The Atlanta History Center is celebrating the reopening of a newly renovated Margaret Mitchell House by closely examining the book’s legacy that placed Mitchell firmly in America’s collective memory.
“Telling Stories: Gone With the Wind and American Memory,” which opened on July 10, examines how Mitchell’s 1936 book (and David O. Selznick’s 1939 film of the same name) has influenced American collective memory and interpretation of the Civil War since its release.
Atlanta History Center’s VP of Special Projects, Claire Haley, sat down with “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes over Riverside to discuss the newly reopened museum and an upcoming panel discussion about the book.
According to Haley, as visitors walk through the recently renovated Mitchel House, they’ll be presented with “aspects of [US] history that are explored in Gone with the Wind, and the ways that that history is often misconstrued.”
These explorations include topics like the lost cause ideology and involve “historical artifacts and other things that guests can look at to better understand that,” says Haley.
