Description
Book SynopsisThe contributors to
Remaking New Orleans challenge the uncritical acceptance of New Orleans-as-exceptional narratives, showing how they flatten the diversity, experience, and culture of the city's residents and obscure other possible understandings.
Trade Review"Offering valuable insights into the history of the city and the oft-repeated musings of what makes New Orleans special or unique,
Remaking New Orleans parses tourism, urban redevelopment, and the attendant myths, misconceptions, and impacts." -- Andru Okun * Antigravity *
"In a crowded field of New Orleans–centered, post-Katrina scholarship,
Remaking New Orleans—albeit ironically—is a true standout. ... It would make a fitting text for an upper-year undergraduate seminar or graduate-level course on, for example, cities and neoliberalism." -- Gregg Lightfoot * Journal of Southern History *
“Adams and Sakakeeny’s Remaking New Orleans represents a remarkable collection of stories…. Topically, the volume enriches our historical geography of the city.”
-- Eric Nost * Southeastern Geographer *
“The editors Thomas Jessen Adams an Matt Sakakeeny and their contributors offer a welcome, convincing, and overdue rebuke of representations of New Orleans as a city lying outside broader contexts....
Remaking New Orleans succeeds in rendering an indictment against seeing this city as exceptional rather than exemplary.” -- J. Mark Souther * Journal of American History *
“The authors present provocative questions.... This collection will be useful to scholars of urban history, cultural studies, and all those who are fascinated by New Orleans.” -- Ella Howard * Journal of American Culture *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction: What Lies beyond Histories of Exceptionalism and Cultures of Authenticity / Thomas Jessen Adams, Sue Mobley, and Mat Sakekeeny 1
Part One. Constructing Exceptional New Orleans
1. La Catrina: The Mexican Specter of New Orleans / Shannon Lee Dawdy 35
2. Charles Gayarré and the Imagining of an Exceptional City: The Literary Roots of the Creole City / Rien Fertel 55
3. Phony City: Under the Skin of Authenticity / Aaron Nyerges 72
Part Two. Producing Authentic New Orleans
4. "Things You'd Imagine Zulu Tribes to Do": The Zulu Parade in New Orleans Carnival / Felipe Smith 93
5. The Saga of the Junkyard Dog / Bryan Wagner 117
6. Local, Native, Creole, Black: Claiming Belonging, Producing Autochthony / Helen A. Regis 138
7. The Contradictions of the Film Welfare Economy, or, For the Love of
Treme / Vicki Mayer, Heidi Schmalbach, and Toby Miller 162
Part Three. What Is New Orleans Identity?
8. "Queers, Fairies, and Ne'er-Do-Wells": Rethinking the Notion of a Sexually Liberated New Orleans / Alecia P. Long 179
9. Building Black Suburbs in New Orleans / Vern Baxter and Maria Casati 199
10. Refugee Pastoralism: Vietnamese American Self-Representation in New Orleans / Marguerite Nguyen 219
Part Four. Predictive City?
11. Boosting the Private Sector: Federal Aid and Downtown Development in the 1970s / Megan French-Marcelin 241
12. What's Left for New Orleans? The People's Reconstruction and the Limits of Anarcho-Liberalism / Cedric G. Johnson 261
13. Neoliberal Futures: Post-Katrina New Orleans, Volunteers, and the Ongoing Allure of Exceptionalism / Vincanne Adams 288
14. The Myth of Authenticity and Its Impact on Politics—in New Orleans and Beyond / Adolph Reed Jr. 307
References 327
Contributors 351
Index 355
