Living Atlanta: An Oral History of the City, 1914-1948 - Hardcover

Kuhn, Clifford M.; Joye, Harlon E.; West, E. Bernard; West, Bernard; Radio Free Georgia Broadcasting Foundation

4.05

21 ratings by Goodreads

9780820311616: Living Atlanta: An Oral History of the City, 1914-1948

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0820311618 ISBN 13: 9780820311616

Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr, 1990

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

From the memories of everyday experience, Living Atlanta vividly recreates life in the city during the three decades from World War I through World War II―a period in which a small, regional capital became a center of industry, education, finance, commerce, and travel. This profusely illustrated volume draws on nearly two hundred interviews with Atlanta residents who recall, in their own words, "the way it was"―from segregated streetcars to college fraternity parties, from moonshine peddling to visiting performances by the Metropolitan Opera, from the growth of neighborhoods to religious revivals.

The book is based on a celebrated public radio series that was broadcast in 1979-80 and hailed by Studs Terkel as "an important, exciting project―a truly human portrait of a city of people." Living Atlanta presents a diverse array of voices―domestics and businessmen, teachers and factory workers, doctors and ballplayers. There are memories of the city when it wasn't quite a city: "Back in those young days it was country in Atlanta," musician Rosa Lee Carson reflects. "It sure was. Why, you could even raise a cow out there in your yard." There are eyewitness accounts of such major events as the Great Fire of 1917: "The wind blowing that way, it was awful," recalls fire fighter Hugh McDonald. "There'd be a big board on fire, and the wind would carry that board, and it'd hit another house and start right up on that one. And it just kept spreading." There are glimpses of the workday: "It's a real job firing an engine, a darn hard job," says railroad man J. R. Spratlin. "I was using a scoop and there wasn't no eight hour haul then, there was twelve hours, sometimes sixteen." And there are scenes of the city at play: "Baseball was the popular sport," remembers Arthur Leroy Idlett, who grew up in the Pittsburgh neighborhood. "Everybody had teams. And people―you could put some kids out there playing baseball, and before you knew a thing, you got a crowd out there, watching kids play."

Organizing the book around such topics as transportation, health and religion, education, leisure, and politics, the authors provide a narrative commentary that places the diverse remembrances in social and historical context. Resurfacing throughout the book as a central theme are the memories of Jim Crow and the peculiarities of black-white relations. Accounts of Klan rallies, job and housing discrimination, and poll taxes are here, along with stories about the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, early black forays into local politics, and the role of the city's black colleges.

Martin Luther King, Sr., historian Clarence Bacote, former police chief Herbert Jenkins, educator Benjamin Mays, and sociologist Arthur Raper are among those whose recollections are gathered here, but the majority of the voices are those of ordinary Atlantans, men and women who in these pages relive day-to-day experiences of a half-century ago.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Clifford M. Kuhn (Author)
CLIFFORD M. KUHN was an associate professor of history at Georgia State University and director of the Georgia Government Documentation Project. He is also author of Contesting the New South Order.

Harlon E. Joye (Author)
HARLON E. JOYE is a sociologist and executive producer of the Living Atlanta radio series on which this book is based.

E. Bernard West (Author)
E. BERNARD WEST, an historian, is researching a book on the Buffalo Soldiers.

Review:

While we learn a good bit about the development of Atlanta over the years within the context of contemporary historiography, the heart and soul of the book is its depiction of the machinations of a segregated society. . . . Living Atlanta deserves respect for telling a difficult story.

(Journal of American History)

A valuable guide to Atlanta's complicated personality and its wonderful, terrible past.

(Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

The most vivid retrospective of twentieth-century life in Georgia.

(Macon Telegraph and News)

Living Atlanta should serve as a foundation for reevaluating the origins of race relations in the urban New South. It is an important and an innovative work that warrants a wide readership.

(Journal of American Ethnic History)

It is a very readable history, and any of its chapters could well be expanded to book length. . . . Essential for libraries with collections on Atlanta and southern racial relations.

(Library Journal)

A captivating narrative that weaves quotations into the prose. Rather than presenting a collection of transcribed interviews, the book tells a story with the enrichment of personal recollections. . . . The authors and their interview subjects present a detailed portrait of life in a southern city when segregation prevailed at every turn. . . . The oral history interviews reveal with great poignancy how the institutions and mores enforcing segregation shaped the lives of whites and blacks alike. (Roger Biles Journal of Southern History)

The book captures the subjugation of blacks by whites and the efforts of black Atlantans to live within these conditions. Living Atlanta, however, does more, communicating across the years a rich and varied history of the city and its people. (James B. Crooks Florida Historical Quarterly)

This book is a delight, a true history of private life, and the lives fly past 'just like a dog runnin' a rabbit.' (Virginia Quarterly Review)

A rich, evocative study which provides vignettes of a number of important topics such as race relations, neighborhood development, the depression, politics, crime, labor unions and strikes, religion, music, and recreation. . . . A handsome volume that shows the maturity of public history. . . . Teachers will mine it for telling detail to enliven lectures and textbooks. The wider public will find compelling reminders of the southern roots of jet-set Atlanta. (Carl Abbott Georgia Historical Quarterly)

Living Atlanta discloses a view of the New South that is dynamic and rich in human complexity. . . . The authors' successful use of oral interviews to bring to life the momentous events and everyday experiences of ordinary people will fascinate many readers. . . . Other scholar scholars interested in putting oral history to good use will want to follow the lead established by Living Atlanta. (Tera W. Hunter Oral History Review)

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.