Louisiana Books

Life in France after the First World War just didn't make sense to a country that could have been content to win the war. To wit, a political cabinet change at the beginning of 1922 would be enough to fuel one young woman to take off all her clothes in freezing cold weather one afternoon and voice her mad opinions to a crowd assembled at the Place Pigalle. Other Frenchmen killed themselves and their loved ones, deciding that the postwar period was a bit too overwhelming with its high inflation, soaring crime rate, changing moral codes and addictions, among other things. Over 1.3 Frenchmen died in this war and the destruction was said to be 55 million francs. France stood alone trying to face Germany, as everything around it seemed to be going to hell.

If the country were a canvas, then Dadaist mayhem was splashed across it from end to end, evoking a portrait of a country that won a war and, yet lost the peace.

Benjamin F. Martin's France and the Apres Guerre 1918-1924: Illusions and Disillusionment is not so much about a country standing as tall and proud in victory as its very own Arc de Triomphe, but about one that found it could no longer embrace the creature comforts and good times it knew in the Belle Epoque. A wonderfully-written roller coaster ride through the politics and political figures of the period, the harsh postwar conditions, widespread changes and society, it uses anecdotes about how the leaders of the day -- Georges Clemenceau, Raymond Poincare, and Aristide Briand -- tried to make sense of the period in the midst of stories of everyday Frenchmen struggling to get to the next day. It is the stories of these everyday Frenchmen that make this such an engaging -- and heartbreaking -- work. For the French, all that was old was not new again or familiar. Women were hired as detectives. Feminine beauty was not about having dangerous curves. It was about vigorous exercise, because "to get fat is to look old." Basketball was the new hot sport on the block...but the French were individualistic and too short to play it. Department stores had fur sales, but few women could afford to buy them still. Martin uses F. Scott Fitzgerald's Dick Diver to explain the sense of disillusionment: "All my beautiful lovely safe world blew itself up here with a great gust of high explosive love."

Since I received my book I can't put it down. It has some really great recipes and they are easy. I highly recommend this book for anyone that likes cajun creole food.

Voici un livre qui essaie de nous illustrer à propos de la langue française en Louisiane : qui la parle, comment on la parle, ses problèmes et ses besoins. J'espère que ce livre encouragera d'autres auteurs louisianais à écrire à propos de cette branche de la francophonie parfois si oubliée. Encore d'autres livres!

French and Spanish Records of Louisiana is an essential research tool for anyone studying colonial Louisiana. This scholarly publication provides a history of the various record types, information about the circumstances relating to their generation, and detailed information about their location today. There is a bibliography of mauscript sources, books, and articles.

It is always amusiing to see one's books listed as Out-of-Print when they were never in print! Frenchman's Blood, the first in the current Alan Graham (Moundmaster) series by Avon, dates to a period before Alan Graham was even Alan Graham. It is even pre-Pepper Courtney. Here is a case of the publisher going belly-up after listing the book in the catalog and giving the book a spurious life. Some day the work may yet reach the shelves. Until then, enjoy looking at the icon!

Moreno takes a broad-minded, scholarly perspective on civil rights law. He's not wedded to liberal shibboleths, but is no raving right-winger, either. Well-researched, well-written, very informative.

I love this cookbook. In addition to my "Talk About Good" cookbook, this is one of my "go to" books! All those supposedly Cajun cookbooks out there usually aren't really the food that the true cajuns eat. All those sauces and burned foods that are called blackened are not eaten by the true Cajuns. If you want truly Cajun food, this is it Ma Sha!

I love this cookbook. In addition to my "Talk About Good" cookbook, this is one of my "go to" books! All those supposedly Cajun cookbooks out there usually aren't really the food that the true cajuns eat. All those sauces and burned foods that are called blackened are not eaten by the true Cajuns. If you want truly Cajun food, this is it Ma Sha!

This book captures many botanical wonders that are passionately explained by Suzanne Turner. The talented camera work and Ms. Turner's expertise combine to allow the reader to feel as though he or she were strolling through Louisiana's landmark gardens. The commitment and depth of this piece of art are nothing short of magnifique

Hal Crowther's GATHER AT THE RIVER is one of the most important, complex, and beautifully written books to come my way in a while. Every line is fresh and exact, with never a cliche. My favorite essay, "Objection Withstained," could well be about my family, the Statens, guardians of their opinions, their habits, vanities and ghosts.

Janice Daugharty, author of JUST DOLL, book one of the Staten Bay trilogy