ATLANTA — The Georgia Historical Society announced recently that Grace Elizabeth Hale has been awarded the 2021 Malcolm Bell Jr. and Muriel Barrow Bell Award for the best book on Georgia history published in 2020 for her book “Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and Changed American Culture” (University of North Carolina Press, 2020). The award was presented during a private luncheon hosted by Vince and Barbara Dooley at their home in Athens.

“Grace Hale’s remarkable book on Athens, and by extension Georgia, as a center of musical artistry is a wonderful scholarly achievement,” W. Todd Groce, president of the Georgia Historical Society, said in a news release. “She proves conclusively that the South is still the birthplace of American music and that New York and Boston are not the exclusive purveyors of national culture and creativity.”

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