From Cotton Fields to Factories: How Georgia Became a Sunbelt State

Name: From Cotton Fields to Factories: How Georgia Became a Sunbelt State
Start: 2026-02-22T16:00:00-05:00
Location: 1925 Electric Avenue, Watkinsville, GA, United States, Georgia 30677

Schedule

Sun, 22 Feb, 2026 at 04:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

1925 Electric Avenue, Watkinsville, GA, United States, Georgia 30677 | Watkinsville, GA

Ask Americans about Georgia and they might mention auto plants, movie studios, and, most recently, data centers. But how did a state more well-known for cotton, peaches, and peanuts become an economic powerhouse? It was not an accident or foreordained. Atlanta’s leading businessmen feverishly competed for outside investment, including during World War II, when New York’s Bell Bomber agreed to build B-29s in a small town just outside Atlanta. That massive Marietta plant was a pivotal moment in Georgia’s economic history. Thereafter, Atlanta boosters set their sights on building what came to be known nationwide as a business climate, shorthand for assuring manufacturers there would be low business taxes, few regulations, and plenty of people willing to work, but not join a union.

Elizabeth Tandy Shermer is a professor of history and director of UGA’s new Applied History Certificate Program. She has written extensively on politics, economics, and policy, themes in her first book, Sunbelt Capitalism, and most recent book on the history of student loans, Indentured Students.