Georgia Governors in an Age of Change is the first book to present a clear overview of gubernatorial leadership in Georgia during the critical period between 1943 and 1983, covering the administrations of Ellis Arnall, Melvin E. Thompson, Herman Talmadge, Marvin Griffin, Ernest Vandiver, Carl Sanders, Lester Maddox, Jimmy Carter, and George Busbee. Based on a unique meeting of scholars and politicians held in 1985, this book brings together historical assessments of the post-World War II administrations and reactions to those assessments by the governors themselves.

The four decades that followed the inauguration of Ellis Arnall as governor saw the state of Georgia experience its most fundamental changes since the end of the Civil War. Those years witnessed a dramatic change in the political balance of power as the state's population shifted from rural dominance to urban influence. Georgia saw firsthand the birth of the civil rights movement, the end of Jim Crow