Bøger i America's Third Coast Series serien

A visual treasury of disappearing cemeteries and a call to preserve and document them

Examines this legendary waterway of the American Deep South. Shane K. Bernard delves into the bayou's geologic formation as a vestige of the Mississippi and Red Rivers, its prehistoric Native American occupation, and its colonial settlement. He surveys the coming of indigo, cotton, and sugar; steam-powered sugar mills and riverboats; and the brutal institution of slavery.

For centuries, outlanders have openly denigrated Louisiana's coastal wetlands residents and their stubborn refusal to abandon the region's fragile prairies tremblants despite repeated natural and man-made disasters. This title offers a history filled with new insights and possibilities. Rare, previously unpublished images documenting a disappearing way of life accompany the narrative.

Explores the Mississippi as a waterway of change, unnaturally confined by ever-larger levees and control structures. Since 1973, the US Army Corps of Engineers Control Complex at Old River has kept the Mississippi from jumping out of its historic channel and plunging through the Atchafalaya Basin to the Gulf of Mexico. Beyond Control traces the history of this phenomenon.

Presents the state of languages and of linguistic research on topics such as indigenous language documentation and revival; variation in educational opportunities in Louisiana's French varieties; current research on rural and urban dialects of English; and the struggles more recent immigrants face to use their heritage languages.

Presents the state of languages and of linguistic research on topics such as indigenous language documentation and revival; variation in educational opportunities in Louisiana's French varieties; current research on rural and urban dialects of English; and the struggles more recent immigrants face to use their heritage languages.

Offers both scholars and the general public an overview of how rich and diverse the French language in Louisiana is, and serves as a key reminder that Louisiana serves as a prime repository for Native and heritage languages, ranking among the strongest preservation regions in the southern and eastern US.

Beyond Control reveals the Mississippi as a waterway of change, unnaturally confined by ever-larger levees and control structures. During the great flood of 1973, the current scoured a hole beneath the main structure near Baton Rouge and enlarged a pre-existing football-field-size crater. That night the Mississippi River nearly changed its course for a shorter and steeper path to the sea. Such a map-changing reconfiguration of the country's largest river would bear national significance as well as disastrous consequences for New Orleans and towns like Morgan City, at the mouth of the Atchafalaya River. Since 1973, the US Army Corps of Engineers Control Complex at Old River has kept the Mississippi from jumping out of its historic channel and plunging through the Atchafalaya Basin to the Gulf of Mexico. Beyond Control traces the history of this phenomenon, beginning with a major channel shift around 3,000 years ago. By the time European colonists began to explore the Lower Mississippi Valley, a unique confluence of waterways had formed where the Red River joined the Mississippi, and the Atchafalaya River flowed out into the Atchafalaya Basin. A series of human alterations to this potentially volatile web of rivers, starting with a bend cutoff in 1831 by Captain Henry Miller Shreve, set the forces in motion for the Mississippi's move into the Atchafalaya Basin. Told against the backdrop of the Lower Mississippi River's impending diversion, the book's chapters chronicle historic floods, rising flood crests, a changing strategy for flood protection, and competing interests in the management of the Old River outlet. Beyond Control is both a history and a close look at an inexorable, living process happening now in the twenty-first century.

Shrimp is easily America's favorite seafood, but its very popularity is the wellspring of problems that threaten the shrimp industry's existence. Asian-Cajun Fusion: Shrimp from the Bay to the Bayou provides insightful analysis of this paradox and a detailed, thorough history of the industry in Louisiana. Dried shrimp technology was part of the cultural heritage Pearl River Chinese immigrants introduced into the Americas in the mid-nineteenth century. As early as 1870, Chinese natives built shrimp-drying operations in Louisiana's wetlands and exported the product to Asia through the port of San Francisco. This trade internationalized the shrimp industry. About three years before Louisiana's Chinese community began their export endeavors, manufactured ice became available in New Orleans, and the Dunbar family introduced patented canning technology. The convergence of these ancient and modern technologies shaped the evolution of the northern Gulf Coast's shrimp industry to the present. Coastal Louisiana's historic connection to the Pacific Rim endures. Not only does the region continue to export dried shrimp to Asian markets domestically and internationally, but since 2000 the region's large Vietnamese immigrant population has increasingly dominated Louisiana's fresh shrimp harvest. Louisiana shrimp constitute the American gold standard of raw seafood excellence. Yet, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, cheap imports are forcing the nation's domestic shrimp industry to rediscover its economic roots. "e;Fresh off the boat"e; signs and real-time internet connections with active trawlers are reestablishing the industry's ties to local consumers. Direct marketing has opened the industry to middle-class customers who meet the boats at the docks. This "e;right off the boat"e; paradigm appears to be leading the way to reestablishment of sustainable aquatic resources. All-one-can-eat shrimp buffets are not going to disappear, but the Louisiana shrimp industry's fate will ultimately be determined by discerning consumers' palates.

Offers a broad view of the many ethnic groups and distinct populations who toiled in the oyster and shrimp industries. Relying heavily on contemporary newspapers, oral histories, and interviews to create a rich picture of the industry and its workers, the author presents the history of laboring people who often went unheard and unrecognised.