May Roundup: News, Events, Reviews

May has been a whirlwind of great news for LSU Press! Andrew F. Lang’s In the Wake of War won the Tom Watson Brown Book Award from the Society of Civil War Historians! And Neon Visions: The Comics of Howard Chaykin by Brannon Costello won the Comic Studies Society’s Best Book Award! Walter Stern did a quick interview with WWNO and Karen Celestan spoke on the Louisiana Anthology Podcast. Meanwhile, on the LSU Press Blog, Stephen Cushman discussed the process of writing long poems and Jessica Hooten Wilson shared five books that saved Walker Percy’s life. We also celebrated the publication of new books by Kirstin L. Squint, Walter Stern, Jessica Hooten Wilson, and Karen Cox and Sarah E. Gardner.

Below you’ll find a list of our June titles, upcoming events with our authors, and some recent publicity and reviews of our books. If you want to keep up with the press in real time, follow us on TwitterInstagram, and Facebook!


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Selected Publicity and Praise

Penelope Lemon: Game On! by Inman Majors

“A light and lively sendup of modern woes.”—Kirkus Reviews

Freedom’s Dance:Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs in New Orleans by Eric Waters and Karen Celestan

“What sets the book apart from others is that Celestan and Waters hand the reins over to the culture-bearers themselves, featuring interviews and essays from many, like Lionel Batiste, Gregory Davis, Fred Johnson and Lois Andrews.”—Times-Picayune

Reconstruction in Alabama: From Civil War to Redemption in the Cotton South by Michael W. Fitzgerald

“A longtime student of Alabama’s Reconstruction, Fitzgerald marshals deep archival research, his analysis is careful and nuanced, and he writes with the convincing confidence and verve of a good storyteller.”—Journal of Southern History

The Humility of the Brutes: Poems by Ron Smith

“For its wit, personality and unique voice, The Humility of the Brutes is the best of Ron Smith and the pride of Southern verse.”—Deep South Magazine

Civil War Logistics:A Study of Military Transportation by Earl J. Hess

“Earl Hess’s informative, well written new book now represents the gold standard for studies of Civil War logistics.”—Michigan War Studies Review

Being Ugly: Southern Women Writers and Social Rebellion by Monica Carol Miller

“The success of Miller’s work lies in her ability to closely read the agency of a character’s ugly choices, and it opens a promising route in southern studies to reimagine the possibilities of ugliness.”—Journal of Southern History

In the Wake of War: Military Occupation, Emancipation, and Civil War America by Andrew F. Lang

“A deeply researched, elegantly written, and brilliantly argued examination that explores how American military policy evolved during the Civil War.”—America’s Civil War

Surveying the Early Republic: The Journal of Andrew Ellicott, U.S. Boundary Commissioner in the Old Southwest, 1796-1800 by Robert D. Bush

“This volume stands as an invaluable primary source for students of the historical settlement of North America. . . . Both Bush and Louisiana State University Press are to be commended for their efforts in rendering this material accessible to both scholars and the general public.”—Journal of Historical Geography

An Artisan Intellectual:James Carter and the Rise of Modern Britain, 1792-1853 by Christopher Ferguson 

“This is important reading for British historians interested in nineteenth-century urbanization, working-class autobiography, the clothing industry, migration, or the ongoing effort to discover how ordinary people experienced, for good and bad, the effects of industrialization.”—Journal of Modern History

The Secret Life of Bacon Tait, a White Slave Trader Married to a Free Woman of Color by Hank Trent

“Hank Trent has written an engaging book about a lonely slave trader with a racially mixed family who struggled to balance his economic and personal lives.”—Journal of Southern History