Book Review on "Atlanta Rising"

Essay by Nimboo331University, Master'sA+, November 2006

download word file, 4 pages 5.0

Allen, Fredrick. Atlanta Rising. Atlanta, GA. Longstreet Press, 1996.

As one first steps foot into the city of Atlanta he or she may not realize that they are stepping into a city with a rich history filled with the struggle trying to achieve full integration, positive economic development, and most importantly wanted to be declared an "international city." Fredrick Allen's Atlanta Rising presents almost every single detail that effected Atlanta's political scene, the relationship that politics had with the racial issues of that time, and how the political leaders of the past truly impacted the city of Atlanta that we live in today.

Allen, being a former columnist for the Atlanta Journal - Constitution, writes as if the entire book is one big newspaper article. As I read his work I felt as if I was part of the specific time period, reading the daily news. He uses a lot of newspaper references for the direct quotes used.

He is not directly biased; he tries to tell the story from almost everybody's point of views but obviously could not tell you what everyone was thinking but he gave details about their specific actions.

Atlanta Rising, like many other writings has both strength and weaknesses. The major strengths of this book consist of the strong details that the book brings about every event that occurred during the course of time that the Allen discusses. Particularly, the way that he describes characteristics of each "character," for example, when describing Helen Douglas Mankin, he described her as "...A stocky ex-tomboy who stood five-foot-nine and weighed 148 pounds, Mankin knew how to shoot a pistol, play baseball, and fix a flat tire on a truck (p. 1). Reading these types of descriptions gives the reader the ability to mentally visualize the person spoken of.