Louisiana Books

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.

my grandmother wrote this book! Usually I don't read long books about history. I get bored with them. But this book took me 3 days to read!!!!!! It is about my great grandfather and his life. If you love french cajun history you will love this book!!!!!!!!!!

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