Kenneth Coleman's study of Athens, Georgia, during the Civil War focuses on what life was like for the 4,000 people living there. Despite the hardship and deprivation, life went on, heightened by the effects of war. Churches and schools remained the core of social life; women's groups continued to meet; parties and concerts added amusement to people's lives. But war did make drastic changes. People lost loved ones, and knew the hardship of living from day to day as prices soared and goods, once necessities, became unobtainable luxuries. Coleman weaves a broad and illuminating tapestry of a people who met a great challenge while managing to hold on to, for as long as possible, their peacetime ways.
