This is the story of a city that shouldn't exist. In the seventeenth century, what is now America's most beguiling metropolis was nothing more than a swamp: prone to flooding, infested with snakes, battered by hurricanes. But through the intense imperial rivalries of Spain, France, and England, and the ambitious, entrepreneurial merchants and settlers from four continents who risked their lives to succeed in colonial America, this unpromising site became a crossroads for the whole Atlantic world. Lawrence N. Powell, a decades-long resident and observer of New Orleans, gives us the full sweep of the city's history from its founding through Louisiana statehood in 1812. We see the Crescent City evolve from a French village, to an African market town, to a Spanish fortress, and finally to an Anglo-American center of trade and commerce. We hear and feel the mix of peoples, religions, and languages from four continents that make the place electric-and always on the verge of unraveling. The Accidental City is the story of land-jobbing schemes, stock market crashes, and nonstop squabbles over status, power, and position, with enough rogues, smugglers, and self-fashioners to fill a picaresque novel. Powell's tale underscores the fluidity and contingency of the past, revealing a place where people made their own history. This is a city, and a history, marked by challenges and perpetual shifts in shape and direction, like the sinuous river on which it is perched.

Product Description: Lori Waselchuk's work documents the new hospice program run by inmate volunteers at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, a first-of-its kind service meant to comfort inmates who are elderly or fatally ill. Waselchuk's photographs explore how, through hospice, inmates assert and affirm their humanity in an environment designed to isolate and punish...read more

Product Description: A pioneering local-color writer about Creole New Orleans and a public advocate for black equality in his native South during and after Reconstruction, George Washington Cable (1844--1925) depicted in his writing the clash between American newcomers and a quaint but proud French-speaking population in post--Louisiana Purchase New Orleans...read more

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Describes life in the Confederate South during the years 1861-1865, discussing battles, political leaders, government, the role of Indians, Blacks, and women, literature, education, religion, and music

Documents the efforts of Northern businessmen, employing freed slaves and assesses the new planters' impact on the Southern postwar economy

Documents the efforts of Northern businessmen, employing freed slaves and assesses the new planters' impact on the Southern postwar economy