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New Orleans Tricentennial Anthology Table of Contents

Cover photo: Eric Waters. Design: Taylor Boudreaux.

Published by the LEH in partnership the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation, and the 2018 NOLA Foundation, New Orleans and the World explores the city’s first three centuries through the eyes of its finest historians. Contributors include Emily Clark, Erin Greenwald, Keith Weldon Medley, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, John Shelton Reed, Sally Reeves, Daniel Usner, and Dr. Michael White, with forewords from Leah Chase and Walter Isaacson. Richard Campanella, Robert L. Dupont, Freddi Williams Evans, Alecia P. Long, Kara Tucina Olidge, and Lawrence N. Powell served as the editorial board for the book, which was edited by Nancy Dixon.

The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities released New Orleans & The World: 1718-2018 Anthology on Nov. 13, 2o17. All orders can be placed at the link below.

Click here to purchase your copy today for $60 plus tax and shipping.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORDS

Lessons from the Gumbo Pot

Walter Isaacson and Leah Chase

INTRODUCTION

Executive Editor, Nancy Dixon, PhD

“THE LAND IS OF PECULIAR FORMATION”

How the Mississippi River created New Orleans’ dynamic deltaic environment

Richard Campanella

PROMETHEAN AMBITION

How an imperial backwater entered world history

Lawrence N. Powell, PhD

 

PART I: PEOPLE

Introduction: Two Jacksons

AMERICAN INDIANS IN NEW ORLEANS

Native communities were integral to the city’s foundation

Daniel H. Usner, PhD

GERMAN TURNERS: HEALTHY IN MIND AND BODY

Brigitta Malm

A WINDOW TO AFRICA

Enslaved Africans Perpetuated Cultural and Commercial Practices at Congo Square

Freddi Williams Evans

THE POETS OF LES CENELLES

Nancy Dixon, PhD

FROM FAMINE TO INFLUENCE

The Irish community had a formative impact on the city

Laura D. Kelley, PhD

THE POWER OF THE SICILIAN LEMON

Italians shaped the culture and commerce of New Orleans

Justin Nystrom, PhD

CARRYING ON TRADITIONS

Vietnamese community

Nancy Dixon, PhD

“LITTLE HONDURAS”

Helen Freund

ANCESTRAL SUITS

Patrina Peters, Big Wild Queen of the Red Hawk Hunters

Maurice Carlos Ruffin

 

PART II: SPACE & PLACE

Introduction: Pythian Temple

“A GRACEFUL CURVE OF THE RIVER”

Urbanism, Architecture, and the Emergence of a Distinctive Metropolitan Character

Richard Campanella

CAPITAL OF WORLD COMMERCE

Cotton made New Orleans a major international port during the nineteenth century

Robert L. Dupont, PhD

WORLD EXPOSITIONS 1884 and 1984

BIG TIME CITY

The transformation of Poydras Street marked a turning point for the city in the 1970s

Jack Davis

 

PART III: CONFLICT AND FREEDOM

Introduction: JORDAN NOBLE

“LOUISIANA IS OURS!”

An international crisis led to the Louisiana Purchase

Jon Kukla, PhD

AUCTION BLOCK

New Orleans was America’s largest slave market

Erin M. Greenwald, PhD

NEW ORLEANS AND THE CIVIL WAR

The conflict transformed the city from capital of the Cotton Kingdom to frontier of emancipation

Lawrence N. Powell, PhD

FREEDOM TRAIN

Activism by New Orleans’ free people of color led to the Plessy v. Ferguson case

Keith Weldon Medley

“OH, LORD, HOW LONG!”

New Orleans was a battleground for the woman suffrage movement

Pamela Tyler, PhD

“THE MAN WHO WON THE WAR FOR US”

Andrew Higgins and the pivotal role of New Orleans during WWII

Jerry Strahan

ENGINE OF EQUALITY

New Orleans was a frontier for legal battles and protests that fueled the Civil Rights movement

Kara Tucina Olidge, PhD

 

PART IV: SPIRITS AND SIN

MODELS OF PIETY

The Ursuline nuns and the roots of New Orleans Catholicism

Emily Clark, PhD

SHALOM, NEW ORLEANS

Jewish roots date back to city’s founding

CITIES OF THE DEAD

New Orleans iconic cemeteries evolved from necessity and diversity

Sally Asher

CONJURERS

Voodoo in New Orleans evolved from its African roots

Rev. Dwight Webster, PhD

THE SAFFRON SCOURGE

Yellow fever took the lives of thousands in nineteenth century New Orleans

C.W. Cannon, PhD

A WICKED CITY?

From Storyville to Bourbon Street, New Orleans’ lurid reputation attracts curious visitors and would-be reformers

Alecia P. Long, PhD

 

PART V: CUISINE AND CULTURE

MAKING GROCERIES

Public markets were culinary incubators in nineteenth century New Orleans

Sally K. Reeves

NDAR TO NEW ORLEANS

The African roots of Louisiana’s Creole cuisine

Zella Palmer

STAR CHEFS 

These culinary icons shaped the world’s appreciation of New Orleans-style cuisine

“WETTEST CITY ON EARTH”

New Orleans’ love affair with the cocktail

Allison Alsup

CARNIVAL TIME

Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans date back to eighteenth century

Brian J. Costello

GOLDEN CROWN

Brian W. Boyles

THROW ME SOMETHING, SISTER!

Nancy Dixon, PhD

THE SPORTING LIFE

Boxing, baseball, and horse racing thrived during New Orleans’ gilded age

S.Derby Gisclair

BOHEMIAN REVIVAL

Artists and writers led the French Quarter renaissance of the 1920s

John Shelton Reed, PhD

LITERARY LIGHTS

ABUNDANT TALENT

Tom Dent was integral in BLKARTSOUTH movement

Nancy Dixon, PhD

 

PART VI: SOUNDS

WORLD ON A STRING

When Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory, and Jelly Roll Morton left home, they made jazz a global phenomenon

Bruce Boyd Raeburn, PhD

LOUIS GOTTSCHALK

CRADLE OF ROCK AND ROLL

Cosimo Matassa, Dave Bartholomew, and Allen Toussaint forged the future at J&M Studio

Alison Fensterstock

LATE NIGHT STARS

DEFINING JAZZ FEST

The history, heritage, and heirs of the festival at the Fairgrounds

Alex Rawls

“BEST RAPPER ALIVE”

Lil Wayne revolutionized hip-hop and reenergized New Orleans’ influence on popular music

David Dennis

 

PART VII: RENEWAL

IN KATRINA’S WAKE

New Orleanians fought through floodwaters and uncertainty to return home

Katy Reckdahl

THE SAINTS ARE COMING

Super Bowl XLIV and the New Orleans Comeback

Brian W. Boyles

OUR RESILIENCE

The city lays a foundation for the future

The Honorable Mitchell J. Landrieu

THE SOUL OF NEW ORLEANS

A lifetime of second lines and jazz funerals

Dr. Michael White