"By applying quantitative tools from the social sciences as well as traditional methodologies of historians to three distinctly different urban communities and their respective regions within pre- and post-Civil War Georgia, Richard Hogan's masterful study reimagines Reconstruction-era politics in ways fraught with implications for modern U.S. politics and the rise of Trumpism. Most importantly, Hogan restores contingency to Radical Reconstruction's downfall by revealing that the potential for cross-class political alliances between southern blacks and poor whites lingered well after most historians count Reconstruction as down and out. Further, he convincingly demonstrates that stereotypical attributions of Reconstruction's reversal to Klan and vigilante terrorism obscures more than it explains. By eschewing simplistic analyses and emphasizing processes of political brokering, Hogan illuminates the agency of Georgia politicos like Joe Brown and Tunis Campbell and reveals a fascinating Georgia political mosaic and economy bound to surprise readers."--Robert E. May, professor emeritus of history, Purdue University, author of Yuletide in Dixie: Slavery, Christmas, and Southern Memory.