“Mining correspondence, newspaper accounts, and interviews, Dickey’s new book analyzes exhibits at the Atlanta Historical Society (and later the Atlanta History Center) on the book and the movie, Clayton County’s flirtation with a Gone with the Wind theme park and Tara restoration, and the Margaret Mitchell House’s triumph over the wrecking ball, two fires, and a wave of heated public debate.
A Tough Little Patch of History is a fascinating study of the tumultuous relationship between a book, a film, history, and historic preservation. Dickey’s analysis of the Mitchell House is particularly strong, and she is to be congratulated for exploring the complex work of reconstructing history of the ‘prosthetic memor[ies]’ perpetuated by Gone with the Wind.”
—Journal of Southern History, Nov. 2015