Around the Press in 80 Books: New Orleans on Parade

In celebration of LSUP’s 80th anniversary the staff selected 80 of our most memorable titles. Adding to our “Around the Press in 80 Books” blog series, Copy and Publicity Coordinator Jenny Keegan writes about New Orleans on Parade.

New Orleans on ParadeIf there’s one thing Louisianians love, aside from watching Drew Brees connect with Jimmy Graham for a fourth-quarter touchdown (sob), it’s pondering the historical forces that conspired to make us this awesome. I might actually make this a category in our seasonal catalogs from now on: Why Louisiana Is Better than Everyplace Else that Exists. Admit that you would read every book in that section and then passive-aggressively send copies of them to all your friends who moved out of state, in case they were in danger of forgetting what they’re missing.

Mark Souther’s New Orleans on Parade, first published in 2006, explores the development of the tourism industry in New Orleans, which moved along slightly different paths than in other southern cities that chose tourism over other forms of economic development:

New Orleans might have cut its tourist image wholly from the cloth of its historic architecture and Old South legacy, as did cities like Charleston and Savannah, had it not already become such a notorious magnet for hedonists.

Related: Please sign my Change.org petition to change the New Orleans city motto to A Notorious Magnet for Hedonists.

Souther explores the multitude of forces that shaped New Orleans and its tourist industry, from jazz to the space race, and from NFL football (I miss football so much, why is football season still so far away?) to the ever-expanding number of Mardi Gras krewes seeking street space during Carnival season. If you can’t get enough of learning what makes New Orleans so great (and a couple of ways in which it was and is not so great), New Orleans on Parade is for you.

(P.S. I can’t promise I won’t throw down with the first Seahawks fan I see wearing a Jimmy Graham jersey. Anyone want to pledge bail money for me?)

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