Showcasing the colorful, even raucous, political, social, and unique cultural qualities of Louisiana history, this new collection of essays features the finest and latest scholarship. Includes readings featuring recent scholarship that expand on traditional historical accounts Includes material on every region of Louisiana Covers a wide range of fields, including social, environmental, and economic history Detailed, focused material on different areas in Louisiana history, including women’s history as well as the state’s diverse ethnic populations

"Firsthand Louisiana: Primary Sources in the History of the State brings to its readers a companion to the study of Louisiana's history. Compiled for the first time in a single book, the dozens of important, interesting, devastating, and even entertaining firsthand accounts cover Louisiana's history from 1682, when Sieur de La Salle claimed the land for the French, up through recent controversies over the removal of Confederate memorial statues in the state. Edited by experts in the field of Louisiana history who saw a need for a collection of primary sources in the college history classroom, it also provides a fascinating read for non-academics who simply want to gain the perspective of the people- women, men, Native Americans, whites, African Americans, and many others-who created the state's complicated past. Gain on-the-scene views of important moments in the Bayou State. How did the initial interactions between Native Americans, French colonizers, and enslaved Africans play out? Why did colonists overthrow their own governor in 1768, and how did the Spanish Empire react? What did Louisianians say about the coming of the Civil War and its aftermath? How did the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which originated in New Orleans, and the state Constitution of 1898 set the stage for Louisiana's race relations in the twentieth-century? What effects did World War II have on the state? Closer to our own time, what can we learn from firsthand accounts about the "Race from Hell," the dangers of the "chemical corridor," and the debate over how the Civil War is remembered? Read letters, speeches, reports, diaries, and more to gain a deeper understanding of Louisiana, its peoples and cultures, and its history"--

From the earliest colonists through the latest Mardi Gras, Louisiana has had a history as exotic as that of any state. Even its political corruption--extending from French governors for whom office was exploitable property through the "Louisiana Hayride" following the death of Huey Long--seems to have had a glamorous side. Handing the colony of Louisiana back and forth between their empires, the French and Spanish left a legacy that lives in such forms as the architecture of the Vieux Carre and a civil law deriving from the Napoleonic Code. Acadian refugees, German farmers, black slaves and free blacks, along with Italians, Irish, and the "Kaintucks" who helped Andrew Jackson win the Battle of New Orleans added to the state's distinctiveness. Made rich by sugar cane, cotton, and Mississippi River commerce before the Civil War, Louisiana faced poverty afterward. Battles between Bourbon Democrats and Reconstruction Republicans followed, ultimately involving the Custom House Ring and the Knights of the White Camelia. By methods that remain controversial, Huey Long ended "government by gentlemen" with economic transformations other had sought. Gas, oil, and industrialization have additionally "Americanized" the state. Something of Louisiana's historic joie de vivre remains, however, to the gratification of residents and visitors alike; both will enjoy Joe Gray Taylor's telling of the story.

From the hill country in the north to the marshy lowlands in the south, Louisiana and its citizens have long enjoyed the hard-earned fruits of the oil and gas industry’s labor. Economic prosperity flowed from pioneering exploration as the industry heralded engineering achievements and innovative production technologies. Those successes, however, often came at the expense of other natural resources, leading to contamination and degradation of land and water. In A Thousand Ways Denied, John T. Arnold documents the oil industry’s sharp interface with Louisiana’s environment. Drawing on government, corporate, and personal files, many previously untapped, he traces the history of oil-field practices and their ecological impacts in tandem with battles over regulation. Arnold reveals that in the early twentieth century, Louisiana helped lead the nation in conservation policy, instituting some of the first programs to sustain its vast wealth of natural resources. But with the proliferation of oil output, government agencies splintered between those promoting production and others committed to preventing pollution. As oil’s economic and political strength grew, regulations commonly went unobserved and unenforced. Over the decades, oil, saltwater, and chemicals flowed across the ground, through natural drainages, and down waterways. Fish and wildlife fled their habitats, and drinking-water supplies were ruined. In the wetlands, drilling facilities sat like factories in the midst of a maze of interconnected canals dredged to support exploration, manufacture, and transportation of oil and gas. In later years, debates raged over the contribution of these activities to coastal land loss. Oil is an inseparable part of Louisiana’s culture and politics, Arnold asserts, but the state’s original vision for safeguarding its natural resources has become compromised. He urges a return to those foundational conservation principles. Otherwise, Louisiana risks the loss of viable uses of its land and, in some places, its very way of life.

Acadian Redemption, the first biography of an Acadian exile, defines the 18th century society of Acadia into which Joseph dit Beausoleil Broussard was born in 1702. The book explains his early life events and militant struggles with the British who had, for years, wanted to lay claim to the Acadians' rich lands. The book discusses the repercussions of Beausoleil's life that resulted in the evolution of the Acadian culture into what is now called the Cajun culture. More than 50 vintage photographs, maps, and documents are included.