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A Boy from Georgia: Coming of Age in the Segregated South
When Hamilton Jordan died of peritoneal mesothelioma in 2008, he left behind a mostly finished memoir, a book on which he had been working for the last decade. Jordan's daughter, Kathleen--with the help of her brothers and mother--took up the task of editing and completing the book. A Boy from Georgia --the result of this posthumous father-daughter collaboration--chronicles Hamilton Jordan's childhood in Albany, Georgia, charting his moral and intellectual development as he gradually discovers the complicated legacies of racism, religious intolerance, and southern politics, and affords his readers an intimate view of the state's wheelers and dealers.
Jordan's middle-class childhood was bucolic in some ways and traumatizing in others. As Georgia politicians battled civil rights leaders, a young Hamilton straddled the uncomfortable line between the southern establishment to which he belonged and the movement in which he believed. Fortunate enough to grow up in a family that had considerable political clout within Georgia, Jordan went into politics to put his ideals to work. Eventually he became a key aide to Jimmy Carter and was the architect of Carter's stunning victory in the presidential campaign of 1976; Jordan later served as Carter's chief of staff. Clear eyed about the triumphs and tragedies of Jordan's beloved home state and region, A Boy from Georgia tells the story of a remarkable life in a voice that is witty, vivid, and honest.
Jordan's middle-class childhood was bucolic in some ways and traumatizing in others. As Georgia politicians battled civil rights leaders, a young Hamilton straddled the uncomfortable line between the southern establishment to which he belonged and the movement in which he believed. Fortunate enough to grow up in a family that had considerable political clout within Georgia, Jordan went into politics to put his ideals to work. Eventually he became a key aide to Jimmy Carter and was the architect of Carter's stunning victory in the presidential campaign of 1976; Jordan later served as Carter's chief of staff. Clear eyed about the triumphs and tragedies of Jordan's beloved home state and region, A Boy from Georgia tells the story of a remarkable life in a voice that is witty, vivid, and honest.
264 pages, Hardcover
First published October 15, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 29, 2019
Well done! Interesting southern memoir.
January 3, 2016
I really enjoyed this book. Although I did not know Hamilton Jordan personally except for an occasional meeting in the elevator when he was a neighbor of mine at Colony House for a while after he returned to Atlanta from Washington, and even though he was three or four years older than I, we had many of the same experiences growing up in SW Georgia. Growing up in a much smaller town about 50 miles from Albany, Albany was the "big city" to me. It was where people from my home town went to shop, see doctors, dine out, go to movies, and enjoy the offerings of the Albany Community Concert series at the Albany High School Auditorium. Reading this book brought back many memories of shopping at many of the establishments mentioned, eating and swimming at Radium Springs, reading The Albany Herald each afternoon, and many more.
Although I did not realize it then, I was in Albany just a couple of months ago for a meeting, and since I was early I drove around the neighborhood in which he grew up and passed by his childhood home. It is still a beautiful neighborhood very near downtown Albany. All of the streets in the neighborhood are lined with beautiful live oaks which form an incredible canopy over the streets.
Many thanks to Hamilton's children for taking his manuscript, editing it, and getting this book published.
Although I did not realize it then, I was in Albany just a couple of months ago for a meeting, and since I was early I drove around the neighborhood in which he grew up and passed by his childhood home. It is still a beautiful neighborhood very near downtown Albany. All of the streets in the neighborhood are lined with beautiful live oaks which form an incredible canopy over the streets.
Many thanks to Hamilton's children for taking his manuscript, editing it, and getting this book published.
January 31, 2016
Rating: 3.5
This memoir, edited by his daughter, covers the growing-up years of the late Hamilton Jordan, chief of staff for President Jimmy Carter. Jordan grew up in Albany, Georgia. There's a lot in his story that parallels my experience a few years later in northeastern Tennessee, although (since my hometown was less than 10% African-American) his experience with civil rights issues was more intense than mine. That part of his story is especially interesting, since he clearly grasped the moral issues involved, and also clearly understood that he spent a lot of time ducking them. The book is clearly but not eloquently written and has a few errors that his daughter did not correct (Gone with the Wind premiered at Loew's Theater, not the Fox, e.g.), but it was an interesting and somewhat nostalgic read for me, and I'm glad I read it.
This memoir, edited by his daughter, covers the growing-up years of the late Hamilton Jordan, chief of staff for President Jimmy Carter. Jordan grew up in Albany, Georgia. There's a lot in his story that parallels my experience a few years later in northeastern Tennessee, although (since my hometown was less than 10% African-American) his experience with civil rights issues was more intense than mine. That part of his story is especially interesting, since he clearly grasped the moral issues involved, and also clearly understood that he spent a lot of time ducking them. The book is clearly but not eloquently written and has a few errors that his daughter did not correct (Gone with the Wind premiered at Loew's Theater, not the Fox, e.g.), but it was an interesting and somewhat nostalgic read for me, and I'm glad I read it.
February 16, 2016
Very interesting memoir finished by Hamilton Jordan's children after his death. It is interesting to read how someone raised in the segregated and prejudice South could overcome his background to support and work for President Carter. I would have loved to have read, "the rest of the story", which would have been Carter's presidency and his time after Carter until his death.
January 25, 2016
Good memoir of Hamilton Jordan growing up in the old south. If you grew up in the 50's you will like this book
July 29, 2016
Made me nostalgic for Georgia! And reminded me so much of some of my college courses on the Civil Rights era. I definitely enjoyed hearing about his childhood in Albany and other parts of Georgia.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews