Written in an engaging and accessible style compl
Table of Contents
Map 1 Louisiana viii
Map 2 The United States, with Louisiana highlighted ix
Introduction by John C. Rodrigue 1
Part One 7
by Light Townsend Cummins
1 Native Peoples and European Contact 9
2 The Founding of French Louisiana 32
3 Louisiana as a French Colony 52
4 Spanish Louisiana 68
5 The Final Years of Colonial Louisiana 85
Suggested Readings 101
Part Two 105
by Judith Kelleher Schafer
6 The Territorial Period 107
7 The Political Development of Antebellum Louisiana 127
8 Life and Labor in Antebellum Louisiana 156
9 Civil War and Reconstruction in Louisiana 197
Suggested Readings 227
Part Three 233
by Edward F. Haas
10 Uneasy Interlude, 1877–1892 235
11 Bourbonism, Populism, and a Little Progressivism, 1892–1924 256
12 The Time of the Kingfish, 1924–1935 280
13 The Struggle to Catch Up, 1877–1935 301
Suggested Readings 322
Part Four 325
by Michael L. Kurtz
14 Corruption, Reform, and Reaction, 1936–1950 327
15 Reform and Race, 1950–1960 351
16 The Decline of Racism, 1960–1972 376
17 The Era of Edwin Edwards, 1972–1987 393
18 Louisiana at the End of the Century, 1987–2000 418
19 Louisiana in the New Millennium 454
Suggested Readings 478
Appendix I 481
European Rulers with Relation to Louisiana during the Colonial and Territorial Periods 481
Military Commandants and Governors of Louisiana 482
Appendix II 486
A Selective Chronology of Louisiana History 486
Index 493
