Louisiana Books

This eye witness account delivers a great true story. The main theme of the book is doing underground operations while having constant above board dealings with the enemy. The writing style is very readable, although I got lost a little when references were made to various towns.

It starts with Andre being in manufacturing in support of the war effort, and a description of the German invasion as seen locally. There was a German anti-aircraft installation near where he lived which shot down several Allied planes throughout the war. Andre gets involved with the Underground when he decides to harbor some evading airmen. This involvement was not thrust upon him, he seeked it out. As his activities became known to people in the area, many of whom were sympathetic to the Allies, he became more involved with harboring downed airmen. He also became involved with the Passive Defense, an above ground French organization that did what they could to fight fires, discourage French and German looters, etc. While patrolling the town for the Passive Defense, they would simultaneously participate in Resistance functions like putting nails on the road at night to sabotage German vehicles and removing the nails in the morning. The looting and sabotage intensified during the chaos of the Allied Normandy invasion. The most violent thing he did in the book was to set a German truck on fire. I get the feeling that Andre may have participated in some violent acts but did not include them in the book.

In 1944 he was fingered by informers and arrested by the Gestapo, who beat him up very badly. The Gestapo gathered up other suspected Resistance members, and sent them together to the Buchenwald concentration camp. He and another prisoner were able to escape during a bomb raid while being transfered to another camp, and after a couple of weeks made contact with the Allied front.

I wish there had been more follow up on what became of the participants in the book after the war, and especially what became of the informants and collaborators. Maybe a later edition could add an appendix dealing with this.

For those looking for the history of Algiers (that town on the Westbank of the Mississippi across from New Orleans) this book takes a peek at the past and not so past. This the 3rd of Mr. Dixon's books was completed by his family after his death which probably means that no more books on this subject will come to print. If it weren't for Remy Dixon most of these stories would have been lost. If this book is still available and you have even a mild couriosity about this "part of New Orleans apart from New Orleans" then buy it, read it, and pass it down to your kids.

In this illuminating study, Herman Lebovics offers a provacative and original interpretation of the origins of the conservative stability of the Third Republic in France, using the Great Depression of the late nineteenth century as his focus. According to Lebovics, the new conservative republican order created by the Opportunist politicians and their formally monarchist allies was first made possible by the confluence of narrow economic interests forced upon the bourgeois industrialists and the agrigarian notables by foreign competition, depressed prices, and the beginnings of modern social conflict.

A sense of common economic needs and problems, Lebovics argues, facilitated collaboration among the elites for the passage of protective tarifs such as the Meline tariff of 1892. This sociopolitical alliance, which formed a bedrock of support for a new conservatism, was also forged to deal with the growing discontent of peasants and urban workers.

While the industrialists created a powerful organization to fight for the needs of National Labor, the growers worked to dispel the dissident groups in their provinces. The Ralliement and the development of the colonial empire provided further opportunities for mutually beneficial alliances among the elites. The new ruling stratum completed its work in the ministry of social pacification of Jules Meline between 1896 and 1898.

Lebovics employs a method that unites the social history with the study of socio-economic and political influences. This approach clarifies the pivotal early decades of the new French republic and makes possible a synthetic understanding of the ways a modern French upper class created itself, not in vacuo, but rather in relation to the contending and cooperating forces at that historical conjuncture.
--- from book's dustjacket

I bought this book for my 4 year old who loves alligators. The pictures are real life and great quality. This is both educational and fun to read. Great for adults and children. Something to have and pass on for generations.

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.

Kane, best-remembered as the author of Louisiana Hayride, "recreates the glamourous plantation life of the gay French sugar barons and documents the long history of tragedy striking from the sky, creeping in with the waters."

"...the panorama of strange folk beliefs, husbands who take on the shape of dogs to spy upon their wives; tormented spirits of unchristian babies who haunt the swamp in the guise of balls of fire."

"...a land which has been alternately a paradise and a battleground, where men of many nations have fought to take, or to save, the heart of a continent...."


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Paradise Incomplete

Corridor to a Treasure House
That Novelty, Sugar
Cannons Among the Chateaux
Imperial Highway
The Gay Picaroons
Loss and Survival

The French All Around
Dalmatia on the Mississippi
The Mixture Thickens
Stop Acting Like a Pilot
Harness in the River Mouth

Death of an Era
Rage in the Skies
Silk Shirts and Shotguns
The Twice that Rescued New Orleans
La Politique...She Stink, She Stink!
Shadings
Rare Ducks, With Salt
The Big Little Doctor
Everchanging, Everlasting

Acknowledgments
Bibliography (8 pp)
Index

Kane, best-remembered as the author of Louisiana Hayride, "recreates the glamourous plantation life of the gay French sugar barons and documents the long history of tragedy striking from the sky, creeping in with the waters."

"...the panorama of strange folk beliefs, husbands who take on the shape of dogs to spy upon their wives; tormented spirits of unchristian babies who haunt the swamp in the guise of balls of fire."

"...a land which has been alternately a paradise and a battleground, where men of many nations have fought to take, or to save, the heart of a continent...."


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Paradise Incomplete

Corridor to a Treasure House
That Novelty, Sugar
Cannons Among the Chateaux
Imperial Highway
The Gay Picaroons
Loss and Survival

The French All Around
Dalmatia on the Mississippi
The Mixture Thickens
Stop Acting Like a Pilot
Harness in the River Mouth

Death of an Era
Rage in the Skies
Silk Shirts and Shotguns
The Twice that Rescued New Orleans
La Politique...She Stink, She Stink!
Shadings
Rare Ducks, With Salt
The Big Little Doctor
Everchanging, Everlasting

Acknowledgments
Bibliography (8 pp)
Index

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.