This was a fantastic book, and a great way of setting the context of living in Atlanta. In fact, in January, I spent a lot of time looking for a good recent history of Atlanta, and everything I found then stopped at roughly the election of President Carter. Shame on the bookstores where I was looking, for not having this book in that section.

Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn is the history of Atlanta, told through the family stories of two families of Atlanta leaders, one white and one black.

The white family, the Ivan Allens (Senior through IV), is an elite business family whose civic and political work shaped Atlanta’s experience through successfully making Atlanta’s desgregation experience far more peaceful than that of many other American cities, especially in the South. But the context of those decisions is a familial context, and the leadership and pressure of four generations of leaders named Ivan Allen takes a toll. This book is honest and analytical, both about the successes and the difficulties.

The black family is the Dobbses, who produced Maynard Jackson, Jr, the first black mayor of Atlanta. This was also both remarkable, impressive, tense, and difficult, and the book is equally honest and analyitical in recording their familial history.

Like the work of J. Anthony Lukas, whose book Common Ground, won the Pulitzer Prize, this is an incredibly readable, compelling story, with the various pieces weaving together in both predictable and unpredictable ways. At the same time, it gives a good "flavor" for the politics and civic communities of Atlanta.