J. Haverty. The cemetery’s Westview Abbey mausoleum is one of the nation’s largest, with more than eleven thousand crypts. Throughout its history, Westview dabbled in other business ventures, including a cafeteria, a funeral home and an ambulance service. And for decades, the cemetery’s Westview Floral Company sold flowers to lot owners and local businesses, leading to its own advice column in the Atlanta Constitution. Author Jeff Clemmons traces the complete history of this treasured necropolis.

White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism

During the civil rights era, Atlanta thought of itself as “The City Too Busy to Hate,” a rare place in the South where the races lived and thrived together. Over the course of the 1960s and 1970s, however, so many whites fled the city for the suburbs that Atlanta earned a new nickname: “The City Too Busy Moving to Hate.”

Lost Atlanta

Lost Atlanta breathes life back into the city that time, progress and technology have swept aside.

Lost Atlanta journeys back in time to look at the city as it once was. Old theaters, hotels, ballparks, civic buildings and the early transport system of the city are recalled in this book written by a best-selling Atlanta historian and his colleagues at the Atlanta History Center. Listed in chronological order the losses stretch back to 1821 and the Creek Indians. Major events in Atlanta history are encompassed, such as the Civil War destruction of 1864, the Cotton States International Exposition of 1896, the Great Atlanta Fire of 1917 right though to 1996 and the dismantling of key venues after the 1996 Olympic Games.

Battles for Atlanta (Civil War)

Recounts the Union Army’s campaign to capture Atlanta, describes Confederate efforts to defend the city, and offers a profile of General Sherman.

All the Fighting They Want: The Atlanta Campaign …

John Bell Hood brought a hang-dog look and a hard-fighting spirit to the Army of Tennessee. Once one of the ablest division commanders in the Army of Northern Virginia, he found himself, by the spring of 1864, in the war’s Western Theater. Recently recovered from grievous wounds sustained at Chickamauga, he suddenly found himself thrust into command of the Confederacy’s ill-starred army even as Federals pounded on the door of the Deep South’s greatest untouched city, Atlanta.

Final Word

Books are losing their luster compared to reading online, but they’ll never go away. Support your local public library. There are some page-turners there for real!

Atlanta has a lot of inspirational people and AtlantaFi.com is going to introduce you to many of them as well as cool places to go, great restaurants and other ATL happenings.

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