Sandhill Cities is a comparative history of Augusta, Columbus, and Macon, Georgia, in the twentieth century. Weaving together southern, urban, and environmental history, J. Mark Souther narrates urban boosters' hopes and actions in their pursuit of metropolitan stature in three midsized cities situated along the fall line running through the middle of the state.
"In this rigorously researched and nicely narrated book, J. Mark Souther has given us portraits of three mid-sized cities in the middle of Georgia. It is a story of 'effervescent boosterism' and its disappointments, of the gap between image and reality, and of civic ambition and its limits. There are important lessons here for cities all over the country that find themselves in the shadow of a lar
Steven Conn, author of Americans against the City: Anti-Urbanism in the Twentieth Century
"A model of comparative history, Sandhill Cities reminds us that the twentieth-century urban South was more than the experience of Sunbelt notables such as Atlanta, Charlotte, and Houston. By juxtaposing the development of Augusta, Columbus, and Macon, Sandhill Cities reveals that boosters in mid-sized cities regularly articulated a metropolitan vision for their cities but struggled to realize tho
LeeAnn B. Lands, author of Poor Atlanta: Poverty, Race, and the Limits of Sunbelt Developm
"Mark Souther is among the nation's most eminent urban historians. In Sandhill Cities, he tells a complex, important story of urban boosters in Augusta, Columbus, and Macon, Georgia, as they sought to emulate Atlanta's fantastic growth, starting in the 1900s and extending to the 2020s. The book is conceptually sophisticated, lovingly written, and richly documented."
Mark H. Rose, coauthor of A Good Place to Do Business: The Politics of Downtown Renewal si
