Download or read book New Orleans Portrayed written by David G. Spielman and published by University of Louisiana. This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "New Orleans Portrayed is a photographic tableau that offers a body of work portraying the cityscape and its citizens. It is a window into their existence at this point in time-both a broad-brush view as well as a pointillist approach into what makes New Orleans unique"--
Download or read book An Unnatural Metropolis written by Craig E. Colten and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2006-09 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Strategically situated at the gateway to the Mississippi River yet standing atop a former swamp, New Orleans was from the first what geographer Peirce Lewis called an "impossible but inevitable city." How New Orleans came to be, taking shape between the mutual and often contradictory forces of nature and urban development, is the subject of An Unnatural Metropolis. Craig E. Colten traces engineered modifications to New Orleans's natural environment from 1800 to 2000 and demonstrates that, though all cities must contend with their physical settings, New Orleans may be the city most dependent on human-induced transformations of its precarious site. In a new preface, Colten shows how Hurricane Katrina exemplifies the inability of human artifice to exclude nature from cities and he urges city planners to keep the environment in mind as they contemplate New Orleans's future. Urban geographers frequently have portrayed cities as the antithesis of nature, but in An Unnatural Metropolis, Colten introduces a critical environmental perspective to the history of urban areas. His amply illustrated work offers an in-depth look at a city and society uniquely shaped by the natural forces it has sought to harness.
Download or read book The New Orleans of Fiction written by James A. Kaser and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2014-07-29 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The importance of New Orleans in American culture has made the city's place in the American imagination a crucial topic for literary scholars and cultural historians. While databases of bibliographical information on New Orleans-centered fiction are available, they are of little use to scholars researching works written before the 1980s. In The New Orleans of Fiction: A Research Guide, James A. Kaser provides detailed synopses for more than 500 works of fiction significantly set in New Orleans and published between 1836 and 1980. The synopses include plot summaries, names of major characters, and an indication of physical settings. An appendix provides bibliographical information for works dating from 1981 well into the 21st century, while a biographical section provides basic information about the authors, some of whom are obscure and would be difficult to find in other sources. Written to assist researchers in locating works of fiction for analysis, the plot summaries highlight ways in which the works touch on major aspects of social history and cultural studies (i.e., class, ethnicity, gender, immigrant experience, and race). The book is also a useful reader advisory tool for librarians and readers who want to identify materials for leisure reading, particularly since genre, juvenile, and young adult fiction—as well as literary fiction—are included.
Download or read book Desire and Disaster in New Orleans written by Lynnell L. Thomas and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2014-08-25 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most of the narratives packaged for New Orleans's many tourists cultivate a desire for black culture—jazz, cuisine, dance—while simultaneously targeting black people and their communities as sources and sites of political, social, and natural disaster. In this timely book, the Americanist and New Orleans native Lynnell L. Thomas delves into the relationship between tourism, cultural production, and racial politics. She carefully interprets the racial narratives embedded in tourism websites, travel guides, business periodicals, and newspapers; the thoughts of tour guides and owners; and the stories told on bus and walking tours as they were conducted both before and after Katrina. She describes how, with varying degrees of success, African American tour guides, tour owners, and tourism industry officials have used their own black heritage tours and tourism-focused businesses to challenge exclusionary tourist representations. Taking readers from the Lower Ninth Ward to the White House, Thomas highlights the ways that popular culture and public policy converge to create a mythology of racial harmony that masks a long history of racial inequality and structural inequity.
Download or read book The Battle of New Orleans in History and Memory written by Laura Lyons McLemore and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2016-11-14 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Battle of New Orleans proved a critical victory for the United States, a young nation defending its nascent borders, but over the past two hundred years, myths have obscured the facts about the conflict. In The Battle of New Orleans in History and Memory, distinguished experts in military, social, art, and music history sift the real from the remembered, illuminating the battle’s lasting significance across multiple disciplines. Laura Lyons McLemore sets the stage by reviewing the origins of the War of 1812, followed by essays that explore how history and memory intermingle. Donald R. Hickey examines leading myths found in the collective memory—some, embellishments originating with actual participants, and others invented out of whole cloth. Other essayists focus on specific figures: Mark R. Cheathem explores how Andrew Jackson’s sensational reputation derived from contemporary anecdotes and was perpetuated by respected historians, and Leslie Gregory Gruesbeck considers the role visual imagery played in popular perception and public memory of battle hero Jackson. Other contributors unpack the broad social and historical significance of the battle, from Gene Allen Smith’s analysis of black participation in the War of 1812 and the subsequent worsening of American racial relations, to Blake Dunnavent’s examination of leadership lessons from the war that can benefit the U.S. military today. Paul Gelpi makes the case that the Creole Battalion d’Orleans became protectors of American liberty in the course of defending New Orleans from the British. Examining the European context, Alexander Mikaberidze shows that America’s second conflict with Britain was more complex than many realize or remember. Joseph F. Stoltz III illustrates how commemorations of the battle, from memorials to schoolbooks, were employed over the years to promote various civic and social goals. Finally, Tracey E. W. Laird analyzes variations of the tune “The Battle of New Orleans,” revealing how it has come to epitomize the battle in the collective memory.
Download or read book Path of Destruction written by Mark Schleifstein and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2009-06-27 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At 5:02 A.M. on August 29, 2005, Power Went Out in the Superdome. Not long after, wind ripped giant white rubber sheets off the roof and sent huge shards of debris flying toward Uptown. Rivulets of rainwater began finding their way down through the ceiling, dripping and pouring into the stands, the mezzanine, and the football field. Without ventilation, the air began to get gamy with the smell of sweat and garbage. The bathrooms stopped working. Many people slept; others waited, mostly in silence.
Download or read book Standard History of New Orleans Louisiana Giving a Description of the Natural Advantages Natural History Settlement Indians Creoles Municipal and Military History Mercantile and Commercial Interests Banking Transportation Struggles Against High Water the Press Educational Etc written by Henry Rightor and published by . This book was released on 1900 with total page 806 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book New Orleans Mourning written by Julie Smith and published by Fawcett. This book was released on 1991 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the smiling King of Carnival is killed at Mardi Gras, policewoman Skip Langdon is on the case. She knows the upper-crust family of the victim and that it hides more than its share of glittering skeletons. But nothing could prepare her for the tangled web of clues and ancient secrets that would mean danger for her--and doom for the St. Amants.... "Smith is a gifted writer." THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
Download or read book Time s Tapestry written by Leta Weiss Marks and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 1997-10-01 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than forty years afterleaving her native New Orleans as a young woman, Leta Weiss Marks awakened to the realization that her family history there was almost beyond the horizon of living memory. Rescuing it, for herself and posterity, became her mission and brought her home again. In a compelling, elegant blend of fact and fiction, Marks weaves a tapestry of family members and events, drawing mainly upon interviews with her nonagenarian mother and aunt. Letters, archival research, and Marks’s own recollections and imagination also contribute to the composition, which she calls “a song of myself and my family.” At the center are Marks’s mother and father, and the highs and lows of their courtship and marriage. Caroline Dreyfous was born into a prominent Jewish family of New Orleans; Leon Weiss, seventeen years her senior, always struggled to gain their acceptance. He was an ambitious, talented architect, the driving force in the famous firm of Weiss, Dreyfous and Seiferth, chosen by Huey Long to design the new state capitol and governor’s mansion, New Orleans’ Charity Hospital, and other landmarks. He also was implicated in the “Louisiana Scandals” and sentenced to two years in federal prison. Time’s Tapestry is in part Marks’s attempt to peel back her mother’s reticent yet unwavering loyalty toward her father and understand this man, who died when Marks was only twenty-one and preparing to move to Connecticut. Stories and memories of three generations of the Dreyfous branch of the family tree complete Marks’s portrait. She makes vivid not only the personalities of her kin but also the times in which they lived, conjuring the New Orleans of her great-grandfather, grandparents, parents, and own childhood—segregation, the alternate inclusion and exclusion of the Jewish community, the fervid politics of the Long era—and juxtaposing those scenes with her experiences as an adult returning to visit her family in a greatly changed city. Charming and evocative, a superb example of creative nonfiction—Time’s Tapestry makes for both an intimate family album and a priceless record of New Orleans’ cultural, social, and political history.
Download or read book Desire Street written by Jed Horne and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2005-02-03 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A searing anatomy of a New Orleans murder trial and a system of justice gone wrong. In a New Orleans supermarket parking lot in the fall of 1984 ,two disparate lives become inextricably bound for the next fourteen years. The first, the life of Delores Dye, a white housewife and grandmother. The second, a young black man with a gun in hand. Moments following their maybe not so chance encounter, Mrs. Dye lay dead on the sunbaked macadam, and the killer had made off with her purse, her groceries, and her car. Four days later, following a tip, authorities arrested a known drug dealer and father of five named Curtis Kyles. Kyles would then be tried for Mrs. Dye's murder an unprecedented five times, though he maintained his innocence throughout each trial. Convicted and sentenced to death in his second trial, he would spend fourteen years on death row. After a fifth jury was unable to reach a verdict, New Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry Connick, Sr., finally conceded defeat and dropped the murder charge. But the case slowly yielded a deeper drama: The crime turned out to have been the side effect of an intricately plotted act of revenge. That police and prosecutors may have been complicit in the vengeance that framed Kyles cuts to the heart of a system of justice for Southern blacks in the era since lynch mobs were shamed into obsolescence. A compellingly written legal drama that has at its heart passionate intrigue and justice gone awry. Desire Street is a 2006 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Fact Crime.
Download or read book Creole World written by Richard Sexton and published by Historic New Orleans Collections. This book was released on 2014 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Signposts in a Strange Land written by Walker Percy and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2000-04 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At his death in 1990, Walker Percy left a considerable legacy of uncollected nonfiction. Assembled in Signposts in a Strange Land, these essays on language, literature, philosophy, religion, psychiatry, morality, and life and letters in the South display the imaginative versatility of an author considered by many to be one the greatest modern American writers.
Download or read book Roll With It written by Matt Sakakeeny and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2013-10-30 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roll With It is a firsthand account of the precarious lives of musicians in the Rebirth, Soul Rebels, and Hot 8 brass bands of New Orleans. These young men are celebrated as cultural icons for upholding the proud traditions of the jazz funeral and the second line parade, yet they remain subject to the perils of poverty, racial marginalization, and urban violence that characterize life for many black Americans. Some achieve a degree of social mobility while many more encounter aggressive policing, exploitative economies, and a political infrastructure that creates insecurities in healthcare, housing, education, and criminal justice. The gripping narrative moves with the band members from back street to backstage, before and after Hurricane Katrina, always in step with the tap of the snare drum, the thud of the bass drum, and the boom of the tuba.
Download or read book A D written by Josh Neufeld and published by Pantheon. This book was released on 2009 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents the stories of seven survivors of Hurricane Katrina who tried to evacuate, protect their possessions, and save loved ones before, during, and after the flood.
Download or read book Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans written by Brian Kilmeade and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Another history pageturner from the authors of the #1 bestsellers George Washington's Secret Six and Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates. The War of 1812 saw America threatened on every side. Encouraged by the British, Indian tribes attacked settlers in the West, while the Royal Navy terrorized the coasts. By mid-1814, President James Madison’s generals had lost control of the war in the North, losing battles in Canada. Then British troops set the White House ablaze, and a feeling of hopelessness spread across the country. Into this dire situation stepped Major General Andrew Jackson. A native of Tennessee who had witnessed the horrors of the Revolutionary War and Indian attacks, he was glad America had finally decided to confront repeated British aggression. But he feared that President Madison’s men were overlooking the most important target of all: New Orleans. If the British conquered New Orleans, they would control the mouth of the Mississippi River, cutting Americans off from that essential trade route and threatening the previous decade’s Louisiana Purchase. The new nation’s dreams of western expansion would be crushed before they really got off the ground. So Jackson had to convince President Madison and his War Department to take him seriously, even though he wasn’t one of the Virginians and New Englanders who dominated the government. He had to assemble a coalition of frontier militiamen, French-speaking Louisianans,Cherokee and Choctaw Indians, freed slaves, and even some pirates. And he had to defeat the most powerful military force in the world—in the confusing terrain of the Louisiana bayous. In short, Jackson needed a miracle. The local Ursuline nuns set to work praying for his outnumbered troops. And so the Americans, driven by patriotism and protected by prayer, began the battle that would shape our young nation’s destiny. As they did in their two previous bestsellers, Kilmeade and Yaeger make history come alive with a riveting true story that will keep you turning the pages. You’ll finish with a new understanding of one of our greatest generals and a renewed appreciation for the brave men who fought so that America could one day stretch “from sea to shining sea.”
Download or read book A Confederacy of Dunces written by John Kennedy Toole and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize “A masterwork . . . the novel astonishes with its inventiveness . . . it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue.”—The New York Times Book Review A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole's hero, one Ignatius J. Reilly, is "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans' lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures" (Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times).
