Anthony J. Stanonis is an independent historian of the American South. This interview is based on his new book, New Orleans Pralines: Plantation Sugar, Louisiana Pecans, and the Marketing of Southern Nostalgia (LSU Press, 2024). JF: What led you to […]
New Orleans
The Author’s Corner with Jesse Chanin
Jesse Chanin is a postdoctoral fellow at Tulane University’s Coalition for Compassionate Schools. This interview is based on her new book, Building Power, Breaking Power: The United Teachers of New Orleans, 1965-2008 (University of North Carolina Press, 2024). JF: What […]
Juneteenth before Juneteenth
Historians Susannah J. Ural and Ann Marsh Daly tell the stories of Black men and women celebrating emancipation well before Juneteenth became a holiday. Here is a taste of their piece at The Atlantic: In a quiet corner of a library at […]
The Author’s Corner with John K. Bardes
John K. Bardes is Assistant Professor of History at Louisiana State University. This interview is based on his new book, The Carceral City: Slavery and the Making of Mass Incarceration in New Orleans, 1803-1930 (University of North Carolina Press, 2024). […]
The Author’s Corner with Jeffrey S. Adler
Jeffrey S. Adler is Professor of History and Criminology and Distinguished Teaching Scholar at the University of Florida. This interview is based on his new book, Bluecoated Terror: Jim Crow New Orleans and the Roots of Modern Police Brutality (University […]
The Author’s Corner with Jeffrey E. Anderson
Jeffrey E. Anderson is Professor of History and Associate Director of the School of Humanities at the University of Louisiana Monroe. This interview is based on his new book, Voodoo: An African American Religion (LSU Press, 2024). JF: What led […]
Religious congregations in New Orleans are doing something about the effects of climate change
Nina Lakhani, a reporter for The Guardian, introduces us to the Community Lighthouse Network, a group of New Orleans congregations, including a Black megachurch, tackling the effects of climate change in the Big Easy. Here is a taste of Lakhani’s […]
The Author’s Corner with Kevin McQueeney
Kevin McQueeney is Assistant Professor of History at Nicholls State University. This interview is based on his new book, A City without Care: 300 Years of Racism, Health Disparities, and Health Care Activism in New Orleans (University of North Carolina […]
The Author’s Corner with Joan DeJean
Joan DeJean is Trustee Professor of Romance Languages at the University of Pennsylvania. This interview is based on her new book, Mutinous Women: How French Convicts Became Founding Mothers of the Gulf Coast (Basic Books, 2022). JF: What led you […]
The Author’s Corner with Kathryn Olivarius
Kathryn Olivarius is Assistant Professor of History at Stanford University. This interview is based on her new book, Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom (Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2022). JF: What led you to write Necropolis? KO: […]
It is finally okay to teach and play jazz in New Orleans public schools
Here is Juliette Arcodia at NBC News: New Orleans has long been known as the birthplace of jazz music, but for exactly a century that genre has been technically forbidden in the entire public school system. The rule was added […]
American Historical Association Annual Meeting Omicron update
Here is the latest on the AHA meeting in New Orleans. I received this in my inbox yesterday: The AHA is carefully monitoring the news about the Omicron variant, particularly in the New Orleans area, as COVID-19 numbers spiral around […]
Racism and interstate highways
Joe Biden’s new infrastructure plan singled out the Claiborne Expressway in New Orleans as a “racist highway. The plan sets aside $20 billion to “reconnect” neighborhoods that were racially divided by highway construction. Over at NPR, Noel King interviews New […]