Legacy: The Secret History of Proto-Fascism in America's Greatest Little City

LaGrange, GA - 1935 - Three little boys sit on the curb, sad, confused, wondering where they will sleep tonight. All of their worldly possessions lie strewn about on the sidewalk. Georgia National Guardsmen have just evicted the boys' families from their mill-owned homes. When Callaway Mills employees went on strike, Governor Talmadge declared martial law in LaGrange. Soldiers patrol the streets and tell neighbors not to talk to one another -- and they mean business. A large machine gun sits in the middle of the mill village at the front gate of Unity Mill.

A few blocks away, on Park Avenue, a fight breaks out between soldiers and mill workers. After the soldiers deliver a fatal blow to the head of a WWI veteran, they arrest the others and transport them to a military internment camp in Atlanta. Meanwhile, in Germany, Nazi newspapers celebrate another successful round of union busting by the Georgia state militia, calling it a sign of fascism's coming global triumph.

This book is not a work of fiction. It is the secret history of proto-fascism in America's greatest little city.

Informed by social psychology research, Legacy examines corporate-funded racism, sexism, fundamentalism, and authoritarianism in LaGrange, GA, and ultimately critiques the corporate threat to democracy at the municipal level.