Louisiana Books

I purchased this book to help me in my American History class, and I am glad that I did!

This book provides detailed accounts about the Reconstruction Period during the Civil War. It is an easy read. It is not only loaded with interesting facts, it is packed with tons of pictures for the visual learner.

This book is a thoroughly researched work on the secretive, appalling influence and pervasiveness of the religious Far Right within the military, and the power that fundamentalist world view has on every aspect of the military. Loveland traces the origins and growth of the spreading cancer which even today is so secretive most non-believers are unaware of it. The degree of control over policy and even strategy is frightening. No one concerned about the military or even state of democracy in this country can afford to miss this book.

American Narratives is an especially important and timely look at the immigrant and ethnic minority experience in the US as portayed at the turn of the twentieth century. In examining the works of four authors with varying ethnic backgrounds, the author demonstrates the multitude of ways individuals assimilate and identify with their own ethnic heritage while accepting or rejecting those of the dominate culture. While examining the experiences depicted by these authors, the reader can't help but reflect on current issues of immigration and assimilation and personal beliefs about cultural identity and priviledge.

Except for the very wealthy, the only picture most modern Americans have of live-in house servants comes from watching Upstairs, Downstairs. But up until the First World War, it was common for even modestly middle class families to have at least a full-time "maid of all work" -- a job that could use you up in a short time but which was frequently the lot of girls under the age of twenty. The "servant problem," as Sutherland convincingly shows, was a constant subject of conversation and correspondence in all regions of the country and in every decade of the 19th century, although most complainants seemed to think things were better elsewhere or at an earlier time in our history. A great many servants came from among the crowds of newly arrived immigrants, who were considered inferior by Anglo Americans in any case, and who bolstered the need of the theoretically democratic to be superior to someone. And while having servants was partly a matter of status, it was mostly a practical necessity: No housewife, especially with children, had the time nor the strength to singlehandedly cook, clean house, raise kids, and deal with merchants. The arrival of vacuum cleaners and other labor-saving inventions in the early 20th century took the pressure off, and the competitive rise in industrial wages meant additional economic options for the laboring classes. This is a fascinating, well-written, thoroughly documented study, especially for a converted doctoral thesis. It should be of interest to any student of American social history.

This true and gruesome account of the systematic torture and killing of a human being as a public spectacle is an outrage to humanity. This story unveils a very hidden period in American history and is a very descriptive account of racial hatred and racial control gone too far. Even though this book is very chilling tale, it is a story that needed to be published and needs to be read by everyone. This book was required reading in a crime and political order class I took when I was an undergraduate. I thought I was a well-read American history buff, but after reading this, I am fascinated that I was completely unaware of the public and sanctioned torture of Americans from the end of slavery until the civil rights movement for the first 23 years of my life. The period in American history where racial hatred was acted upon and justified is not far behind us and this documentation is an important account of terror that is not often mentioned.

Poverty Point in Louisiana is the grand-daddy of all Indian mounds in the US. Built in the shape of a amphitheater on a low ridge overlooking the swamps of the Mississippi River, Poverty Point is 3,500 years old. Author Gibson, an archaelogist, gives us a vivid, speculative picture of the people who built Poverty Point

You can skip the first two chapters which cover the history of theories about Poverty Point. Chapter Three begins the description of the place. Gibson goes through chapters about who lived at Poverty Point, their economy, politics, religion, equipment, and how they built the massive earthworks -- which consist of six concentric half-moon rings spread over a square kilometer of ground -- an enormous undertaking. It wasn't the first mound built in the United States -- but it was far larger than any previous structures.

The Poverty Point people, in Gibson's view, were pre-agricultural hunters and gatherers which makes their achievement even more remarkable. They lacked stones, so rocks for spearheads and other tools were imported from hundreds of miles away. What did they exchange for the rocks? Gibson doesn't know. That's an unanswered question. What did they eat? Gibson says mainly fish from the lakes and bayous nearly surrounding the place. Was Poverty Point only a ceremonial site? If not how many people lived there? Gibson calls it a residential site but doesn't believe it was large enough to be called a city.

This book blends archaelogical findings with ethnology, common sense and, frankly, guesswork -- but guesses by an expert on the subject. As the oldest major Indian ruin in the United States, Poverty Point has a mystical significance similar in my mind to Stonehenge.

Smallchief

And Still I Cook is a recipe collection compiled from the culinary author Leah Chase's fifty years of restaurant work and cooking experience. From Baked Cheese Grits with Jalapeno Peppers; Pan-Fried Sac-A-Lait; and Rosemary Chicken; Cabbage Casserole; and Grilled Vegetables on Whole-Wheat Buns, And Still I Cook is an outstanding cornucopia of enthusiastically recommended home-style recipes offering a very special touch of taste-tested, appetite-satisfying charm.

Pharmacist and health care advocate Dawn Hooley has documented a wildly fascinating book about her unique experience enduring viscious moments during Hurricane Katrina's assault on New Orleans. In the book, Dawn describes moments when the police gave their guns to stranded tourists and how the group knew that this was "no ordinary hurricane". She describes events that helped stranded patients in New Orleans obtain their medications from a local pharmacy, and volunteering for one of the local hospitals after asking four hospitals. In truly an "outsider" fashion, Dawn Hooley paints a new face on Katrina in a first-hand account.

Know this in advance: Angels, Anarchists & Gods is only black & white portraits without much explanation. It is a photo album of some special people in some of our lives. For us we will know these people and delight in seeing them again.

In this photo album are many of the people who expanded and kept truth and freedom and creativity and peace alive. They did this and we did this primarily in the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's. While some are no longer among us, the wonderful portraits are not as these folks looked then. The photos are of these great human beings in middle or late age or as they are currently. They are still beautiful. They look great and there is still much sparkle and energy.

The portraits are top notch from a photo art standpoint. Each one really brings out the subject and in some cases their world. For me, the even grater value of this publication is it's providing a photo album of key individuals that changed our lives for the better. Having this book reminds me not only of these people, but of the messages their leadership brought.

These challanges are alive and need to be met today as ever before to keep peace, freedom, brotherhood, sisterhood, truth and creativity alive. These challanges did not start nor end in the sixties and seventies. We still have much to do.

I hesitate to list some of the people in this photo album, because I could not possibly come close to listing them all. I will leave it as a very pleasent suprise for those rare folks who will buy this unique book. Enjoy.

P.S. - If by chance one purchased and enjoyed Linda McCartney's Sixties - Portrait Of An Era, then Christopher Felver's Angels, Anarchists & Gods is a must have. While few of the folks presented are musicians (as with Ms. McCartney's wonderful book) these people were very much a part of the important movements in the 50's, 60's and 70's or in some cases, at least part of the fun of those times. As Felver's book will show, these people are, in many cases, alive and well and their ideas and gifts are too.

This is book does a fantastic job of compiling a wide variety of new historical essays that look at the anti-slavery movement.
For generations historians dismissed the abolitionists as crazy or too militant, etc. In the 1960's a new generation of historians started to rethink this position. Produced long after this first wave of "neo abolitionist" historians, Anti-Slavery Reconsidered shows how far Abolition Studies has come.
Read this book alongside the 60's classic "The Anti-Slavery Vangaurd", and the contemporary classic "Prophets of Protest" (2005).