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Many of the recurring motifs found in south Louisiana's culture spring from the state's rich folklore. Influenced by settlers of European and African heritage, celebrated customs like the Courir de Mardi Gras and fabled creatures like the Loup-Garou grow out of the region's distinctive oral tradition. Joshua Clegg Caffery's In the Creole Twilight draws from this vibrant and diverse legacy to create an accessible reimagining of the state's traditional storytelling and songs.A scholar and Grammy-nominated musician, Caffery borrows from the syllabic structures, rhyme schemes, narratives, and settings that characterize Louisiana songs and tales to create new verse that is both well-researched and refreshingly inventive. Paired with original pen-and-ink illustrations as well as notes that clarify the origins of characters and themes, Caffery's compositions provide a link to the old worlds of southern Louisiana while constructing an entirely new one.

In Race, Theft, and Ethics, Lovalerie King examines African American literature's critique of American law concerning matters of property, paying particular attention to the stereotypical image of the black thief. She draws on two centuries of African American writing that reflects the manner in which human value became intricately connected with property ownership in American culture, even as racialized social and legal custom and practice severely limited access to property. Using critical race theory, King builds a powerful argument that the stereotype of the black thief is an inevitable byproduct of American law, politics, and social customs. In making her case, King ranges far and wide in black literature, looking closely at over thirty literary works. She uses four of the best-known African American autobiographical narratives -- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery, and Richard Wright's Black Boy -- to reveal the ways that law and custom worked to shape the black thief stereotype under the institution of slavery and to keep it firmly in place under the Jim Crow system. Examining the work of William Wells Brown, Charles Chesnutt, James Weldon Johnson, and Alice Randall, King treats "the ethics of passing" and considers the definition and value of whiteness and the relationship between whiteness and property. Close readings of Richard Wright's Native Son and Dorothy West's The Living is Easy, among other works, question whether blacks' unequal access to the economic opportunities held out by the American Dream functions as a kind of expropriation for which there is no possible legal or ethical means of reparation. She concludes by exploring the theme of theft and love in two famed neo-slave or neo-freedom narratives--Toni Morrison's Beloved and Charles Johnson's Middle Passage. Race, Theft, and Ethics shows how African American literature deals with the racialized history of unequal economic opportunity in highly complex and nuanced ways, and illustrates that, for many authors, an essential aspect of their work involved contemplating the tensions between a given code of ethics and a moral course of action. A deft combination of history, literature, law and economics, King's groundbreaking work highlights the pervasiveness of the property/race/ethics dynamic in the interfaces of African American lives with American law.

"Thanks to John Boles's superb biography, Lovett, founding president of the Rice Institute, can now take his rightful place in the procession of great 'university builders' in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries." -- John R. Thelin, History of Education Quarterly"An inspiring saga, beautifully told. The leadership of one remarkable man in bringing Rice University from empty Texas prairie to a superb university is one of the great stories of higher education. We are fortunate that such a gifted historian has brought it to us." -- Edward L. Ayers, president, University of Richmond, and author of The Promise of the New South: Life after ReconstructionRice University, one of America's preeminent institutions of higher education, grew out of the vision, direction, and leadership of one man: Edgar Odell Lovett (1871--1957). This updated edition of University Builder tells the fascinating story of an extraordinary educator and the unique school he created. Released in conjunction with the centennial anniversary of Rice University, John Boles's book provides both a compelling biographical narrative and an absorbing account of American higher education in the first half of the twentieth century.

When a kayaker thought he spotted an ivory-billed woodpecker in 2004, the birding community took notice. Two birders traveled to the bayou where the sighting occurred, well aware that the last confirmed sighting of an ivory-bill had taken place over sixty years ago. Both men caught a glimpse of the bird, and a team began to search the surrounding swamplands. Even after long hours of surveillance and multiple sightings, the scientists cautiously refused to disclose their rediscovery of the extinct bird until they captured it on film. At last, armed with a short video and sound clip, they published their findings in Science, triggering a frenzy of media coverage and sparking a controversy among birders and scientists who continue to disagree about whether the bird really still exists. In Stalking the Ghost Bird, Michael K. Steinberg engages the lengthy debate over the ivory-bill's status by examining the reported sightings and extensive efforts to find the rare bird in Louisiana. Louisiana has long been at the center of the ivory-bill's story. John James Audubon wrote about the bird and its habitat during his stay in St. Francisville, and scientists James Tanner and George Lowery studied the ivory-bill in Louisiana in the 1930s and 1940s. More recently, bird experts have conducted targeted searches in Louisiana. Steinberg discusses these and other scientific expeditions, and he catalogs reported ivory-bill sightings since the 1950s, using a detailed timeline that includes both dates and specific locations. Interviews with conservation officials, ornithologists, and native Louisianans illuminate the ongoing controversy and explore why the ivory-bill, more than any other bird, arouses so much attention. Steinberg meets elderly residents of the Atchafalaya Basin who saw the ivory-bill while hunting in the 1930s and even ate the bird-which they called the "forest turkey"-during hard times. He paddles into Two O'Clock Bayou with one wildlife professor and travels to a cypress-filled wildlife refuge with the director of Louisiana's Nature Conservancy. His interviews illustrate how expert opinions vary, as well as how much local non-experts know. Steinberg also explores in detail the human impact on both the ivory-bill and its bottomland forest habitat, explains how forest-management practices in the South may pose problems for an ivory-bill recovery, and outlines where future searches for the bird should take place. In this absorbing study, Steinberg turns his lifelong interest in the majestic ivory-billed woodpecker into a tale that encapsulates both the mystery and intrigue surrounding the legendary bird and our fascination with it.

New Orleans is a city of many storied streets, but only one conjures up as much unbridled passion as it does fervent hatred, simultaneously polarizing the public while drawing millions of visitors a year. A fascinating investigation into the mile-long urban space that is Bourbon Street, Richard Campanella's comprehensive cultural history spans from the street's inception during the colonial period through three tumultuous centuries, arriving at the world-famous entertainment strip of today. Clearly written and carefully researched, Campanella's book interweaves world events--from the Louisiana Purchase to World War II to Hurricane Katrina--with local and national characters, ranging from presidents to showgirls, to explain how Bourbon Street became an intriguing and singular artifact, uniquely informative of both New Orleans's history and American society. While offering a captivating historical-geographical panorama of Bourbon Street, Campanella also presents a contemporary microview of the area, describing the population, architecture, and local economy, and shows how Bourbon Street operates on a typical night. The fate of these few blocks in the French Quarter is played out on a larger stage, however, as the internationally recognized brands that Bourbon Street merchants and the city of New Orleans strive to promote both clash with and complement each other. An epic narrative detailing the influence of politics, money, race, sex, organized crime, and tourism, Bourbon Street: A History ultimately demonstrates that one of the most well-known addresses in North America is more than the epicenter of Mardi Gras; it serves as a battleground for a fundamental dispute over cultural authenticity and commodification.

Louisiana's bayous and their watersheds teem with cypress trees, alligators, crawfish, and many other life forms. From Bayou Tigre to Half Moon Bayou, these sluggish streams meander through lowlands, marshes, and even uplands to dominate the state's landscape. In Bayou-Diversity, conservationist Kelby Ouchley reveals the bayou's intricate web of flora and fauna.Through a collection of essays about Louisiana's natural history, Ouchley details an amazing array of plants and animals found in the Bayou State. Baldcypress, orchids, feral hogs, eels, black bears, bald eagles, and cottonmouth snakes live in the well over a hundred bayous of the region. Collectively, Ouchley's vignettes portray vibrant and complex habitats. But human interaction with the bayou and our role in its survival, Ouchley argues, will determine the future of these intricate ecosystems. Bayou-Diversity narrates the story of the bayou one flower, one creature at a time, in turn illustrating the bigger picture of this treasured and troubled Louisiana landscape.

Po'Boy tells the story of how a humble sandwich became a symbol of New Orleans culture, history, and cuisine. Invented to help feed a crowd of out-of-work individuals in New Orleans's streetcar industry, the po'boy is a submarine-like sandwich served on French bread, with common fillings that include fried seafood, roast beef and gravy ("debris"), and hot sausage. Rich with historical detail, Po'Boy welcomes readers into the world of the city's most iconic sandwich.

"For almost a century, Mike the Tiger has symbolized the spirit and resolve of Louisiana State University. The only live tiger to reside on a college campus, Mike now reigns from his sanctuary just outside Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. In this new book about Mike, his longtime veterinarian David Baker reflects on his experiences with Mikes V, VI, and VII. Fresh material includes accounts from Mike's student caretakers over the years, Mike VI's death, and Mike VII's arrival on campus. Readers will also learn about the woman behind Mike's popular social media accounts. Over 100 photos, virtually all of them not previously published, further enhance the volume"--

"In 'Native American Women and the Burdens of Southern History,' Daniel Usner gives closer consideration to the experiences of Native American women over time to show how they both complicate and enrich our understanding of southern history and culture. Usner explores the dynamic role that Indigenous women in the South played in confronting sequential waves of colonization, European imperial invasion, plantation encroachment, and post-Civil War racialization, revealing that these events affected them in particular ways, and their means of adaptation and resistance likewise took distinct forms. Though long neglected, Indigenous women's history is increasing and improving, thanks primarily to specialized work on select individuals, places, and periods. While drawing attention to that scholarship, Usner's work uses original research to advance a new line of inquiry that focuses on Native American women's responses and initiatives across centuries. Usner especially emphasizes the deployment of a particular feature of material culture in the Lower Mississippi Valley and Gulf Coastal area of the South. Overall, his work underscores how central Indigenous women have been in struggles for Native American territory and sovereignty throughout southern history"

"The second-most visited museum in the United States, The National WWII Museum attracts hundreds of thousands of patrons every year to its campus in New Orleans. Guests can tour its extensive permanent galleries and embedded multimedia displays, view special or traveling exhibits, dine in one of the two on-site restaurants, and stay at the facility's hotel, The Higgins Hotel & Conference Center. But today's sprawling complex had its start on a more modest scale, opening as The National D-Day Museum on June 6, 2000, the fifty-sixth anniversary of D-Day and the Allied landing at Normandy. Historian Stephen E. Ambrose spearheaded efforts to construct the Museum, in part as a place to gather the many hundreds of oral histories and artifacts he had collected for a book project. Attendance surged after the kickoff, and his friend, fellow historian, and collaborator on the project, Gordon H. "Nick" Mueller, secured U.S. congressional designation in 2004, acknowledging the institution as America's official museum dedicated to the Second World War. This recognition initiated a 245,000-square-foot expansion to realize the Museum's Master Plan, incorporating immersive, story-driven exhibits and architectural features meant to unify the growing campus. Building The National WWII Museum, by Mueller and research historian Kali Martin Schick, tells the story of the Museum's remarkable progress, from its early days as The National D-Day Museum to the unveiling of the Museum's final section, the Liberation Pavilion, in November 2023. As Mueller and Schick take readers on this decades-long journey, they highlight the exhibits, grand openings, and numerous benefactors who helped bring The National WWII Museum to life. This beautiful book-with more than 150 images and renderings, many never seen before by the public-not only showcases the Museum's development as envisioned in the 2004 Master Plan but also documents its important and ongoing mission of celebrating the American spirit and the teamwork, optimism, courage, and sacrifice of the men and women who won World War II"--

Born into poverty in Mississippi at the close of the nineteenth century, Charley Patton and Jimmie Rodgers established themselves among the most influential musicians of their era. In Tune tells the story of the parallel careers of these two pioneering recording artists -- one white, one black -- who moved beyond their humble origins to change the face of American music. At a time when segregation formed impassable lines of demarcation in most areas of southern life, music transcended racial boundaries. Jimmie Rodgers and Charley Patton drew inspiration from musical traditions on both sides of the racial divide, and their songs about hard lives, raising hell, and the hope of better days ahead spoke to white and black audiences alike. Their music reflected the era in which they lived but evoked a range of timeless human emotions. As the invention of the phonograph disseminated traditional forms of music to a wider audience, Jimmie Rodgers gained fame as the "Father of Country Music," while Patton's work eventually earned him the title "King of the Delta Blues." Patton and Rodgers both died young, leaving behind a relatively small number of recordings. Though neither remains well known to mainstream audiences, the impact of their contributions echoes in the songs of today. The first book to compare the careers of these two musicians, In Tune is a vital addition to the history of American music.

"Restoration ecology is a vital tool to mitigate the crisis caused by the global destruction of biodiversity, one of the most powerful existential threats to future generations. Johnny Armstrong's Rescuing Biodiversity tells the story of one man's attempts to preserve a vanishing Louisiana ecosystem and restore the rich animal and plant species that once lived there. As a grandfather and perpetual student, Armstrong witnessed the speed at which the timber industry pillaged local landscapes, and he resolved to protect and revitalize the old-growth forest of Wafer Creek Ranch in north central Louisiana. This fascinating tale recounts his efforts to reclaim the shortleaf pine-oak-hickory woodland ecosystem, once dominant across a wide swath of land spanning at least four southern states but now virtually extinct. Accessibly written, Rescuing Biodiversity acts as a field guide to the historic upland ecology of the region, with descriptions and photographs of its overstory, salient upland grasses, and brilliant wildflowers. Armstrong takes the reader on a journey through this fragile environment, demonstrating what science-based restoration can look like on land that serves as the prime example of a native plant community in the state"--

"Landscape Fascinations and Provocations reflects and builds on the work of Robert B. Riley (1931-2019), emphasizing his ongoing importance for landscape studies and landscape architecture. The title of the volume represents an attempt to distill Riley's attitude and approach. The book's core consists of fourteen essays-six seminal pieces by Riley alternating with eight new pieces by other authors, each relating to Riley's work in a different way. Riley's singular and important voice survives in his writing: lean, straightforward, erudite, clever, wryly observant, provocative, accessible, and dense. His writings reflect his love of landscapes, his wariness of jargon, and his awareness of academicians' and designers' potential hubris. His essays reveal a lifetime of curious probing and reflection, of serious and critical readings of geographers, anthropologists, psychologists, novelists, and journalists-as well as designers-on landscapes, their design and experience. His subjects include specific North American cultural landscapes; landscapes in literature, memory, and contemporary media; physical landscapes and technology; and the garden, nature, and meaning. Reflecting Riley's eclectic, wide-ranging curiosity and influence, authors of the new essays-Brenda J. Brown, M. Elen Deming, Rosa E. Ficek, Lewis D. Hopkins, Rachel Leibowitz, Achva Benzinberg Stein, Linnaea Tillett, and Vera Vicenzotti-include a cultural anthropologist, a regional planner, a historic preservationist, and a lighting designer as well as landscape architects. The book concludes with short reminiscences, assessments, and appreciations from some of the people who knew Riley (luminaries such as Michael Van Valkenburgh, Randy Hester, John Jakle, and Terry Harkness) and felt his influence as teacher, colleague, editor, mentor, and/or friend. Landscape Fascinations and Provocations demonstrates the ways in which Riley's work continues to provoke others in his field to think and act in directions both new and unexpected"--

"The Absinthe Frappâe is a journey through the history of absinthe, its origins, and its influences, culminating in the story of the iconic New Orleans cocktail, the absinthe frappâe. This book begins with the history of absinthe and explores the fascination with the liquor in the nineteenth century, sharing the stories of artists who were influenced by absinthe and how this liquor became a regular part of nineteenth-century life (particularly in France). From there, The Absinthe Frappâe crosses an ocean to tell the story of absinthe in New Orleans. Because of New Orleans's relationship with and loyalty to France, it's no surprise that the drink had a foothold on the citizens here! Songy reveals how the Absinthe Frappâe was invented and tells delves into the origins and history of the drink's first home, the Old Absinthe House in New Orleans. The book explores the ban of absinthe in the United States and Europe, the reasons for the ban, and the reasons that it was unjust, examining New Orleans's response to the absinthe ban and to Prohibition more broadly. Finally, Songy discusses the lifting of the absinthe ban in 2007, a change largely spearheaded by New Orleans scientist Theodore Breaux"--

"The Vieux Carrâe views the story of the Vieux Carrâe cocktail against the evolving backdrop of the city's ever-rich cocktail culture. The Vieux Carrâe was an original cocktail created by mixologist Walter Bergeron at the Monteleone Hotel in the 1930s-sometimes known as "the Cocktail that Spins," in honor of the slowly turning Carousel Bar at the Monteleone. It's an iconic cocktail, considered historically important by cocktail masters by Dale DeGroff, that's rarely ordered or prepared in modern times-though that is changing as a new generation of cocktail enthusiasts rediscover the old ways. This cocktail draws on the local proto-cocktail called the Sazerac, as well as several booze-forward classics like the Manhattan, the Old-Fashioned, and, from Italy, the Negroni. The Vieux Carrâe tells the story of Walter Bergeron's early life, his encounters with prominent Louisiana figures ranging from Henry Ramos (inventor of the Ramos gin fizz) to Governor Huey K. Long, and the ways he incorporated the story of New Orleans into his iconic drink. The book also examines the ingredients in this cocktail and how each of them made its way to the Crescent City"--

With this volume the author brings to a triumphant conclusion his highly acclaimed, prize-winning trilogy on the history of the Union cavalry in the West.