The bonfire

Atlanta's destruction is one of the most recognizable episodes in American history, largely because it anchors the climax of Gone with the Wind. Yet while Leningrad, Stalingrad and Berlin have each inspired widely read histories, the American case has received only passing attention in broader surveys. Marc Wortman sets out to correct this with The Bonfire, a gripping narrative that follows the experiences of people on both the Confederate and Union sides.

Wortman shows a city full of contradictions. Atlanta was a fast-growing commercial center that nonetheless depended on slavery, a system that now seems primitive. Its mayor, James Calhoun, opposed secession and was a cousin of John C. Calhoun, one of the South's most prominent defenders of slavery. When Calhoun handed the city to General William T. Sherman after forty-four grueling days, he was accompanied by Bob Yancey, an enslaved man who was probably the son of the statesman Daniel Webster.

The book argues that the siege combined elements of two eras. It was the last great siege in the medieval tradition and also the first example of modern urban destruction. The ruins of the city became the ground from which a new South would emerge.