Louisiana Books

I was given this volume as a gift on my last birthday. The presenter knew that "Look Homeward Angel" was in my "Top 5" favorite novels. I sat down to read and did not get up until I had turned the last page.

This is a fascinating book and a tribute not only to Thomas Wolfe, but to the two scholars who have delved so deeply into his life and art. I wish that all great autobiographical novels would recieve this kind of treatment. A novel as great and rich as "Look Homeward Angel" has finally come full circle in this tremendouse companion.

This is a very good book whose story must be told. I thank you for getting all of the information together. I want to order more of your books.

Very well written. Historically correct. Good information on a subject that is very hard to find if not impossible. It's time for a work like this to be made available to the public.

This was a very good guide for anyone wanting to research Avoyelles Parish Louisiana! It is trully great! It contains a history of each of the towns and the people in them. The pictures are a testiment to the rich history and culture of our parish. A Must own book for anyone who has roots in Avoyelles or resides there now.

This book is brilliant in its ability to such you in to the minds of even its most demented characters. It will make you laugh, cry, and it will leave you thinking "what if". I would recommend this book to all!!!

Many a genealogist's loved ones have balked at the suggestion that a family vacation could profitably be spent visiting courthouses and cemeteries. The Baldwins, inveterate museum-eers, personally visited most of the more than 170 Louisiana museums, large and small, from the Cabildo and Presbytere in New Orleans (where you can see the Emperor Napoleon?s death mask) to the Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter exhibit at Mooringsport, his home town. They also accompany most of the listings (which are alphabetical by city) with historical sketches and and other local information. The Germantown Colony and Museum in Minden honors the Harmonist/Utopian settlers of 1835 and the book's entry includes a brief history of the colony and its principals, while the description of the Gary J. Hebert Memorial Lockhouse in Plaquemine includes considerable information about the lock system and the interactive exhibits presented there. Also included is complete information on exact locations, hours of operation, costs of admission, and often the name of the curator or director. This is a first-rate guide which will find a place in the glove compartment of many weekend genealogists.

Baseball in Baton Rouge, like Bielawa's other Arcadia publication Bridgeport Baseball, is a rich pictorial memoir of not only the game, but of a city and its widespread association with the American pastime. Readers will enjoy learning about remarkable people, such as Moxie Manuel and surroundings, like Battle Park, that have defined Baton Rouge's long outstanding history in baseball. Little known facts and pictures uncovered from hours of research and personal interviews, as well as the knowledge and documentation that many famous ballplayers have traveled through Baton Rouge, make this a truly enjoyable read for every baseball fan!

I loved this book! It is a collection of short stories, originally published singly in magazines. They provide a snapshot of life in Louisiana in the late 19th century, and truly fulfill this reader's desire to be transported to a different time and place.

In each story, often only a few pages long, the author paints a vivid picture a the characters, their circumstances, and motivations.

The theme of all the stories is change. Although the turns of events described are generally not monumental, they are often the catalyst for a significant change in a character. And sometimes the point is that there is no change.

Miles Richardson has translated his life and career into this starkly honest and exquisitely informed offering. From within a field of vision that encompasses Neandertal (and her competitors) and Heidegger, Jimmy Swaggart and Hank Williams, Holy Water and hard living, the New Testament and Post-moderism, he works with the care of a paleantologist unearthing a new fossil.

I don't kow of another text in which theoretical sophistication and spiritual sensitivity are woven so seamlessly with the flesh and blood of ordinary believers. Richardson has clearly lived among (and broken bread with) his subects. He treats them with exceptioanal good will.

Miles tells a mean story, bringing to bear a lifetime of study, observation, reflection and care. He's funny. And he writes.

We owe him one.

Civilians do not fair well near Civil War armies, no matter which side they are on. Armies are voracious consumers of fences, chickens and the contents of smoke houses while producing large amounts of filth. Until now, no book has so completely explained what these statements means in personal terms. In 1860, Winchester is a growing town at the head of the lower Shenandoah Valley. Sitting astride the main roads with railroad connects to Harpers Ferry and surrounded by productive farms. The town contains numerous nice homes, shops, a hotel, a large market building and a brick courthouse. At the end of the war, the railroad is destroyed, most of the remaining town buildings are vacant or badly damaged and much of the population gone. Farming is only a memory; the surrounding area has no fences, few buildings and no crops in the fields.

Reading this book, you become a citizen of Winchester, subject to occupation, libration and all the problems this causes. Your fences become firewood. The family chickens become the armies' dinner. You fear arrest and suffer as Winchester declines. Your resisted the enemy by passing letters and information to your side when occupied by the enemy. You run into the street to welcome "your boys" and peeked through the curtains as the other side marches down the street. This is a very personal story of courageous women maintaining homes during the worst of times. The reader comes to identify with these women, admire them and wonder that they could endure.

This is not a history of the battles that take place around Winchester. It is a history of the impact these battles have on the town's people. Each battle is a combination of fear, rumor, noise, wounded, POWs and fleeing troops. If any fighting takes place within the town, it only adds to the confusion, increases fear and causes more damage. Each change of possession is a victory for some but a defeat for others. The author deftly maintains an ongoing account of both sides, chronicling their experiences as the town changes hands.

Winchester is the looser, no matter who is in charge. Arrest, release, exile beyond the lines or being allowed to return depends on current policy. Current policy depends on the shifting mood of the public, the chance of ending the war, the amount of bitterness among the participants and what happened when the "other side" last occupied the town. We see the change from the soft war policies of 1861 to the burning of Chambersburg in 1864, not in abstract but as real events resulting in more or less restrictions on the people.

Most of all this is a story of Southern resistance and defiance in the face of Northern occupation. The Southern women of Winchester fought the war just as much as their men did, exhibiting boundless courage and determination against the occupying army. However, they were Christians and while they never "loved their enemies"; they do care equally for the sick and wounded. The Union regiments come to understand this and a respect grows between them that in time may have save the town.

Richard Duncan has a very easy readable style that makes this an interesting and rewarding book. It will give the reader valuable insights into what the Civil War was like for the civilian population in occupied areas. Of special value is the Epilogue that chronicles the recovery process. Telling us how the citizens of Winchester became Americans once again, not an easy process with some rough spots in the road.

Those interested in the home front and civilian issues war must read this book. For the military student, this book details the issues involved in the occupation of Southern towns. Not as a history of guerrilla warfare but as the relationship between the military and civilian population. For those interested in 19th Century America this book allows us to see the steel beneath the hoop skirts.