Ebook: Atlanta, cradle of the New South: race and remembering in the Civil War's aftermath

After conquering Atlanta in the summer of 1864 and occupying it for two months, Union forces laid waste to the city in November. William T. Sherman's invasion was a pivotal moment in the history of the South and Atlanta's rebuilding over the following fifty years came to represent the contested meaning of the Civil War itself. The war's aftermath brought contentious transition from Old South to New for whites and African Americans alike. Historian William Link argues that this struggle defined the broader meaning of the Civil War in the modern South, with no place embodying the region's past a.;A troublesome thing: invasion -- Ocean of ruins: destruction and rebirth -- A forgetfulness of the past: rebuilding the racial order -- Every contrivance of cruelty: violence and white supremacy in the new South -- We are rising: schooling the city -- Wheel within a wheel: competing visions -- The new South in crisis -- Epilogue: the propaganda of history.