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USA National Parks: Lands of Wonder
By Dk Eyewitness. 2024
The USA&’s National Parks truly are places of wonder: staggering landscapes of jaw-dropping dimensions and incredible diversity where you can…
stand on the very edge of civilization.They are the earth&’s breathing spaces, precious places to conserve nature and wildlife for future generations. Explore countless places to hike, camp, climb, swim, and paddle, where you and your family can create lifelong memories of freedom and wide-open spaces.The book contains inspiring narratives reflecting the rich diversity and natural importance of the parks, including their role in conserving wildlife, their intricate ecosystems, and their importance as untamed yet accessible spaces where people love to escape and unwind. In this book, you&’ll discover: -Beautiful photography and inspiring ideas – perfect for planning your next adventure -63 national parks in order of designation, showcasing what makes each one special-Maps, facts and figures, things to do, and when and where to experience it at its bestThe book considers the history of the national parks – the ideas behind their establishment, why they hold a special place in American culture, and why they&’re more relevant than ever today. Celebrate the beauty, history, and cultural importance of America&’s 63 national parks in this revised and updated edition, which features the newest national park, New River Gorge.DK Eyewitness Top 10 Chicago (Pocket Travel Guide)
By Dk Eyewitness. 2024
Chicago, is a perfect blend of big-city sophistication and small-town hospitality, with its good-humoured warmth, gleaming skyscrapers, outstanding museums and…
vibrant art scene. Your DK Eyewitness Top 10 travel guide ensures you'll find your way around Chicago with absolute ease.Our regularly updated Top 10 travel guide breaks down the best of Chicago into helpful lists of ten - from our own selected highlights to the best architecture, restaurants, blues and jazz joints, and of course, shopping destinations. You'll discover:• Seven easy-to-follow itineraries, perfect for a day trip, a weekend, or a week• Detailed Top 10 lists of Chicago's must-sees, including comprehensive descriptions of the Willis Tower and Its Views, The Art Institute of Chicago, Field Museum, Museum of Science and Industry, the Navy Pier, John G. Shedd Aquarium, Lincoln Park Zoo, Magnificent Mile, Millennium Park and Frank Lloyd Wright's Oak Park• Chicago's most interesting areas, with the best places for shopping, going out and sightseeing • Inspiration for different things to enjoy during your trip - including movie locations, fun for kids, hidden gems off the beaten path and things to do for free • A laminated pull-out map of Chicago and its environs, plus five full-color neighborhood maps• Street-smart advice: get ready, get around, and stay safe• A lightweight format perfect for your pocket or bag when you're on the moveDK Eyewitness Top 10s have been helping travellers to make the most of their breaks since 2002.Looking for more on Chicago's culture, history and attractions? Try DK Eyewitness Chicago.Wishful Thinking: How I Lost My Faith and Why I Want to Find It
By Donna Freitas. 2024
Donna Freitas wants to believe. Raised Catholic, she sang songs about Jesus as a child and lived in a house…
where nuns and priests were regular guests, yet she found herself questioning the faith of her family, examining the reasons none of it added up, and distancing herself from the God of Christianity. Despite her questions—or perhaps because of them—she made a career out of trying to understand God, pursuing a PhD in religion. But even as she taught college students about mystics, theologians, and others who wrestled with God, she was never able to embrace a faith of her own. In this searingly honest and deeply personal book, Freitas retraces her roundabout path up and out of the wilderness toward hope, and her dogged—and ongoing—search for faith. She talks about her experience with the Catholic abuse scandal, about being embraced as a speaker at evangelical colleges, about how the death of her mother and the loss of her marriage made her question everything she thought she knew about love, how she cannot reconcile the ways the concept of God makes absolutely no sense, and how she cannot stop trying to believe, despite it all. Real, raw, and beautifully written, Wishful Thinking is a powerful story about the author&’s search for belief in God and about finding God in the most unexpected places.Rabbit Heart: A Mother's Murder, a Daughter's Story
By Kristine S. Ervin. 2024
A Washington Post &“Most Anticipated&” Book of the Year • A New York Times &“Must Read&”For readers of My Dark…
Places and The Fact of a Body, a beautiful, brutal memoir documenting one woman&’s search for identity alongside her family's decades-long quest to identify the two men who abducted—and murdered—her mother"Melding true crime with memoir, Ervin reminds us of what happens when we conflate people with the transgressions committed against them—the collateral damage we inflict when we turn human beings into moral allegory . . . A powerful treatise on love and loss, on mothers and daughters, but it is also a warning to all of us who consume true crime." —The New York Times Book ReviewKristine S. Ervin was just eight years old when her mother, Kathy Sue Engle, was abducted from an Oklahoma mall parking lot and violently murdered in an oil field. First, there was grief. Then the desire to know: what happened to her, what she felt in her last terrible moments, and all she was before these acts of violence defined her life.In her mother&’s absence, Ervin tries to reconstruct a woman she can never fully grasp—from her own memory, from letters she uncovers, and from the stories of other family members. As more information about her mother's death comes to light, Ervin&’s drive to know her mother only intensifies, winding into her own fraught adolescence. She reckons with contradictions of what a woman is allowed to be—a self beyond the roles of wife, mother, daughter, victim—what a &“true&” victim is supposed to look like, and, finally, how complicated and elusive justice can be.Told fearlessly and poetically, Rabbit Heart weaves together themes of power, gender, and justice into a manifesto of grief and reclamation: our stories do not need to be simple to be true, and there is power in the telling.DK Eyewitness Top 10 Los Angeles (Pocket Travel Guide)
By Dk Eyewitness. 2024
True to its name, this Los Angeles travel guide covers all the city's major sights and attractions in easy-to-use top…
10 lists that help you plan the vacation that's right for you.This newly updated pocket travel guide for LA will lead you straight to the best attractions this city has to offer, from famous Hollywood sites to the best comedy clubs, museums, and restaurants.Expert travel writers have fully revised this edition of DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Top 10 Los Angeles. • Brand-new itineraries help you plan your trip to Los Angeles. • Expanded and far more comprehensive, new laminated pull-out map now includes color-coded design, public transportation maps, and street indexes to make it even easier to use. • Maps of walking routes show you the best ways to maximize your time. • New Top 10 lists feature off-the-beaten-track ideas, along with standbys like the top attractions, shopping, dining options, and more. • Additional maps marked with sights from the guidebook are shown on inside cover flaps, with selected street index and metro map. • New typography and fresh layout throughout. You'll still find DK's famous full-color photography and museum floor plans, along with just the right amount of coverage of history and culture. A free pull-out map is marked with sights from the guidebook and includes a street index and a metro map.The perfect pocket-size travel companion: DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Top 10 Los Angeles.Series Overview: DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Top 10 are handy travel guides that take the work out of planning a trip. Packed with amazing ideas, informative maps, insider tips, and useful advice, DK's Top 10 guides lead you to the very best your destination has to offer. The pocket size make these the perfect guide to take on vacation. Discover the history, art, architecture, and culture of your destination through Top 10 lists, from the best museums, bars, and sights to the places to avoid. Visit TravelDK.com to learn more.DK Eyewitness California (Travel Guide)
By Dk Eyewitness. 2024
California's dramatic landscape has inspired generations of artists and explorers - from rugged redwood-covered bluffs to idyllic sun-drenched sands, plunging…
valleys to snow-capped peaks. As culturally influential as it is geographically impressive, California also boasts two of the world's foremost cities, San Francisco and Los Angeles.Our updated guide brings California to life, transporting you there like no other travel guide does with expert-led insights, trusted travel advice, detailed breakdowns of all the must-see sights, photographs on practically every page, and our hand-drawn illustrations which place you inside the state&’s iconic buildings and neighborhoods. Whether you want to hike to the waterfalls in Yosemite National Park, tour a winery in Napa, or ride a classic cable car in San Francisco, DK Eyewitness California is your ticket to the trip of a lifetime. Inside DK Eyewitness California, you will find: - A fully-illustrated top experiences guide: our expert pick of California&’s must-sees and hidden gems- Accessible itineraries to make the most out of each and every day- Expert advice: honest recommendations for getting around safely, when to visit each sight, what to do before you visit, and how to save time and money- Color-coded chapters to every part of California, from San Diego County to the Inland Empire and Low Desert to Wine Country to the High Sierras and everything in between - Practical tips: the best places to eat, drink, shop and stay in California- Detailed maps to help you navigate the region easily and confidently - Explore the culture of California: delve into the city&’s iconic history, art, and architecture- Covers: Los Angeles, South Central California, Orange County, San Diego County, The Inland Empire, and Low Desert, The Mojave Desert, San Francisco, and the Bay Area, The North, Wine Country, Gold Country and the North, Central Valley, The High Sierras, North Central CaliforniaPlanning on touring the USA? Don&’t forget to check out DK Eyewitness USA for a complete comprehensive guide to the States, making the most of your trip and achieving the adventure of a lifetime, About DK Eyewitness: At DK Eyewitness, we believe in the power of discovery. We make it easy for you to explore your dream destinations. Filled with expert advice, striking photography and detailed illustrations, our highly visual DK Eyewitness guides will get you closer to your next adventure. We publish guides to more than 200 destinations, from pocket-sized city guides to comprehensive country guides. Named Top Guidebook Series at the 2020 Wanderlust Reader Travel Awards, we know that wherever you go next, your DK Eyewitness travel guides are the perfect companion.Paddleways of Mississippi: Rivers and People of the Magnolia State
By Ernest Herndon, Patrick Parker. 2024
Mississippi rivers and creeks have shaped every aspect of the state’s geology, ecology, economy, settlement, and politics. Mississippi's paddleways—its rivers,…
rills, creeks, and streams—are its arteries, its lifeblood, and the connective tissues that tie its stories and histories together and flood them with a sense of place and impel them along the current of time. The rivers provide structure for the telling of stories. In Paddleways of Mississippi: Rivers and People of the Magnolia State, readers will discover flowing details of virtually every waterway in the state—the features, wildlife, vegetation, geology, hydrology, and specific challenges to be expected—alongside many wonderful historical and social accounts specific to each system. Interviews and oral histories enliven these waterways with evocative scenery, engaging anecdotes, interesting historical tales, and personal accounts of the people and communities that arose along the waterways of Mississippi. Part natural history, part narrative nonfiction, Paddleways of Mississippi will appeal to outdoor enthusiasts, anglers, naturalists, campers, and historians, and is suitable for novices as well as experts. Told together, the pieces included are a social and ecological history that exposes and deepens the connection coursing between the people and the rivers.Moon Coastal Oregon: Scenic Drives, Marine Wildlife, Historic Towns (Travel Guide)
By Matt Wastradowski, Moon Travel Guides. 2024
From stunning coastline to charming towns to wildlife watching, find your adventure with Moon Coastal Oregon. Inside you'll find:Flexible itineraries, including…
a weeklong road trip to experience the best of the Oregon Coast The top outdoor adventures: Go tidepooling, watch for migrating whales, and see hundreds of sea lions. Hike along epic coastal dunes, take a surfing lesson, and catch a sunset at iconic Haystack Rock. Join a fishing charter, camp beside the ocean, or take a jet boat tour to spot wildlife on the Rogue River. Can't-miss experiences and unique activities: Feast on fresh seafood in quaint seaside towns, check out Astoria's craft beer scene, or try tasty treats at the famous Tillamook cheese factory. Climb to the top of historic lighthouses, explore a shipwreck, and learn about local maritime history. Expert insight from Oregon local Matt Wastradowski on when to go, how to get around, and where to stay Full-color photos and detailed maps throughoutThorough background information on the culture, landscape, climate, and wildlife, plus handy recommendations for international visitors, families with kids, travelers of color, women travelers, and more With Moon's expert tips and local know-how, you can experience the best of Coastal Oregon. Exploring more of the state? Try Moon Oregon or Moon Columbia River Gorge & Mount Hood. Looking for outdoor adventure? Check out Moon Oregon Hiking.About Moon Travel Guides: Moon was founded in 1973 to empower independent, active, and conscious travel. We prioritize local businesses, outdoor recreation, and traveling strategically and sustainably. Moon Travel Guides are written by local, expert authors with great stories to tell—and they can't wait to share their favorite places with you. For more inspiration, follow @moonguides on social media.In this laugh-out-loud and heartfelt memoir, writer, speaker, and podcaster Molly Stillman shares her unforgettable story of losing her mother,…
squandering an unexpected quarter-of-a-million-dollar inheritance in less than two years, attempting to launch a career in comedy but ending up on a farm instead, and finding faith, hope, and joy in the middle of it all. Molly Stillman has lived the type of life that when shared, people stop in their tracks and ask, "Wait, what happened?" Molly's mother, Lynda Van Devanter Buckley served as an Army nurse during the Vietnam War and wrote the bestselling memoir, Home Before Morning. When Molly was seventeen, Lynda passed away after an eight-year battle with an autoimmune disorder due to her exposure to Agent Orange. Four years later, Molly turned twenty-one and unexpectedly inherited a quarter of a million dollars from her mother's estranged family's estate. Through "retail therapy" and a long series of grossly irresponsible financial decisions, Molly found herself broke with over $36,000 in credit card debt less than two years later. Shame, guilt, and embarrassment set in.With aspirations of a career in comedy, Molly used humor to mask the pain and brokenness she felt, believing that if she looked joyful and put together on the outside, it would eventually be true on the inside. Instead, she spent the next few years depressed, lonely, and feeling alienated from those closest to her. But an unlikely call with a compassionate credit counselor, meeting the spreadsheet-loving man who eventually became her husband, and a surprising visit to a church started her on a path that changed everything.If I Don't Laugh, I'll Cry will bring readers into the tension of feeling both joy and grief and show them that every broken, messed up story has a purpose, and it's possible to gain everything if they're willing to surrender it all to Jesus.Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites of Delta Blues, Fourth Edition
By Steve Cheseborough. 2018
This acclaimed travel guide, hailed as the bible of blues travelers throughout the world, will shepherd the faithful to such…
shrines as the intersection where Robert Johnson might have made his deal with the devil and the railroad tracks that inspired Howlin’ Wolf to moan “Smokestack Lightnin’.” Blues Traveling was the first and is the indisputably essential guidebook to Mississippi's musical places and its blues history.For this new fourth edition, Steve Cheseborough returned once again to the Delta, revisited all of the locales featured in previous editions of the book, and uncovered fresh destinations. He includes updated material on new festivals, state blues markers, club openings and closings, and many other transformations in the Delta's ever-lively blues scene. The fourth edition also features new information on the Mississippi Blues Trail, updated information on the many blues sites throughout the Delta, and twenty new photographs.With photographs, maps, easy-to-follow directions, and an informative, entertaining text, this book will lead the reader in and out of Clarksdale, Greenwood, Helena (Arkansas), Rolling Fork, Jackson, Memphis, Natchez, Bentonia, Rosedale, Itta Bena, and dozens of other locales where generations of blues musicians have lived, traveled, and performed.Tide Lines: A Photographic Record of Louisiana’s Disappearing Coast
By Ben Depp. 2023
In Tide Lines: A Photographic Record of Louisiana’s Disappearing Coast, Ben Depp’s photographs capture the beauty, complexity, and rapid destruction…
of south Louisiana. Once formed by sediment deposited by the Mississippi River, the Louisiana coast is now quickly eroding. Two thousand square miles of wetlands have returned to open water over the past eighty years. Depp’s photographs communicate weather and seasonal changes—like the shifting high-water line, color temperature, and softness of light. A careful observer will notice coastal flora and distinguish living cypress trees from those that have been killed by saltwater intrusion, or see the patterns made by wave energy on barrier island beaches and sediment carried through freshwater diversions from the Mississippi River. With a powered paraglider, Depp flies between ten and ten thousand feet above the ground. He spends hours in the air, camera in hand, waiting for the brief moments when the first rays of sunlight mix with cool predawn light and illuminate forms in the grass, or when evening light sculpts fragments of marsh and geometric patterns of human enterprise—canals, oil platforms, pipelines, and roads. Featuring an introduction by Monique Verdin and over fifty color images, Tide Lines is an intense bird's-eye survey that depicts south Louisiana from an unfamiliar perspective, prompting the viewer to reconsider the value of this vanishing, otherworldly landscape.Till Death Do Us Part: American Ethnic Cemeteries as Borders Uncrossed
By Allan Amanik and Kami Fletcher. 2020
Contributions by Allan Amanik, Kelly B. Arehart, Sue Fawn Chung, Kami Fletcher, Rosina Hassoun, James S. Pula, Jeffrey E. Smith,…
and Martina Will de Chaparro Till Death Do Us Part: American Ethnic Cemeteries as Borders Uncrossed explores the tendency among most Americans to separate their dead along communal lines rooted in race, faith, ethnicity, or social standing and asks what a deeper exploration of that phenomenon can tell us about American history more broadly. Comparative in scope, and regionally diverse, chapters look to immigrants, communities of color, the colonized, the enslaved, rich and poor, and religious minorities as they buried kith and kin in locales spanning the Northeast to the Spanish American Southwest. Whether African Americans, Muslim or Christian Arabs, Indians, mestizos, Chinese, Jews, Poles, Catholics, Protestants, or various whites of European descent, one thing that united these Americans was a drive to keep their dead apart. At times, they did so for internal preference. At others, it was a function of external prejudice. Invisible and institutional borders built around and into ethnic cemeteries also tell a powerful story of the ways in which Americans have negotiated race, culture, class, national origin, and religious difference in the United States during its formative centuries.Rowdy Boundaries: True Mississippi Tales from Natchez to Noxubee
By James L. Robertson. 2023
Dwelling along the Mississippi River, the Tennessee state line, the Tenn-Tom Waterway, and the Gulf of Mexico are a trove…
of characters with fascinating lives and histories. In Rowdy Boundaries: True Mississippi Tales from Natchez to Noxubee, author James L. Robertson weaves these stories to reveal a tapestry of Mississippi’s border counties and the towns and people that occupy them. From his unique vantage as a former Mississippi Supreme Court justice and seasoned lawyer, he documents the legal, geographical, and biographical tales revealed during his journeys along and within the state lines.The volume features the true stories of musicians, authors, portrait painters, and football players, as well as political activists, educators, politicians, and judges. Also featured are tributes to noteworthy newspaper editors and columnists for their many contributions over the years. Robertson covers pivotal moments in Mississippi history, including the Mississippi Married Women’s Property Act of 1839, the development of Chinese culture in the Mississippi Delta, and 1964 Freedom Summer. He does not shy away from the tragedies of the past, discussing lynchings and murders that still haunt the state today. From ghost towns in Jefferson County to the Slugburger Festival in Corinth, stopping en route for a mint julep in Columbus, Robertson puts a human face on Mississippi history and tells a good yarn along the way.In I’m Feeling the Blues Right Now: Blues Tourism and the Mississippi Delta, Stephen A. King reveals the strategies used…
by blues promoters and organizers in Mississippi, both African American and white, local and state, to attract the attention of tourists. In the process, he reveals how promotional materials portray the Delta’s blues culture and its musicians. Those involved in selling the blues in Mississippi work to promote the music while often conveniently forgetting the state’s historical record of racial and economic injustice. King’s research includes numerous interviews with blues musicians and promoters, chambers of commerce, local and regional tourism entities, and members of the Mississippi Blues Commission. This book is the first critical account of Mississippi’s blues tourism industry. From the late 1970s until 2000, Mississippi’s blues tourism industry was fragmented, decentralized, and localized, as each community competed for tourist dollars. By 2003–2004, with the creation of the Mississippi Blues Commission, the promotion of the blues became more centralized as state government played an increasing role in promoting Mississippi’s blues heritage. Blues tourism has the potential to generate new revenue in one of the poorest states in the country, repair the state’s public image, and serve as a vehicle for racial reconciliation.Obituaries in American Culture
By Janice Hume. 2000
“Within the short period of a year, she was a bride, a beloved wife and companion, a mother, a corpse,”…
reported The National Intelligencer on the death of Elizabeth Buchanan in 1838. Such obituaries fascinate us. Few of us realize that, when examined historically, they can reveal not only information about the departed but also much about American culture and about who and what we value. They also offer hints about the way Americans view death. This book also will fascinate, for it surveys more than 8,000 newspaper obituaries from 1818 to 1930 to show what they reveal about our culture. It shows how, in memorializing individual citizens, obituaries make a public expression of our values. Far from being staid or morbid, these death notices offer a lively look at a changing America. Indeed, obits are little windows through which to view America's cultural history. In the nineteenth century, they spoke of a person's character, in the twentieth of a person's work and wealth. In the days when women were valued mainly in their relationships with men, their obituaries were about the men in their lives. Then, as now, important friendships make a difference, for sometimes a death has been deemed newsworthy only because of whom the deceased knew. In 1838 when a fifty-year-old Virginian named William P. Custis died “after a long and wasting illness,” readers of The Daily National Intelligencer learned about his generous hospitality, his sterling business principles, and his kindness as a neighbor and husband. Custis's obituary not only recorded the fact of his death but also celebrated his virtues. The newspaper obituary has a commemorative role. It distills the essence of a citizen's life, and it reflects what society values and wants to remember about the deceased. Throughout our history, these published accounts have revealed changing values. They provide a link between public remembrances of individuals and the collective memory of a great American past. In obits of yesteryear, men were brave, gallant, vigilant, bold, honest, and dutiful. Women were patient, resigned, obedient, affectionate, amiable, pious, gentle, virtuous, tender, and useful. Mining newspapers of New York City, New Orleans, Baltimore, Chicago, and San Francisco, along with two early national papers, Niles' Weekly Register and The National Intelligencer, Janice Hume has produced a portrait of America, an entertaining history, and a revealing look at the things Americans have valued.Jazz and Death: Medical Profiles of Jazz Greats
By Frederick J. Spencer. 2002
When a jazz hero dies, rumors, speculation, gossip, and legend can muddle the real cause of death. In this book,…
Frederick J. Spencer, M.D., conducts an inquest on how jazz greats lived and died pursuing their art. Forensics, medical histories, death certificates, and biographies divulge the way many musical virtuosos really died. An essential reference source, Jazz and Death strives to correct misinformation and set the story straight. Reviewing the medical records of such jazz icons as Scott Joplin, James Reese Europe, Bennie Moten, Tommy Dorsey, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Wardell Gray, and Ronnie Scott, the book spans decades, styles, and causes of death. Divided into disease categories, it covers such illnesses as ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), which killed Charlie Mingus, and tuberculosis, which caused the deaths of Chick Webb, Charlie Christian, Bubber Miley, Jimmy Blanton, and Fats Navarro. It notes the significance of dental disease in affecting a musician's embouchure and livelihood, as happened with Joe “King” Oliver. A discussion of Art Tatum's visual impairment leads to discoveries in the pathology of what blinded Lennie Tristano. Heavy drinking, even during Prohibition, was the norm in the clubs of New Orleans and Kansas City and in the ballrooms of Chicago and New York. Too often, the musical scene demanded that those who play jazz be “jazzed.” After World War II, as heroin addiction became the hallmark of revolution, talented bebop artists suffered long absences from the bandstand. Many did jail time, and others succumbed to the ravages of “horse.” With Jazz and Death, the causes behind the great jazz funerals may no longer be misconstrued. Its clinical and morbidly entertaining approach creates an invaluable compendium for jazz fans and scholars alike.Gone to the Grave: Burial Customs of the Arkansas Ozarks, 1850-1950
By Abby Burnett. 2014
Before there was a death care industry where professional funeral directors offered embalming and other services, residents of the Arkansas…
Ozarks—and, for that matter, people throughout the South—buried their own dead. Every part of the complicated, labor-intensive process was handled within the deceased's community. This process included preparation of the body for burial, making a wooden coffin, digging the grave, and overseeing the burial ceremony, as well as observing a wide variety of customs and superstitions. These traditions, especially in rural communities, remained the norm up through the end of World War II, after which a variety of factors, primarily the loss of manpower and the rise of the funeral industry, brought about the end of most customs. Gone to the Grave, a meticulous autopsy of this now vanished way of life and death, documents mourning and practical rituals through interviews, diaries and reminiscences, obituaries, and a wide variety of other sources. Abby Burnett covers attempts to stave off death; passings that, for various reasons, could not be mourned according to tradition; factors contributing to high maternal and infant mortality; and the ways in which loss was expressed though obituaries and epitaphs. A concluding chapter examines early undertaking practices and the many angles funeral industry professionals worked to convince the public of the need for their services.George Ohr: Sophisticate and Rube
By Ellen J. Lippert. 2013
The late nineteenth-century Biloxi potter, George Ohr (1857–1918), was considered an eccentric in his time but has emerged as a…
major figure in American art since the discovery of thousands of examples of his work in the 1960s. Currently, Ohr is celebrated as a solitary genius who foreshadowed modern art movements. While an intriguing narrative, this view offers a narrow understanding of the man and his work that has hindered serious consideration. Ellen J. Lippert, in her expansive study of Ohr and his Gilded Age context, counters this fable. The tumultuous historical moment that Ohr inhabited was a formative force in his life and work. Using primary documentation, Lippert identifies specific cultural changes that had the most impact on Ohr. Developments in visual display and the altered role of artists, the southerner redefined in the wake of the Civil War, interest in handicraft as an alternative to rampant mass production, emerging tenets of social thought seeking to remedy worker exploitation, and new assessments of morals and beauty as a result of collapsed ideals all played into the positioning Ohr purposefully designed for himself. The second part of Lippert's study applies these observations to Ohr's body of work, interpreting his stylistic originality to be expressions of the contradictions and oppositions particular to late nineteenth-century America. Ohr threw his inspiration into being both the sophisticate and the “rube,” the commercial huckster and the selfless artist, the socialist and the individualist, the “old-fashioned” craftsman and the “artist-genius.” He created art pottery as both a salable commodity and a priceless creation. His work could be ugly and deformed (or even obscene) and beautiful. Lippert reveals that far from isolated, Ohr and his creations were very much products of his inspired engagement with the late nineteenth century.Louisiana Rambles: Exploring America's Cajun and Creole Heartland
By Ian McNulty. 2011
After Hurricane Katrina laid bare the fragility and environmental peril of South Louisiana, author Ian McNulty set out on a…
series of daytrips to delve into the area's diverse cultural landscapes. He explored communities staked up and down the Mississippi River, nestled into the teeming bayous, braced along the edge of the Gulf, and planted out on the golden prairie stretching to the west. Louisiana Rambles is his richly evocative guide to those journeys. McNulty delivers an inimitable take on Cajun and Creole Louisiana—the siren call of zydeco dance halls pulsing in the country darkness; of crawfish “boiling points” and traditional country smokehouses; of Cajun jam sessions, where even wallflowers are compelled to dance; of equine gambits in the cradle of jockeys; and of fishing trips where anyone can land impressive catches. In South Louisiana, distilled European heritage, the African American experience, and modern southern exuberance mix with tumultuous history and fantastically fecund natural environments. The territories McNulty opens to the reader are arguably the nation's most exotic and culturally distinct destinations. McNulty quests for the heart of these places and people. Much more than a travel guide or collection of travel narratives, Louisiana Rambles is a seasoned writer's witness to an epic locale that is very often joyous, sometimes heartbreaking, and always vital and stimulating. An extensive, chapter-by-chapter appendix filled with travel tips and notes from the road (or the bayou) will let visitors explore well beyond the beaten tourist paths and help Louisiana residents appreciate their own terrain in a new light.Les Cadiens et leurs ancêtres acadiens: l'histoire racontée aux jeunes
By Shane K. Bernard. 2013
Cajuns and Their Acadian Ancestors: A Young Reader's History traces the four-hundred-year history of this distinct American ethnic group. In…
its original English, the book proved a perfect package, comprehensible to junior-high and high-school students, while appealing to and informing adult readers seeking a one-volume exploration of these remarkable people and their predecessors. It is now available for the first time translated into French. The narrative follows the Cajuns' early ancestors, the Acadians, from seventeenth-century France to Nova Scotia, where they flourished until British soldiers expelled them in a tragic event called Le Grand Dérangement (The Great Upheaval)—an episode regarded by many historians as an instance of ethnic cleansing or genocide. Up to one-half of the Acadian population died from disease, starvation, exposure, or outright violence in the expulsion. Nearly three thousand survivors journeyed through the thirteen American colonies to Spanish-controlled Louisiana. There they resettled, intermarried with members of the local population, and evolved into the Cajun people, who today number over a half-million. Since their arrival in Louisiana, the Cajuns have developed an unmistakable identity and a strong sense of ethnic pride. In recent decades they have contributed their lively cuisine and accordion-and-fiddle dance music to American popular culture. Les Cadiens et leurs ancêtres acadiens: l'histoire racontée aux jeunes includes numerous images and over a dozen sidebars on topics ranging from Cajun music and horse racing heroes to Mardi Gras. Shane K. Bernard's welcomed and cherished history of the Cajun people is translated into French by Faustine Hillard. The book offers a long-sought immersion text, ideal for the young learner and adult alike. Intended to appeal to both native French-speakers as well as to English-speaking students who are learning French, this French translation of Shane K. Bernard's Cajuns and Their Acadian Ancestors: A Young Reader's History is perfect for middle-school and high-school readers enrolled in conversational and French Immersion classes. Adult readers of French will also find it a useful primer of Acadian and Cajun history. Les Cadiens et leurs ancêtres acadiens : l'histoire racontée aux jeunes retrace le périple de quatre siècles de ce groupe ethnique nord-américain distinct des autres. Accessible aux adolescents, ce volume s'avérera également utile et pratique pour le lecteur adulte qui cherche à connaître à la fois ce peuple remarquable et ses ancêtres. Le récit suit la trace des Acadiens, les premiers ancêtres des Cadiens, de la France du dix-septième siècle à la Nouvelle-Écosse, là où ils se sont épanouis jusqu'à ce que des soldats britanniques les expulsent lors de cet évènement tragique que fut Le grand dérangement—un triste épisode qui a débuté en 1755 et que nombre d'historiens modernes considèrent comme un parfait exemple de nettoyage ethnique, voire de génocide. Près de trois mille survivants ont (péniblement) traversé les treize colonies américaines pour se rendre jusqu'en Louisiane, alors sous le régime espagnol. Là, ils s'installent à nouveau, s'intègrent à la population locale par le biais du mariage et forment peu à peu ce qu'il est aujourd'hui convenu d'appeler le peuple cadien. Aujourd'hui, on compte plus d'un demi-million d'habitants d'origine cadienne en Louisiane.