Imagineering Atlanta: The Politics of Place in the City of Dreams (Haymarket)

Is Atlanta really the "New York of the South"? Does it have a World Trade Center? A stock exchange? An urban center? Why not? Anthropologist Charles Rutheiser looks at why the city never attained traditional urbanity in this accessible, well-researched historical study. He implicates politicians, economics and a racialized topography for the city's failure to thrive, showing that outlying white areas developed at the expense of the city's black core. Imagineering Atlanta steps around the hype of the 1996 Olympics and Atlanta's characteristic boosterism to make a case that is poignant and convincing.