"Germantown's Civil War experience mirrored that of many small towns across the South: It ardently supported secession through 1861 only to undergo serious disruption in 1862 as Federal forces and Confederate raiders contested control of the area. Then, during 1863 and early 1864, the Tennessee town felt the mixed benefits of an obdurate Federal occupation as guerrilla warfare continued throughout the countryside surrounding the town. And although it began to recover shortly after the close of the Civil War, Germantown's fortunes changed again as Reconstruction took hold and emerging economic inequality mixed with racist fears of a newly freed slave population. Browder recounts the history of what is now a large suburb of Memphis, how it fared during the Civil War, and how its current demographic makeup began shortly after the close of the war"--