Louisiana Books

This is a wonderful book. It is not an easy book to read, so be forewarned. It avoids many familiar assumptions about political distinctions, and relies on statistics more than narrative and drama.

Baum explores the idea that Texas, alone among the rebel states, might have rejoined the Union with a color-blind Republican administration. Given American history, this is an outrageous hypothesis, but Baum makes a good case for his theory.

Baum starts with the surprising victory of pro-union Sam Houston in 1859. This proves the existence, however tenuous, for a anti-planter or anti-slav-ocrat majority. Given the outcome of the war, Baum ask why this pro-union majority didn't assert itself in 1870?

While this hypothesis may seem implausible, Baum does an extraordinary job of teasing contemporary opinion from a county by county review of voting patterns. He looks at the available voting records, including the physical ballots, for every election between 1858 and 1869. Since few historians seem willing to go beyond summarizing contemporary newspaper articles, this provides a wonderful tonic.

Additionally, Baum calls upon records of the Freedmen's Bureau and military reports. From these, Baum builds a compelling argument that grass-roots terrorism shaped each election after 1859, though not deciding the outcome in every case. The terror was perpetrated by unreconstructed rebels, but Baum finds plenty of evidence that klan terror could be defeated. Though appalling, the reader is dragged through a county by county, election by election, tale of torture, lynching, and midnight murders. It sounds dramatic, but isn't. Baum fails to identify any moral response. The few individuals willing to fight the Klan terror are quickly murdered or run out of the state. Thus, it seems to lose its dramatic aspects. It is simply a repetitious list of horrors.

Baum seems to argue that the issue of property redistribution polarized the elections after 1865. The rumor of '40 acres and a mule' for every union veteran threatened yeoman farmer and slav-ocrat planter. When Lee surrendered at Appomattox, there were about 200,000 southerners of color in the federal army. Imagine the political process of handing over 8 million Southern acres to colored union veterans.

The history of terror and fraud within American democratic tradition needs to be better understood. If nothing else, we might do a better job in Iraq. Platitudes about democracy are hardly based on American history.

This was a fascinating book! I read it in one day because I could not put it down! This book, based on a true story, would make a great movie because you could not make up a story this good. This is a great glimpse into the power of big corporations, unethical lawyers at their disposal and perhaps even then judge! There are probably many more stories like this because families don't have the means to fight a 9 year legal battle against a major oil corporation. Thank goodness for this book because this needs to be made public! If you only read one book this year, you should read this one.

Shining delight! Next of Kin is just one example of how accessible this fabulous collection of poetry is - even to occasional indulgers. Highly recommended!

Mr. Brock has gathered from many sources to compile this history of an oft-forgotten great city of the South. From clearing log jams and beginnings of settlement in the 1850's, to the casino playground of the 1990's, this work provides a glimpse into the transformation of a rural port into a thriving center of commerce.

Johnson does an excellent job capturing the rich heritage and community of this often overlooked area of Louisiana.

Although I had never seen many of the buildings pictured in these postcards, they offered a fascination look at the Shreveport of the past. I couldn't believe some of the beautiful architecture that was destroyed for box-like replacements. Thankfully a few are still standing.

I am so pleased to have this retrospective.

This is poetry as it was meant to be...fun, enjoyable. The best poem in the book is called "Anatomy Lesson" and it conjures up some amazing images, especially the heart. Jan Heller Levi imagines the heart as an anthropomorphic writer, pounding away missives just as she is probably pounding away at her typewriter, writing these poems.

To first address the sterling recommendation I've given this book of photographs, I say why shouldn't it recieve 5 stars as after all, I'm his son. Good to have a critic in the family right?

The five stars speak to the images themselves and not to the quality of reproduction. The printing of this book was and remains a singular tragedy. We received no galley proofs before hand and only after strenuous insistence did we receive two pre-release copies. These were delivered well past the release date due to them having to follow my father and I through the Bahamas on our yacht. My father's pride was quickly replaced by disgust upon seeing the first image. After protracted depression and sleepless nights, the organization charged with producing the book for Jargon Soceity, received a short yet effective response from Lyle Bongé. A memorable quote from which follows: "That piece of Sh** went through the tubes like a mango through a sick gringo!"

Not only had our friend in charge of publishing (who replaced Minor White at the helm of Aperture) suffered terrible personal tragedy, but also due to in house politics he had relinquished editorial authority to a zealous young art school graduate with less brains than experience. Eager to wreck the editorial work (arrangement of images in sequences) of Tom Murphy (longtime student & friend of Minor White and practised eye) and Lyle Bongé, this zealous casting couch achiever rearranged all the photographs using amateruish and collegiate cute tricks. All very pedestrian...

Decisions were made without consulting either Jargon Soceity or Lyle Bongé which ruined the reproduction of the images. Cheap paper was used. Paper which couldn't accept wider ranges of black inks nor concomitant gradations to white resulted in fewer blacks and cheaper inks. Results: Muddy, seemingly out of focus images, misty hued, overcast crap!!!

The images contained in this book are a stark exposé of the darker lurking creatures within the Mardi Gras reveller. Seen through the eye of a hungry devourer of souls and a really great guy! What the viewer of these reproductions misses are the rich crystaline blacks, the glowing and ghostly aparitions withing the frame, and subjects seeming to float just above the ground.

There is only one photographer that has captured Mardi Gras in the French Quarter of New Orleans and that is Lyle Bongé. Many have tried and none have gotten close. When Lyle photographed his last regular Mardi Gras he'd been doing it for 30 years without missing a year. If he'd done no other work as a photographer, he'd have done enough.

I found the book wonderful. Lenora Worth wrote it in a way that made me want to just read it from cover to cover without stopping.
The book is about a young man named Lucas Dorsette who always lived at the edge. He challeged God, and played with life, never really forgiving God for His mysterious ways. But then he meets beautiful Willa O'Connor. Even though she also has doubts about why God does what He does, she is helped by Lucas and his family to overcome her problems, and fears. And in God's garden they all learn how to trust Him and lean on Him always.
This book definitely got me thinking about all the things that I take for granted. It got me to really count my blessings and pray for those who really need prayer.
"So we do not lose heart...For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal."
2 Corinthians 4:16-18

a magnificent cookbook filled with her life stories as well as great recipe's. i really love this book.