Books

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Tara—Scarlett O'Hara's fictional childhood home—may be the place most strongly associated with Mitchell's Civil War epic, but the bulk of the action takes place in Atlanta, the author's birthplace. Scarlett moves to Atlanta's Peachtree Street as a war widow and lives through its siege, bombardment, burning, and reconstruction. Though today's multilane thoroughfare little resembles Scarlett's muddy, tree-lined road, her presence is still felt in the Margaret Mitchell House, where Gone With the Wind was written, and which is open to visitors.

A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe

A novel written by one of America's most renowned social satirists, A Man in Full delves into the heart of Atlanta's political and cultural scenes, from mayoral press conferences to Freaknik, a black college spring-break festival held annually in Atlanta.

A Turn in the South by V. S. Naipaul

Naipaul—born in multiracial Trinidad of Indian heritage—brings a fresh, outsider's perspective to the American South. Part travelogue and part oral history, Naipaul holds court with everyone from Bible-thumping politicians to underpaid busboys during his travels through tobacco farms, destitute plantations, and rising metropolises.

Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn: A Saga of Race and Family by Gary Pomerantz

In this acclaimed work of historical nonfiction, Pomerantz traces the multi-generational history of two eminent Atlanta families, the white Allens and the black Dobbses. Set against the milieu of politicians' ambitions, the intermeshed narratives of the two dynasties prove emblematic of the Peach City's own dazzling metamorphosis into one of the New South's most cosmopolitan urban centers.