This Georgia Rising: Education, Civil Rights, and the Politics of Change in Georgia in the 1940s

This Georgia Rising: Education, Civil Rights, and the Politics of Change in Georgia in the 1940s. By Patrick Novotny. (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2007. Pp. [x], 351. $45.00, ISBN 978-0-88146-088-9.)

In This Georgia Rising: Education, Civil Rights, and the Politics of Change in Georgia in the 1940s, Patrick Novotny recounts the colorful, peculiar, and ultimately tragic tale of Georgia's post- World War II political transition. He describes what happened as the prewar and wartime politics of the pseudopopulist reactionary Eugene Talmadge gave way to the slightly more respectable postwar politics of his pro-modernization - but still reactionary - son, Herman.

Novotny demonstrates the usefulness of period journalism as a window on the postwar era in southern politics. Using newspapers from Atlanta, Savannah, Augusta, and many smaller towns and numerous counties, he offers a plethora of detail on key events. The stories told...