Louisiana Books

I am Creole (French and Native American). From what my grandparents and great-grandparents had told me about Louisiana of the 19th century -- the collection captures the culture and essence of the Creoles and Creole culture and society of that period. And, nothing is lost in the translation by Norman Shapiro -- keeps the meaning and flow of the language intact.

With all of the problems that Orleans and Jefferson Parish Public school systems face and have faced, it is of utmost importance that we understand how things have gotten this way in order to have any real understanding of how to improve the situation. With this in mind, this book should be required reading for administrators, anyone who teaches or aspires to teach in the Orleans or Jefferson Parish Public School System. The authors take the reader on a historical tour from the establishment of the first Orleans Parish public schools in 1841 to the present conditions of schools in the 1990's. In between are issues dealing with the Civil War, integration in the late nineteenth century, segregation, the inequities between black and white schools, the ordeal of desegregation, and the effects having an abundance of parochial schools. I hope this "look back" will help us to understand what we need to do to improve the future of schools in the New Orleans area.

Henry Taylor writes about his "homeplace", family, teacher, neighbors and friends in a style that reflects his deep awareness and focus on the nuances of relationships that many of us miss or only dimly acknowledge. I was fascinated and uplifted.

The memoir Crossing Border Street by Honigsberg is an excellent look into the life and times of a man committed to civil rights. Coming from NYU Law School, Honigsberg did more than legal matters, he got involved in marches and demonstrations, risking his life on several occasions. The memoir also includes interactions with the Deacons for Defense, which were the originators of the Black Panthers. Few people have ever heard of the Deacons, or of civil rights marches outside of MLK. This is a fascinating book, and I can't recommend enough!

This collection displays Slavitt at his finest. The nonce and traditional forms he uses in such poems as "Canzone", "Gallows Humor", "Amphibian", and the title poem, "Crossroads", are unforced and beautiful. Here we see why Fred Chappell has called Slavitt "contemporary poetry's casual master". There is formal mastery of the highest order here, but the tone remains conversational and completely natural.

But this book is more than well-wrought verse, it's poetry in the greatest sense of the word. The title poem investigates Slavitt's Polish-Jewish family history; "Ida" tells the story of how, after his mother's death, the poet finds out that his mother's given name was Ida, though she'd gone by Adele as long as he'd known her, and so a reverie of how his Jewish immigrant mother might have chosen the name Adele ensues; and many others.

This is one of the finest collections Slavitt has produced among his many books. If you don't know Slavitt's poetry already, this is an excellent introduction.

You cannot find a better cruising guide. Mr. Young has done great research.

This is simply a wonderful volume of poetry. Cushman has a low-key conversational voice and is immediately accessible. But there are layers of meaning in his work. He uses a number of poetic forms brilliantly and he uses them to good thematic effect. There are terrific poems about marriage, about children, about war and violence, about faith, and about nature. The individuality of the poet comes through very well as does his ability to connect with the lives of others.

The residents of Toussaint, Louisiana are rightfully upset and frightened to learn someone was murdered in St. Cecil's Church. Soon afterward the fear factor turns stratospheric, as more people die. The divided community knows the homicides are connected to the new school and teacher Bleu Labeau.

Over the edge over the deaths, Bleu also realizes she must be the target too of this serial killer. However, it is her feelings for her self anointed protector Dr. Roche Savage that frightens her most and not just because she mistrusts herself when it comes to men; she has learned that everyone who has been killed was his patient.

Fans will enjoy the return to Toussaint (see A MARKED MAN and A GRAVE MISTAKE) with this fast-paced serial killer thriller. The key to CYPRESS NIGHTS is the lead couple as she has to decide whether to trust her heart or the circumstantial evidence; a wrong choice by Bleu probably means death. However, Stella Cameron never takes her eyes off the ball as she uses the romantic subplot as support to the prime murder mystery. Ms. Cameron's fans will enjoy the steamy nights in the bayou where either love or murder occur.

Harriet Klausner

Natural science ideas had an impact on philosophy and religion. Progress in science undermined the static view of nature held by both Christians and deists. The methods of science extended the study of man and society. The belief in the divine inspiration of the Bible had been under attack for more than a century prior to Darwin's ORIGIN OF SPECIES. The response of Christianity to evolutionary biology, comparative religion, and biblical scholarship was varied. In the Protestant world there is no central authority. Lyman Abbott contended the sacred authors apprehended truth gradually and imperfectly.

In the 18th and 19th century there was a general decline in theology. Revelation according to John Baillie is not a body of supernaturally-communicated propositions but a series of events of God's disclosing. Inspiration is the divine illumination. In Darwin's time natural theology was in high vogue. In William Paley's NATURAL THEOLOGY (1802) there was a conviction of the permanence and wise design of the world. At the same time, paleontology and geology were giving rise to the view of perpetual change. Darwin's belief in God as the creator slipped slowly away from him. Henry Ward Beecher was confident evolutionary science would provide a basis for natural theology.

Karl Barth rejected natural theology and evolutionary modernism. Paul Tillich erased the distinction between revealed and natural theology. Etienne Gilson claimed that science describes what natural things are. Catholic thought distinguished between scientific theories and philosophical views. To Henri Bergson and William James the universe was a dynamic flux. To Alfred North Whitehead ideas of organism served to correct ideas of mechanism when considering universal processes.

Modern biologists generally do not care for theistic explanations. R. A. Fisher and Theodosius Dobzhansky both emphasized the creative aspects of organic evolution. Chance may determine combination, but there is necessity of mutual reactions to the whole ecological situation. Father Teilhard de Charden attempted to cast evolutionary theory into Christian perspective.

Comte, Rousseau, and Marx all developed theories of social evolution independently of theories of biological evolution. In the work of Herbert Spencer social evolution is linked to organic evolution. Both Darwin and Spencer had to face the problem of measuring progress in social science. Early in the 20th century a strong reaction set in against social evolutionism. Cultural evolution has been propounded by Alfred Louis Kroeber and others. Kroeber's anthropology distinguished between the historical and the scientific approach.

Although one might expect the profile of this book to be a light read, it readily renders a comprhensive essay on Dave Treen.