Louisiana Books

I came across this book while writing a paper about the 1904 World's Fair in college and did not expect to become so engrossed in it. Clevenger makes the reader feel like they are sitting at the Fair right next to the four Fair visitors she examines. This book is more than an easy-reading novel, though. Clevenger sets the Fair into a larger social and political context and shows the reader how the 1904 World's Fair had concrete repercussions on the worldviews of its visitors. The novel-like format and use of diaries from the Fair are merely more effective ways to hold our attention.

I want to know all about Mississipi City Histor

Hummer is one of my favorite poets, and this book is distinct and powerful. It's a suite of poems, based on jazz and blues musicians, but it also tells the cultural history of the country--especially from the 40s through the 70s--through the lives of those musicians, who were tortured, sometimes, troubled, but also visionary. The section "about" Sun Ra is especially powerful. Are you sick of smartaleck poetry, or unreadable oblique verse, or unpeopled deconstructions of, well, whatever? Me too. Read Hummer. He's the real thing.

The newest addition to the outstanding and very highly recommended 'Bed & Breakfast' cookbook series from the Wisconsin-based regional publisher Guest Cottage, "INNcredible Cookin': Favorite Recipes From Louisiana's Best Bed & Breakfast Innes, Cottages & Guesthouses" is a culinary celebration of the best that Louisiana has to offer the informal traveler and vacationer. Beginning with a listing of the participating inns and where in this outstanding compilation they are to be individually found, the reader is also provided with a state map of Louisiana with the location of these inns pinpointed. This is followed by a city-by-city guide to their locations as well. Then the reader is treated to succinct descriptions of Cajun history and cuisine, instructions on 'How to Make a Roux', and an impressive roster of Louisiana's many festivals. The rest of "INNcredible Cookin'" is taken up with a brief description of a particular inn and the step-by-step recipes for one or two of their signature dishes. From White Cream Gravy (Susan's Cottages); to Shrimp Maison Reve (Maison Reve Farm); to Louisiana Redneck Potatoes (Log Cabin on Cane River Guest House); to Cheese Grits (Bayou Saint John Bed & Breakfast); to Raisin Bread Strata with Sausage and Plums (Sully Mansion); to Spinach Madeline (Green Springs Inn and Cottages); to Mardi Gras Vegetable Jambalaya (Nottoway Plantation Restaurant and Inn), "INNcredible Cookin'" offers authentic gourmet quality dishes that are as easy to prepare as they are palate pleasing and appetite satisfying.

The academically impressive and deftly collaborative editorial effort of Lesley J. Gordon (Associate Professor of History, University of Akron) and John C. Inscoe (Professor of History, University of Georgia), "Inside The Confederate Nation" is a compilation of essays in honor of Emory M. Thomas by a series of learned contributors and scholars that focus on the subject of the conservative revolution of 1861 that transformed an essentially conservative American South into a radically different socio-political culture by the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865. The contributions are organized into four major sections: 'Nationalism and Identity'; 'Family and Gender'; 'Race'; 'Memory and Legacies'. Enhanced with an informative introduction by Professors Gordon and Incoe, and the article by Russell Duncan and Jennifer Lund Smith, 'Emory M. Thomas and the Confederate Imagination', and concluding with a Select Bibliography, a list of Editors and Contributors, and a comprehensive Index, "Inside The Confederate Nation is a superbly presented and organized model of anthologized, specialized, analytical historical studies. Also available in a hardcover edition (9780807130995, $65.00), "Inside The Confederate Nation" is a very strongly recommended addition to academic and community library Civil War Studies and 19th Century American History Studies reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

New Orleans, and particularly the Vieux Carre (French Quarter) cannot be understood without appreciating the Italian, and especially Sicilian history of the city. This wide-ranging collection of pictures and captions, with short introductions, is the most comprehensive look at New Orleans Italians yet published.

But there's one amazing omission in its display of famous New Orleans Italian-Americans in the arts: Cosimo Matassa. Born of Sicilian parents in New Orleans in 1926, Matassa mid-wifed the cross-pollination from black R&B to white rock & roll in the 1940s and 50s. He was the first to record Fats Domino, Irma Thomas, Little Richard, and many other black artists at a time when the color line extended to recording studios. I don't know how the authors could have overlooked Matassa; he is very much alive and still has his office in his parent's former home on Dauphine street, above the grocery started by his parents and now run by his sons.
Aside from this glaring oversight, this book is highly recommended.

Hammond is not a nice guy. He married for money, was not a great father, and campagined for elected office at time when no one else did and against the 'party' candidate to boot. Most interesting of all was his commitment to the Confederate cause but resistance to the call for material and manpower to help the cause. In the end, he could not believe it when his slaves were jubilant about the prospect of freedom. Through Hammond's eyes we see the south changed forever by the Civil War, not only due to the lost of their slaves but also by the unsouthern actions the Confederate government had to take and how they affected the southern way of life. Hammond is not a nice guy but this very readable book provides an excellent insight to the antebellum southern mind.

Fest lovers and New Orleans and roots music lovers should not think twice about buying this book. The photos and stories by Smith and Miner are priceless. The selections show the gamut of performers in a visual history of the festival. Many of the photos are some of the only color work of the period of specific performers. i go back to this one frequently.

Born and raised in New Orleans, Charles Suhor draws upon his many years of experience and a wealth of friendships as a musician in this famous jazz community to present a fascinating and informative history of New Orleans jazz ranging from the postwar years down through the decade of the 70s. Jazz In New Orleans focuses on three main themes: jazz and the establishment; the traditional revival in jazz; and the mostly invisible early bebop and avant-garde movements. Suhor's essays and commentaries are as authoritative as they are insightful. Jazz In New Orleans is enthusiastically recommended reading for all students of American music in general, and the history of jazz in particular.

Thank goodness for American writers like Sheila Hebert-Collins and others like her who put their creative literary skills to work by preserving their inherited culture. "Jean-Paul Hebert Was There" is a sensitive historical account of the brutal Acadian expulsion (circa 1755-1759) from Nova Scotia, an event boiled into the annals of French-Acadian Americans but not a well understood tragedy by most others. Honestly, this children's book is a good gift for many adults as well because it is beautifully illustrated and complete with a French and English translation of the story's events on every single page. Hebert-Collins calls upon her family's ancestors to create this accurate piece of historical fiction. Although I'm not a teacher, I'd like to think this book would be included on a required reading list of all students of North American history, regardless of how old or young they may be.