Nashville is a city of sublime contrasts, an intellectual hub built on a devotion to God, country music and the Devil’s pleasures. Refined and raucous, it has long represented both culture and downright fun, capable of embracing pre-Civil War mansions and manners, as well as honky-tonk bars and trailer parks. Nouvelle cuisine co-exists with barbeque and cornbread; the Frist Museum of Contemporary Art is nearby the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Nashville has, in less than eighty years, transformed from a small, conservative, Bible-thumping city into a booming metropolis. Nashvillian Richard Schweid tells the history of how it all came to pass, and colourfully describes contemporary Nashville and the changes and upheavals it has gone through to make it the South’s most exciting and thriving city.
Journalist and author Richard Schweid worked for ten years as a reporter for The Tennessean, Nashville’s daily newspaper. His previous books include Invisible Nation: Homeless Families in America (2016).
Prologue: A City in Transition
HISTORY
1 Seven Hills and a River
2 A Town Appears
3 A War Zone
4 Reconstruction and Recovery
5 The City Spreads Out
6 A Change Is Gonna Come
7 A New Nashville
THE CITY TODAY
Music City, USA
Natural Nashville
At the Table
The Real Estate Boom
Literary and Artistic Nashville
Nighttime’s the Right Time
LISTINGS
Chronology
Reading and Viewing
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index