ABSTRACT
Nineteenth-century Atlanta was a small town, growing rapidly only in the reconstruction period after the Civil War, in which it was largely destroyed by Sherman’s troops. By 1895 it had grown to a population of 75,000 and by the 1920s was the principal city in Georgia, and the centre of the country’s cotton and textile industry. Continuing growth thereafter was driven by an active campaign to draw northern investment to the city and although Atlanta’s growth stalled in the depression years, it resumed with the Second World War and the disarmament boom that followed the end of the war. There then began the first stage of the suburban expansion that, on an increasing scale, continues today.
