A History of Baton Rouge, 1699-1812

By Rose Meyers

On March 17, 1699, a group of French explorers under Pierre le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, were making their way up the Mississippi River from New Orleans when they spotted a red pole on a high bluff overlooking the river. The pole marked the boundary between the hunting grounds of the Houma and the Bayagoula Indians, and the Frenchmen christened it le baton rouge.The name Baton Rouge has survived, despite several attempts to change it, and today it designates the capital of a state whose people, by 1812, had lived under four flags -- French, English, Spanish, and American. Despite its tiny size, the settlement at Baton Rouge was a strategic outpost on the Mississippi River, and a number of fierce contests were waged for its control. In fact, the only battle of the American Revolution fought in Louisiana took place at Baton Rouge in 1779.In A History of Baton Rouge Rose Meyers has gathered, evaluated, and set down the stories, legends, facts, and circumstances of the founding of Baton Rouge; its troubled history under the colonial governments of France, England, and Spain; and its eventual entry into the Union in 1812. Featured in the book are portraits of early civil and military leaders and maps dating back to the French colonial period.

A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America

By Jon Kukla

The remarkable story of the land purchase that doubled the size of our young nation, set the stage for its expansion across the continent, and confronted Americans with new challenges of ethnic and religious diversity. In a saga that stretches from Paris and Madrid to Haiti, Virginia, New York, and New Orleans, Jon Kukla shows how rivalries over the Mississippi River and its vast watershed brought France, Spain, Great Britain, and the United States to the brink of war and shaped the destiny of the new American republic. We encounter American leaders--Jefferson and Jay, Monroe and Pickering among them--clashing over the opening of the West and its implications for sectional balance of power. We see these disagreements nearly derailing the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and spawning a series of separatist conspiracies long before the dispute over slavery in the territory set the stage for the Missouri Compromise and the Civil War.

Kukla makes it clear that as the French Revolution and Napoleon’s empire-building rocked the Atlantic community, Spain’s New World empire grew increasingly vulnerable to American and European rivals. Jefferson hoped to take Spain’s territories--piece by piece,--while Napoleon schemed to reestablish a French colonial empire in the Caribbean and North America.

Interweaving the stories of ordinary settlers and imperial decision-makers, Kukla depicts a world of revolutionary intrigue that transformed a small and precarious union into a world power--all without bloodshed and for about four cents an acre.

Bienville's Dilemma: A Historical Geography of New Orleans

By Richard Campanella

All New Orleans' glories, tragedies, contributions, and complexities can be traced back to the geographical dilemma Bienville confronted in 1718 when selecting the primary location of New Orleans. "Bienville's Dilemma" presents sixty-eight articles on the historical geography of New Orleans, covering the formation and foundation of the city, its urbanization and population, its "humanization" into a place of distinction, the manipulation of its environment, its devastation by Hurricane Katrina, and its ongoing recovery.

Building the Land of Dreams : New Orleans and the Transformation of Early America

By Eberhard L. Faber

In 1795, New Orleans was a sleepy outpost at the edge of Spain's American empire. By the 1820s, it was teeming with life, its levees packed with cotton and sugar. New Orleans had become the unquestioned urban capital of the antebellum South. Looking at this remarkable period filled with ideological struggle, class politics, and powerful personalities, Building the Land of Dreams is the narrative biography of a fascinating city at the most crucial turning point in its history.

Eberhard Faber tells the vivid story of how American rule forced New Orleans through a vast transition: from the ordered colonial world of hierarchy and subordination to the fluid, unpredictable chaos of democratic capitalism. The change in authority, from imperial Spain to Jeffersonian America, transformed everything. As the city's diverse people struggled over the terms of the transition, they built the foundations of a dynamic, contentious hybrid metropolis. Faber describes the vital individuals who played a role in New Orleans history: from the wealthy creole planters who dreaded the influx of revolutionary ideas, to the American arrivistes who combined idealistic visions of a new republican society with selfish dreams of quick plantation fortunes, to Thomas Jefferson himself, whose powerful democratic vision for Louisiana eventually conflicted with his equally strong sense of realpolitik and desire to strengthen the American union.

Revealing how New Orleans was formed by America's greatest impulses and ambitions, Building the Land of Dreams is an inspired exploration of one of the world's most iconic cities.

Civil War Society's Encyclopedia of the American Civil War

By Civil War Society

How many Union troops died in the siege of Atlanta? Who were the Zouaves and what was their unique contribution to the Civil War? What was the bizarre legend of John Clem? Civil War buffs can read about these and over 250 alphabetically arranged topics in this comprehensive and concise reference guide from the Civil War Society. Rich in anecdotal detail, each entry provides a dramatic new perspective on the powers, politics, and personalities of the era, highlighting details often ignored by other Civil War books. Over 150 rare black-and-white photos and 68 illustrations add keen insights into the bloodiest and most devastating of American wars.

Old Man River: The Mississippi River in North American History

By Paul Schneider

In Old Man River, Paul Schneider tells the story of the river at the center of America's rich history—the Mississippi. Some fifteen thousand years ago, the majestic river provided Paleolithic humans with the routes by which early man began to explore the continent's interior. Since then, the river has been the site of historical significance, from the arrival of Spanish and French explorers in the 16th century to the Civil War. George Washington fought his first battle near the river, and Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman both came to President Lincoln's attention after their spectacular victories on the lower Mississippi.

In the 19th century, home-grown folk heroes such as Daniel Boone and the half-alligator, half-horse, Mike Fink, were creatures of the river. Mark Twain and Herman Melville led their characters down its stream in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Confidence-Man. A conduit of real-life American prowess, the Mississippi is also a river of stories and myth.

Schneider traces the history of the Mississippi from its origins in the deep geologic past to the present. Though the busiest waterway on the planet today, the Mississippi remains a paradox—a devastated product of American ingenuity, and a magnificent natural wonder. 

Portraits of the Riverboats

By William C. Davis

Portraits of the Riverboats

Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America

By John M. Barry

In 1927, the Mississippi River swept across an area roughly equal in size to Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont combined, leaving water as deep as thirty feet on the land stretching from Illinois and Missouri south to the Gulf of Mexico. Close to a million people—in a nation of 120 million—were forced out of their homes. Some estimates place the death toll in the thousands. The Red Cross fed nearly 700,000 refugees for months. Rising Tide is the story of this forgotten event, the greatest natural disaster this country has ever known. But it is not simply a tale of disaster. The flood transformed part of the nation and had a major cultural and political impact on the rest.

Rising Tide is an American epic about science, race, honor, politics, and society. Rising Tide begins in the nineteenth century, when the first serious attempts to control the river began. The story focuses on engineers James Eads and Andrew Humphreys, who hated each other. Out of the collision of their personalities and their theories came a compromise river policy that would lead to the disaster of the 1927 flood yet would also allow the cultivation of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta and create wealth and aristocracy, as well as a whole culture. In the end, the flood had indeed changed the face of America, leading to the most comprehensive legislation the government had ever enacted, touching the entire Mississippi valley from Pennsylvania to Montana. In its aftermath was laid the foundation for the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Sioux Code Talkers of World War II

By Andrea M. Page

In World War II, code making and code breaking reached a feverish peak. The fabled Enigma Cipher had been broken, and all sides were looking for a secure, reliable means of communication. Many have heard of the role of the Navajo Code Talkers, but less well-known are the Sioux Code Talkers, who used the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota dialects.

Told by the great-niece of John Bear King, who served in the First Cavalry in the Pacific Theatre as a Sioux Code Talker, this comprehensively informative title explores not only the importance of the indigenous peoples to the war, but also their culture and values. Sioux Code Talkers of World War II follows seven Sioux who put aside a long history of prejudice against their people and joined the fight against the Axis Powers. With a personal touch and a deft eye for engaging detail, author Andrea M. Page brings the Sioux story to life.

Andrea M. Page is a sixth-grade English language arts teacher and member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Her interest in her great-uncle's story began in 1994 when a family member found a newspaper article about John Bear King, revealing his previously unknown World War II service. For twenty years, Page has gathered information about his experience through interviews and research. She is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians

By David M. Rubenstein

Co-founder of The Carlyle Group and patriotic philanthropist David M. Rubenstein takes readers on a sweeping journey across the grand arc of the American story through revealing conversations with our greatest historians.

In these lively dialogues, the biggest names in American history explore the subjects they’ve come to so intimately know and understand.

— David McCullough on John Adams
— Jon Meacham on Thomas Jefferson
— Ron Chernow on Alexander Hamilton
— Walter Isaacson on Benjamin Franklin
— Doris Kearns Goodwin on Abraham Lincoln
— A. Scott Berg on Charles Lindbergh
— Taylor Branch on Martin Luther King
— Robert Caro on Lyndon B. Johnson
— Bob Woodward on Richard Nixon
—And many others, including a special conversation with Chief Justice John Roberts

Through his popular program The David Rubenstein Show, David Rubenstein has established himself as one of our most thoughtful interviewers. Now, in The American Story, David captures the brilliance of our most esteemed historians, as well as the souls of their subjects. The book features introductions by Rubenstein as well a foreword by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to lead our national library. Richly illustrated with archival images from the Library of Congress, the book is destined to become a classic for serious readers of American history.

Through these captivating exchanges, these bestselling and Pulitzer Prize–winning authors offer fresh insight on pivotal moments from the Founding Era to the late 20th century. 

The Frontier War for American Independence

By William R. Nester

The American Revolution is commonly associated with specific locales such as the heights above Boston and the frozen Delaware River. But the actual pivotal events took place in the mountainous regions on the fringes of the 13 colonies, as the author explains in this comprehensive account of America's birth as a nation.

The Louisiana Purchase

By Thomas Fleming

Like many other major events in world history, the Louisiana Purchase is a fascinating mix of destiny and individual energy and creativity. . . . Thomas Jefferson would have been less than human had he not claimed a major share of the credit. In a private letter . . . the president, reviving a favorite metaphor, said he "very early saw" Louisiana was a "speck" that could turn into a "tornado." He added that the public never knew how near "this catastrophe was." But he decided to calm the hotheads of the west and "endure" Napoleon's aggression, betting that a war with England would force Bonaparte to sell. This policy "saved us from the storm." Omitted almost entirely from this account is the melodrama of the purchase, so crowded with "what ifs" that might have changed the outcome-and the history of the world.

The reports of the Lewis and Clark expedition . . . electrified the nation with their descriptions of a region of broad rivers and rich soil, of immense herds of buffalo and other game, of grassy prairies seemingly as illimitable as the ocean. . . . From the Louisiana Purchase would come, in future decades, the states of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, and large portions of what is now North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Minnesota, Colorado, and Louisiana. For the immediate future, the purchase, by doubling the size of the United States, transformed it from a minor to a major world power. The emboldened Americans soon absorbed West and East Florida and fought mighty England to a bloody stalemate in the War of 1812. Looking westward, the orators of the 1840s who preached the "Manifest Destiny" of the United States to preside from sea to shining sea based their oratorical logic on the Louisiana Purchase.

TURNING POINTS features preeminent writers offering fresh, personal perspectives on the defining events of our time.

The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation

By Stephen E. Ambrose and Douglas Brinkley

On a map, the Mississippi River cuts America neatly in half coursing from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico and separating East from West. But the Mississippi is in fact the “spine of our nation,” says Stephen Ambrose. It knits the nation together and connects the heartland to the world. It is our great natural wonder, a priceless treasure bought for a fledgling America by the visionary Thomas Jefferson just 200 years ago.  Distinguished historians Stephen Ambrose and Douglas Brinkley, with acclaimed National Geographic photographer Sam Abell, explore the length of the Mississippi—from its mouth at Delacroix Island, Louisiana, to its source at Lake Itasca, Minnesota. The result is this lavish, entertaining, engrossing chronicle of the “father of the waters,” which has shaped the history, the culture, and the very landscape of America.  Highlighted by Sam Abell’s evocative contemporary photographs and wonderful period illustrations, artwork, documents, and maps, this extraordinary panorama of America’s heartland offers a lively, informative journey through the history and the landscape carved by the mighty Mississippi.

The Mississippi River in Maps & Views: From Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico

By Robert A. Holland

An illustrated cartographic history of the Mississippi River and the most significant of the towns and cities that stand on its shores - will be of interest to history buffs and map enthusiasts.

The Mississippi Steamboat Era in Historic Photographs: Natchez to New Orleans, 1870–1920

By Joan W. Gandy

Life on the Mississippi in the heyday of the steamboat lives in our imaginations through the artistry of Mark Twain, Edna Ferber, and Hollywood films, or perhaps a glimpse of a salvaged riverboat living out its last years as a theme restaurant. Surely the Mississippi steamboat era is among the most colorful and romantic in our history. But what was it really like, beyond our secondhand notions of stalwart river pilots, wayward boys and runaway slaves, of gamblers in tall hats and ladies in hoopskirts, of cotton, cakewalks, and carpetbaggers.

This extraordinary book of recently discovered photographs, taken by a father and son who were professional photographers in Natchez, Mississippi, brings us for the first time a stunning array of images of steamboat life as it really was — from its glory days in the post-Civil War era to its demise in the years immediately following World War I.

The photographers are Henry Norman and his son Earl. With boundless enthusiasm and curiosity, and the consummate skills of pictorial artists, they captured the beauties and rigors of a half-century of life on the Mississippi. Their priceless legacy has been preserved by Joan and Thomas Gandy, who recently acquired the extremely rare and valuable negatives and here present a collection of 170 of the most spectacular and arresting photographs of steamboat life.

When the Mississippi Ran Backwards: Empire, Intrigue, Murder, and the New Madrid Earthquakes

By Jay Feldman

On December 15, 1811, two of Thomas Jefferson's nephews murdered a slave in cold blood and put his body parts into a roaring fire. The evidence would have been destroyed but for a rare act of God -- or, as some believed, of the Indian chief Tecumseh.

That same day, the Mississippi River's first steamboat, piloted by Nicholas Roosevelt, powered itself toward New Orleans on its maiden voyage. The sky grew hazy and red, and jolts of electricity flashed in the air. A prophecy by Tecumseh was about to be fulfilled.

He had warned reluctant warrior-tribes that he would stamp his feet and bring down their houses. Sure enough, between December 16, 1811, and late April 1812, a catastrophic series of earthquakes shook the Mississippi River Valley. Of the more than 2,000 tremors that rumbled across the land during this time, three would have measured nearly or greater than 8.0 on the not-yet-devised Richter Scale. Centered in what is now the bootheel region of Missouri, the New Madrid earthquakes were felt as far away as Canada; New York; New Orleans; Washington, D.C.; and the western part of the Missouri River. A million and a half square miles were affected as the earth's surface remained in a state of constant motion for nearly four months. Towns were destroyed, an eighteen-mile-long by five-mile-wide lake was created, and even the Mississippi River temporarily ran backwards.

Wicked River: The Mississippi When It Last Ran Wild

By Lee Sandlin

From award-winning journalist Lee Sandlin comes a riveting look at one of the most colorful, dangerous, and peculiar places in America’s historical landscape: the strange, wonderful, and mysterious Mississippi River of the nineteenth century.
 
Beginning in the early 1800s and climaxing with the siege of Vicksburg in 1863, Wicked River takes us back to a time before the Mississippi was dredged into a shipping channel, and before Mark Twain romanticized it into myth. Drawing on an array of suspenseful and bizarre firsthand accounts, Sandlin brings to life a place where river pirates brushed elbows with future presidents and religious visionaries shared passage with thieves—a world unto itself where, every night, near the levees of the big river towns, hundreds of boats gathered to form dusk-to-dawn cities dedicated to music, drinking, and gambling. Here is a minute-by-minute account of Natchez being flattened by a tornado; the St. Louis harbor being crushed by a massive ice floe; hidden, nefarious celebrations of Mardi Gras; and the sinking of the Sultana, the worst naval disaster in American history. Here, too, is the Mississippi itself: gorgeous, perilous, and unpredictable, lifeblood to the communities that rose and fell along its banks.

A River and Its City: The Nature of Landscape in New Orleans

By Ari Kelman

This engaging environmental history explores the rise, fall, and rebirth of one of the nation's most important urban public landscapes, and more significantly, the role public spaces play in shaping people's relationships with the natural world. Ari Kelman focuses on the battles fought over New Orleans's waterfront, examining the link between a river and its city and tracking the conflict between public and private control of the river. He describes the impact of floods, disease, and changing technologies on New Orleans's interactions with the Mississippi. Considering how the city grew distant—culturally and spatially—from the river, this book argues that urban areas provide a rich source for understanding people's connections with nature, and in turn, nature's impact on human history.

Bayou Sara: Used to Be

By Anne Butler and Helen Williams

There's nothing there now but a bunch of weeping willows, but in the nineteenth century, below the St. Francisville bluff was one of the most important ports on the Mississippi River. Bayou Sara had a mile of cotton warehouses, plus extensive residential and commercial districts. Who were the hardworking immigrants who settled there, why did they come and from where, and why did they stay through floods and fires and wartime shelling for more than a century? This book answers some of those questions for the first time, with fascinating collections of early images and excerpts from memoirs, journals, and newspaper dispatches that shed some light on this intriguing ghost town. 

Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta

By Robert Palmer

Blues is the cornerstone of American popular music, the bedrock of rock and roll. In this extraordinary musical and social history, Robert Palmer traces the odyssey of the blues from its rural beginnings, to the steamy bars of Chicago's South Side, to international popularity, recognition, and imitation.

Palmer tells the story of the blues through the lives of its greatest practitioners: Robert Johnson, who sang of being pursued by the hounds of hell; Muddy Waters, who electrified Delta blues and gave the music its rock beat; Robert Lockwood and Sonny Boy Williamson, who launched the King Biscuit Time radio show and brought blues to the airwaves; and John Lee Hooker, Ike Turner, B. B. King, and many others.

Historic Buildings of the French Quarter

By Lloyd Vogt

Over 100 illustrations describe the building styles of each historical era and highlight some 60 buildings of particular importance.

Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi

By John Dittmer

Winner of the Bancroft Prize, the Lillian Smith Book Award, the Mississippi Historical Society McLemore Prize, the Herbert G. Gutman Prize and the Gustavus Myers Center for Study of Human Rights Outstanding Book Prize.

Publication of this book was supported by a grant from DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana.

Pursuing Awe: Celebrating nature along the Mississippi River

By Larry Nielson

Pursuing Awe is a collection of pictures and books celebrating Nature along the Mississippi River and Lake Pepin in Southeastern Minnesota

The Architecture of William Nichols: Building the Antebellum South in North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi

By Paul Hardin Kapp and Todd Sanders

The Architecture of William Nichols: Building the Antebellum South in North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi is the first comprehensive biography and monograph of a significant yet overlooked architect in the American South. William Nichols designed three major university campuses--the University of North Carolina, the University of Alabama, and the University of Mississippi. He also designed the first state capitols of North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi. Nichols's architecture profoundly influenced the built landscape of the South but due to fire, neglect, and demolition, much of his work was lost and history has nearly forgotten his tremendous legacy.

In his research onsite and through archives in North Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, Paul Hardin Kapp has produced a narrative of the life and times of William Nichols that weaves together the elegant work of this architect with the aspirations and challenges of the Antebellum South. It is richly illustrated with over two hundred archival photographs and drawings from the Historic American Building Survey.

The Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson and America's First Military Victory

By Robert V. Remini

The Battle of New Orleans was the climactic battle of America's "forgotten war" of 1812. Andrew Jackson led his ragtag corps of soldiers against 8,000 disciplined invading British regulars in a battle that delivered the British a humiliating military defeat. The victory solidified America's independence and marked the beginning of Jackson's rise to national prominence. Hailed as "terrifically readable" by the Chicago Sun Times, The Battle of New Orleans is popular American history at its best, bringing to life a landmark battle that helped define the character of the United States.

The Mississippi River: Nature, Culture and Travel Sites Along the "Mighty Mississip"

By Tom Weil

Beginning at the river's mouth, St. Louis Post-Dispatch travel editor Tom Weil explores the 2,552-mile long river traveling down the great waterway. The book covers 10 states and 1,583 historical sites in 288 river towns. 24 illustrations and 5 maps.

The Southerner's Cookbook: Recipes, Wisdom, and Stories

By Garden and Gun

From Garden & Gun—the magazine that features the best of Southern cooking, dining, cocktails, and customs—comes an heirloom-quality guide to the traditions and innovations that define today’s Southern food culture, with more than 100 recipes and 4-color photography throughout.

From well-loved classics like biscuits and fried chicken to uniquely regional dishes such as sonker (Piedmont, North Carolina’s take on cobbler) or Minorcan chowder (Florida’s version of clam chowder), each recipe in The Southerner’s Cookbook tells a story about Southern food and its origins. With contributions from some of the South’s finest chefs, a glossary of cooking terms, and essays from many of the magazine’s most beloved writers, The Southerner’s Cookbook is much more than simply a collection of recipes: it is a true reflection of the South’s culinary past, present, and future

The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square

By Ned Sublette

New Orleans is the most elusive of American cities. The product of the centuries-long struggle among three mighty empires--France, Spain, and England--and among their respective American colonies and enslaved African peoples, it has always seemed like a foreign port to most Americans, baffled as they are by its complex cultural inheritance.

The World That Made New Orleans offers a new perspective on this insufficiently understood city by telling the remarkable story of New Orleans’s first century--a tale of imperial war, religious conflict, the search for treasure, the spread of slavery, the Cuban connection, the cruel aristocracy of sugar, and the very different revolutions that created the United States and Haiti. It demonstrates that New Orleans already had its own distinct personality at the time of Louisiana’s statehood in 1812. By then, important roots of American music were firmly planted in its urban swamp--especially in the dances at Congo Square, where enslaved Africans and African Americans appeared en masse on Sundays to, as an 1819 visitor to the city put it, “rock the city.”

Way Through the Wilderness: The Natchez Trace and the Civilization of the Southern Frontier

By William C. Davis

The author of the highly acclaimed biography "Jefferson Davis: The Man and The Hour" has produced a vivid portrait of the lives of those adventurous pioneers who opened up, settled, and developed the old Southwest.

Johnny Cash: The Life

By Robert Hilburn

In this, the definitive biography of an American legend, Robert Hilburn conveys the unvarnished truth about a musical superstar. Johnny Cash's extraordinary career stretched from his days at Sun Records with Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis to the remarkable creative last hurrah, at age 69, that resulted in the brave, moving "Hurt" video.

As music critic for the Los Angeles Times, Hilburn knew Cash throughout his life: he was the only music journalist at the legendary Folsom Prison concert in 1968, and he interviewed both Cash and his wife June Carter just months before their deaths. Drawing upon a trove of never-before-seen material from the singer's inner circle, Hilburn creates an utterly compelling, deeply human portrait of a towering figure in country music, a seminal influence in rock, and an icon of American popular culture. Hilburn's reporting shows the astonishing highs and deep lows that marked the journey of a man of great faith and humbling addiction who throughout his life strove to use his music to lift people's spirits.

Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long

By Richard D. White Jr.

From the moment he took office as governor in 1928 to the day an assassin’s bullet cut him down in 1935, Huey Long wielded all but dictatorial control over the state of Louisiana. A man of shameless ambition and ruthless vindictiveness, Long orchestrated elections, hired and fired thousands at will, and deployed the state militia as his personal police force. And yet, paradoxically, as governor and later as senator, Long did more good for the state’s poor and uneducated than any politician before or since. Outrageous demagogue or charismatic visionary? In this powerful new biography, Richard D. White, Jr., brings Huey Long to life in all his blazing, controversial glory.

Otis! The Otis Redding Story

By Scott Freeman

Rolling Stone's Jon Landau described Otis Redding's music as "the highest level of expression rock 'n' roll has yet attained." And now from the critically acclaimed author of Midnight Riders: The Story of the Allman Brothers Band comes an intimate look at soul brother number one and the undisputed king of soul, Otis Redding.

Music was his sole occupation. Inspired by the works of Little Richard, a singer raised in a small town just miles from his own, Otis Redding knew he wanted to become a singer. This dream, his father said, would lead him nowhere, but when Otis Redding first burst onto the scene in 1962 with his R&B hit "These Arms of Mine" music enthusiasts knew they were listening to the voice of a star. With over fourteen songs gracing the top 20 chart, Otis Redding soon became a music phenomenon. Crooning tunes such as "Respect," "I Can't Stop Loving You," and "Try a Little Tenderness," Otis Redding defined a new generation of R&B music.

Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong

By Terry Teachout

Louis Armstrong was the greatest jazz musician of the twentieth century and a giant of modern American culture. He knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts, wrote the finest of all jazz autobiographies--without a collaborator--and created collages that have been compared to the art of Romare Bearden. The ranks of his admirers included Johnny Cash, Jackson Pollock and Orson Welles. Offstage he was witty, introspective and unexpectedly complex, a beloved colleague with an explosive temper whose larger-than-life personality was tougher and more sharp-edged than his worshipping fans ever knew. Wall Street Journal arts columnist Terry Teachout has drawn on a cache of important new sources unavailable to previous Armstrong biographers, including hundreds of private recordings of backstage and after-hours conversations that Armstrong made throughout the second half of his life, to craft a sweeping new narrative biography of this towering figure that shares full, accurate versions of such storied events as Armstrong's decision to break up his big band and his quarrel with President Eisenhower for the first time. Certain to be the definitive word on Armstrong for our generation, Pops paints a gripping portrait of the man, his world and his music that will stand alongside Gary Giddins' Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams and Peter Guralnick's Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley as a classic biography of a major American musician.

Speaking History: Oral Histories of the American Past, 1865-Present

By Sue Armitage and Laurie Mercier

This volume of selected oral histories features the voices of Americans who lived through some of the most critical events shaping the nation’s history since the Civil War. This first-of-a-kind compilation allows students, scholars, and other readers to explore the connections and disconnections between individual stories and broader historical themes by understanding how history plays out in individual lives. Comprised of oral history interviews drawn from some of the country’s major collections, Speaking History presents a remarkable array of diverse American voices. Included here are fascinating, often moving accounts of everything from slavery to protest movements, world wars to work and leisure, forming a detailed mosaic of American life in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Supplemented with valuable historical context, this book demonstrates how oral history interviews can bring the past to life by linking individual experiences to larger historical narratives.

Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams

By Lyle Leverich

The riveting, revelatory, and sole authorized account of the critical first decades of Tennessee Williams's life. Tennessee Williams, author of such indelible masterpieces as The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire, is considered by many to be the greatest literary artist of the American theater. Tom is Lyle Leverich's definitive account based on his exclusive access to letters, diaries, unpublished manuscripts, and family documents of Williams's early life and of the events that shaped this most autobiographical of dramatists. It tells the story of the marital traumas of his bullying father and overly protective mother, the mental disorders that institutionalized his beloved sister Rose, his stalled academic career, and his confused sexuality and early successes as a writer; and it leaves Thomas Lanier Williams on the brink of fame with The Glass Menagerie and his transformation into the celebrated persona of "Tennessee."

Absalom, Absalom!

By William Faulkner

Published in 1936, Absalom, Absalom! is considered by many to be William Faulkner's masterpiece. Although the novel's complex and fragmented structure poses considerable difficulty to readers, the book's literary merits place it squarely in the ranks of America's finest novels. The story concerns Thomas Sutpen, a poor man who finds wealth and then marries into a respectable family. His ambition and extreme need for control bring about his ruin and the ruin of his family. Sutpen's story is told by several narrators, allowing the reader to observe variations in the saga as it is recounted by different speakers. This unusual technique spotlights one of the novel's central questions: To what extent can people know the truth about the past?

Cajun Folktales

By J.J. Reneaux

A collection of twenty-seven traditional Cajun tales, including animal stories, fairy tales, ghost stories, and humorous tales.

Life on the Mississippi

By Mark Twain and Justin Kaplan

A stirring account of America's vanished past...
The book that earned Mark Twain his first recognition as a serious writer...

Discover the magic of life on the Mississippi.

At once a romantic history of a mighty river, an autobiographical account of Mark Twain's early steamboat days, and a storehouse of humorous anecdotes and sketches, Life on the Mississippi is the raw material from which Twain wrote his finest novel: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn .

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

By Mark Twain

A nineteenth-century boy from a Mississippi River town recounts his adventures as he travels down the river with a runaway slave, encountering a family involved in a feud, two scoundrels pretending to be royalty, and Tom Sawyer's aunt who mistakes him for Tom.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

By Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer revolves around the youthful adventures of the novel's schoolboy protagonist, Thomas Sawyer, whose reputation precedes him for causing mischief and strife. Tom lives with his Aunt Polly, half-brother Sid, and cousin Mary in the quaint town of St. Petersburg, just off the shore of the Mississippi River. St. Petersburg is described as a typical small-town atmosphere where the Christian faith is predominant, the social network is close-knit, and familiarity resides.

Unlike his brother Sid, Tom receives "lickings" from his Aunt Polly; ever the mischief-maker, would rather play hooky than attend school and often sneaks out his bedroom window at night to adventure with his friend, Huckleberry Finn ­ the town's social outcast. Tom, despite his dread of schooling, is extremely clever and would normally get away with his pranks if Sid were not such a "tattle-tale."

The Complete Collected Poems

By Maya Angelou

For the first time, the complete collection of Maya Angelou's published poems-including "On the Pulse of Morning"-in a permanent collectible, handsome hardcover edition.

The Literature of the American South: A Norton Anthology

By William L. Andrews (Editor), Minrose Gwin, Trudier Harris and Fred Hobson

The Literature of the American South reconsiders southern writing from its seventeenth-century origins to its flourishing present. Featuring the works of eighty-seven classic, contemporary, and newly recovered writers of all genres--poetry, short fiction, drama, novels, autobiography, criticism, sermons, memoirs, journals, and letters--this groundbreaking anthology sheds new light on the creative power of the southern imagination.

All the King’s Men

Steven Zaillian

Based on the novel of the same name by Robert Penn Warren, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1947 for his portrayal of populist Southerner Willie Stark, a political figure loosely based on former Louisiana governor Huey Long. The 1949 version of this film won an Academy Award for Best Motion Picture. Filmed in multiple locations including Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

Down by Law

Jim Jarmusch

After being framed for crimes they did not commit, two men find themselves sharing a cell with an eccentric Italian named Roberto who knows how to escape. A notable element in this film is the slow-moving camerawork, which captures the architecture of New Orleans and the Louisiana bayou. This black-and-white comedic crime drama won four awards including the Amanda Award for Best Foreign Feature Film. Filmed in New Orleans.

Baby Doll

Elia Kazan

Adapted from Tennessee Williams’s one-act play 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, this Southern drama centers on a feud between two rival cotton gin owners in rural Mississippi and the marriage of Baby Doll (Carroll Baker) and Archie Lee Meighan. This film won three awards including Golden Globe Awards for Best Director in Motion Picture and New Star of the Year (Actress) for Baker. Filmed in Mississippi and California.

The Buccaneer

Anthony Quinn

An adventure drama about Jean Lafitte, a buccaneer who lives on an island near the city of New Orleans. Set during the War of 1812, a British fleet is due to arrive with 60 ships and 16,000 men to take New Orleans. When Lafitte discovers that the island he lives on is strategically important for both the Americans and the British, he finds himself torn between which country to give his allegiance. Filmed in multiple locations including New Orleans and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

The Big Easy

Jim McBride

Remy McSwain, a New Orleans police lieutenant in the corrupt homicide division, becomes the target of the righteous district attorney while trying to solve a string of mysterious murders. Well-known locations within the city of New Orleans help set the mood of the film. Starring Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin, this neo-noir comedy won multiple awards including the Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead. Filmed in New Orleans.

Belizaire the Cajun

Glen Pitre

Set in 1859, this historical drama features Belizaire Breaux, a village healer who finds himself entangled in the conflicts between Cajuns and the new Anglophone arrivals to Southwest Louisiana. Filmed in Louisiana.

Blaze

Ron Shelton

This award-winning biographical drama looks at the life of Earl Long, the aging wheeling-and-dealing governor of Louisiana. Winner of the American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement Award in Theatrical Releases. Filmed in multiple locations including Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Richard Brooks

A film adaptation by Richard Brooks and James Poe of the Pulitzer Prize–winning play of the same name by Tennessee Williams. One of the top 10 box office hits of 1958, the film stars Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and Burl Ives. Nominated for several Academy and Golden Globe Awards.

The Cincinnati Kid

Norman Jewison

A young, handsome poker player named Eric Stoner (Steve McQueen), “the Kid,” travels from game to game and girl to girl. When he is pitted against a legendary champion, the Kid finds himself in a high-stakes poker game. Notable for its all-star cast: Ann-Margret, Karl Malden and Edward G. Robinson, among others. For her portrayal of Lady Fingers, Joan Blondell was named Best Supporting Actress by the National Board of Review. Filmed in multiple locations including New Orleans.

Crossroads

Walter Hill

Eugene Martone is studying classical guitar at the Juilliard School of performing arts when he becomes fascinated by Robert Johnson, a blues musician surrounded by myth and legend. This film was written by John Fusco as an assignment for a master class led by screenwriting giants Waldo Salt and Ring Lardner, Jr., at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Notable for an original score featuring guitarists Ry Cooder and Steve Vai, and harmonicist Sonny Terry. Winner of the Georges Delerue Prize for Best Soundtrack/Sound Design at the Flanders International Film Festival Ghent. Filmed in multiple locations including Natchez and Vicksburg.

The Civil War

Ken Burns

This nine-episode documentary traces the course of the American Civil War, from the causes of the war to the battles, and the generals and soldiers to the grief of families at home. Winner of multiple awards including a People’s Choice Award for Favorite TV Mini-Series.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

David Fincher

This emotionally rich drama recounts Benjamin Button’s extraordinary life of aging in reverse and his relationship with Daisy, the love of his life. Notable for its award-winning all-star cast, with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett playing the leading roles. Winner of 84 awards including Academy Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects. Filmed in New Orleans and a number of other locations.

The Long, Hot Summer

Martin Ritt

After Ben Quick is accused of arson and kicked out of town, he eventually makes his way to a small town in Mississippi. There, he finds work as a sharecropper for wealthy Will Varner. Seeing himself in Ben, Varner does everything he can so Ben will become a part of the family and carry on the Varner name. Starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, who made their joint cinematic debut in this film. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor and listed among the National Board of Review’s 1958 Top Ten Films. Filmed in multiple locations including Baton Rouge.

Look Homeward, Angel (TV)

Paul Bogart

This coming-of-age drama is based on Thomas Wolfe’s autobiographical novel of the same name. The film centers on Eugene Gant, a restless young man who desperately wants to leave his small town in the mountains of North Carolina to search for a better life elsewhere.

The Ladykillers

Ethan Coen and Joel Coen

Professor Goldthwaite Higginson Dorr (Tom Hanks) rents a room from an elderly widow, Mrs. Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall), with the intent to rob a nearby riverboat casino by digging a tunnel from the basement to the riverboat’s vault. Winner of six awards including a Women Film Critics Circle Award for Best Comedic Performance for Hall. Filmed in Natchez.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Ethan Coen and Joel Coen

When convicts Everett, Delmar and Pete escape their chain gang, they have one thing on their minds: to find the treasure Everett claims to have buried from an armored truck robbery. Notable for its all-star cast: George Clooney, John Turturro, John Goodman and Holly Hunter, among others. This modern satire, loosely based on Homer’s Odyssey, incorporates mythology from the American South. Winner of multiple awards including a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) for Clooney. Filmed in Vicksburg and many other locations.

The Reivers

Mark Rydell

An adaptation of William Faulkner’s novel The Reivers, a Reminiscence. Set in turn-of-the-century Mississippi, this Technicolor film follows an 11-year-old boy who comes of age as two mischievous adult friends talk him into sneaking the family car out for a trip to Memphis and a series of adventures. Filmed in Mississippi.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Robert Ellis Miller

This drama is an adaptation of the 1940 novel of the same name and focuses on the human connections that John Singer, a deaf man, forms with the people he meets in a small Southern town. Winner of three awards. Filmed in Alabama.

Hard Times

Walter Hill

A tough, evocative crime drama about a drifter and fighter named Chaney (Charles Bronson). Looking to make money during the Depression, Chaney teams up with illegal street fight promoter Speed (James Coburn). The two travel to New Orleans, where the majority of the movie was filmed. The setting was described by critic Pauline Kael as “elaborate period recreations that seem almost to be there for their own sake.”

The Help

Tate Taylor

Skeeter, an aspiring writer, returns home from college and decides to write a book about black women who have spent their lives taking care of privileged Southern families and the daily hardships they face. Notable for its all-star cast: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain, among others. Adapted from Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 novel of the same name, this drama won 80 awards including Academy, Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for Spencer.

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles

Neil Jordan

Based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Anne Rice, who also penned the screenplay, this all-star fantasy-drama recounts the story of Louis de Pointe du Lac, a nearly two-century-old vampire plagued by merciless betrayals, extreme solitude and unquenched thirst. Winner of 21 awards including BAFTA Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Production Design. Filmed in New Orleans, Shreveport and Vacherie, among several other locations.

JFK

Oliver Stone

New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison is not convinced that Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby acted alone in their respective crimes—the assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Oswald and the shooting of Oswald by Ruby. Garrison assembles a team to conduct his own investigation despite backlash from government and political figures. This drama won 19 awards including Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing. Filmed in New Orleans and six other locations.

King Creole

Michael Curtiz

This musical drama centers on Danny Fisher, a rebellious high school student who supports his sister and unemployed father. In order to make ends meet, Danny takes a job as a singer at a nightclub. When a local gang boss hears Danny, he insists that Danny sing at his nightclub. Starring Elvis Presley in the lead role and shot in black and white in New Orleans to give the streets their film noir appearance.

Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long (TV)

Thomas Schlamme

This biographical drama tells the life story of Huey P. Long (John Goodman), a Louisiana politician whose nickname was “the Kingfish.” The story, told in flashbacks, chronicles Long’s rise from his simple beginnings to his political power and assassination. Winner of three awards. Filmed in Baton Rouge.

12 Years a Slave

Steve McQueen

An adaptation of the 1853 memoir Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, this award-winning biographical period drama takes a sobering look at slavery in the United States. Notable for its all-star cast featuring Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup, Lupita Nyong’o, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti and Brad Pitt. Winner of 240 awards; an Academy Award for Best Picture and a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture (Drama) are among its many honors. Filmed in multiple locations including New Orleans.

The Waterboy

Frank Coraci

Robert “Bobby” Boucher, Jr., is a water boy for the South Central Louisiana State University Mud Dogs. When Coach Klein discovers Bobby’s football skills, Bobby becomes a feared linebacker and the Mud Dogs go on a winning streak. The vibrant Cajun, Creole and French cultures are highlighted in this comedy that won six awards. Filmed in Florida.

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts

Spike Lee

This documentary highlights the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the indomitable spirit of Orleanians. Winner of eight awards including three Primetime Emmy Awards. Filmed in New Orleans.

Mississippi Burning

Alan Parker

When three civil rights workers go missing in a Mississippi town while organizing a voter registry for African Americans, two FBI agents are sent to investigate. This film is loosely based on the 1964 Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner murder investigation in Mississippi. Winner of 17 awards including an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Filmed in Vicksburg, among multiple other locations.

Ghosts of Mississippi

Rob Reiner

This biographical courtroom drama is based on the trial of Byron De La Beckwith for the assassination of African American civil rights leader Medgar Evers. James Woods received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Filmed in multiple locations including Natchez.

Steel Magnolias

Herbert Ross

Truvy Jones’s beauty salon is a gathering place for a tight-knit group of female friends who find themselves facing the unimaginable. The filming location, a quaint Louisiana town, provided the perfect setting for this Southern drama. Notable for its all-star cast featuring Julia Roberts, Sally Field, Dolly Parton and Shirley MacLaine. Winner of two awards including a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture for Roberts.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Robert Mulligan

Based on Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize–winning book; set in the Old Monroe County Courthouse, one of the most historic in the South. Winner of 13 awards including an Academy Award for Best Writing (Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium). Filmed in California and Alabama.

Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Charles Reisner

This drama centers on William Canfield, Jr. (Buster Keaton), the effete son of a cantankerous riverboat captain who comes to join his father’s crew. Filmed on the west bank of the Sacramento River, just across from the junction with the American River. There, near the California capitol, three blocks of city sets were built for the mythical town of River Junction, Mississippi. Included in 2000 among the 500 movies nominated for the American Film Institute’s list of top 100 funniest American movies.

Show Boat

George Sidney

Based on the stage musical of the same name. When the stars of the Cotton Blossom showboat are forced to leave after someone reports their interracial marriage to the local police, the captain’s daughter, Magnolia, becomes the new showboat attraction. Filmed in Technicolor, The New York Times wrote a rave review noting that no previous screen version of the musical had ever been presented “in anything like the visual splendor and richness of musical score as are tastefully brought together in this brilliant re-creation of the show.” This musical drama was a Photoplay Awards winner. Filmed in Natchez.

The Sound and the Fury

Martin Ritt

This American drama, loosely based on the novel of the same name by William Faulkner, centers around the Compsons, a once wealthy, respectable Southern family dealing with losses of faith and fortunes. Notable for its all-star cast including Yul Brynner, Joanne Woodward, Margaret Leighton and Stuart Whitman. Filmed in California and Louisiana.

Suddenly, Last Summer

Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Based on the play of the same name by Tennessee Williams, who also cowrote the screenplay with Gore Vidal, this acclaimed film is notable for its groundbreaking subject matter and all-star cast including Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift. Set inside a Southern Gothic New Orleans mansion, this mystery thriller won multiple awards. For Taylor’s portrayal of emotionally fragile Catherine Holly, the film won a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama). It is also one of only five films to have received two Academy Award nominations for Best Actress.

Satchmo: The Life of Louis Armstrong (TV)

Gary Giddins and Kendrick Simmons

Louis Armstrong’s life and profound trumpet career, which revolutionized the world of music, epitomize the American success story. This documentary features interviews and classic performances from 1932 to the late 1960s.

Slavery and the Making of America (TV)

Leslie D. Farrell, Chana Gazit, Dante James and Gail Pellett

This four-part documentary traverses the history of African slavery in the United States. Winner of a News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Programming (Long Form). Filmed in multiple locations in the South including Natchez.

Selma

Ava DuVernay

This historical drama chronicles Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965. Notable for being the first feature film on the life of Dr. King and its meaningful documentation of a significant time in America’s civil rights movement. Winner of 59 awards. Filmed in Alabama and Georgia.

A Streetcar Named Desire

Elia Kazan

Based on the play of the same name by Tennessee Williams, who also cowrote the screenplay, this drama stars Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois, a mentally frayed high school English teacher whose family property was taken over by creditors. Blanche decides to move to New Orleans to live with her sister, Stella (Kim Hunter), and brother-in-law, Stanley (Marlon Brando). This drama won 17 awards including an Academy Award for Best Actress presented to Leigh. Filmed in New Orleans.

Tell About the South: Voices in Black and White

Ross Spears

Part two of this documentary series, “Prophets and Poets,” shares the history of Southern literature from 1940 until the civil rights movement. Features writers Ralph Ellison, Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty and others.

As I Lay Dying

James Franco

Based on the novel by William Faulkner, this drama follows a poverty-stricken family as they transport their deceased matriarch’s body across Mississippi to honor her last wish to be buried with kinsfolk. Winner of two awards. Filmed in Mississippi.