Bourbon Street Was Pre- the South, As Industrialization and Dominantly Creole and Catholic

Part II, “New South,” traces ear- artisans, and other (respectable) mid- ly 20th-century efforts to brand dle-class professionals trying to carve and sell a paradoxically nostal- out a living. gic and forward-looking version of The 1803 Louisiana Purchase the South, while heightening ra- changed the French Quarter as cial tensions, poverty, and hunger American residents Anglicized many plagued the region. The era between of the street names. French Creoles Reconstruction and the civil rights desperately hung onto their way of movement saw tremendous social life as the fi rst city census of 1805 and economic change throughout indicates; Bourbon Street was pre- the South, as industrialization and dominantly Creole and Catholic. rapid technological change correlat- Even 45 years after the Louisiana ed with shifting gender roles, racial Purchase, 66 percent of Bourbon attitudes, and a regional identity cri- Street residents had French names. sis. This period, too, was marked by Because of the French, Bourbon paradoxes: the poverty and hunger Street began to develop culturally induced by an unjust sharecropping during the antebellum period with system; abundance and lack; the the emergence of fi ne restaurants prevalence of commodities and tour- and the very popular French Opera ism that cashed in on nostalgic ren- House situated on the corner of derings of “the romance and fl avors Bourbon and Toulouse. The Opera of the Southern colonies, the antebel- Perhaps no other street in American House opened in December of 1859, lum plantations, the colorful Creole history is more (in)famous than and French Creoles dutifully attend- landscapes, and the ‘isolation’ of the Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Just ed plays, operas, and Sunday mati- mysterious mountain South.” Each the mention of its name evokes vivid nees, as it became part of their cul- of these left culinary artifacts, expert- images of debauchery. But, accord- tural identity. ly excavated in Ferris’s able prose. ing to Tulane University professor By the time of the Civil War New Part III, “Modern South,” be- Richard Campanella in his capti- Orleans developed into the largest gins with the lunch-counter protests vating new book, Bourbon Street: A port city in the South and became of 1964 and ends with a portrait of History, there is a deeper, more com- known for fi ne French culture and “nouvelle” Southern cuisine and its plex story about how this street be- entertainment. The early history of possibilities. Once again, the themes came one of the most popular streets Bourbon Street is so rich that it could of upheaval and change are master- in the United States. be an entire work itself. Campanella fully revealed through the lens of Campanella offers a detailed and does a suffi cient job writing about food. The increasing dominance of chronological narrative that is divid- that era, but he devotes most of the industrial agriculture; the ongoing ed into three parts: “Origins,” “Fame book describing the rise and fall of struggle of African Americans to “sit and Infamy,” and “Bourbon Street Bourbon Street since the Civil War, at the welcome table,” where they as a Social Artifact.” Using letters, writing, in six different chapters, how had so long labored; a resurgent in- census data, photographs, and illus- Bourbon Street germinated, blos- terest in and celebration of “tradi- trations, Campanella fi rst chronicles somed, fl ourished, exploded, degen- tional Southern food” and, impor- the settlement of New Orleans and erated and, fi nally, stabilized. tantly, the people who made it so: all the French government’s practice of With the December 1919 fi re that of this amid demographic and cultur- honoring the Monarchs by naming destroyed the French Opera House, al shifts that are bringing new fl avors streets, or rues, after them. “Rue de Bourbon Street catapulted from a into the ever-evolving (and much- Bourbon honored any one of a num- working-class family neighborhood contested) category of “Southern.” ber of Louisiana-involved members into an entertainment zone and of the reigning house of France,” would be affected by three 20th- Catarina Passidomo Campanella claims, “a family lineage century events or phases. By the traceable to the thirteenth century 1930s, the artisans who once popu- and dominant in the region since lated Bourbon moved out and, as 1589.” No matter who the street such, employment opportunities is named after, it certainly did not soon became based on the nighttime Bourbon Street: A History start out to be famous. Campanella entertainment industry. This time By Richard Campanella. contends that life on early Bourbon period was a gradual phase out of Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Street was not exceptional; it mir- the old-world traditions. But it was University Press, 2014. 368 rored any other street in the French two other events that would forever pages. $30.00 cloth. Quarter, fi lled with merchants, change Bourbon Street. The second Page 22 Fall 2014 The Southern Register phase developed because of world events. During World NEW FROM UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI War II, New Orleans served as an embarkation point for American soldiers. In their spare time, these soldiers ven- Song of My Life tured into Bourbon Street to enjoy its cuisine, saloons, A Biography of Margaret Walker and entertainment opportunities. As a result of the city’s BY CAROLYN J. BROWN status as a port of embarkation and the increase in com- The first biography of the much merce and trade, several thousand people began to move admired author of the novel Jubilee to New Orleans seeking employment. One can imagine and the poem “For My People” how happy business owners were to have unlimited pa- $20 tronage with pockets stuffed with disposable cash. By the 1960s, though, residents had become fed up with sex shows on Bourbon and nearby streets, prompt- Assassins, Eccentrics, ing District Attorney Jim Garrison to crack down on vice Politicians, and Other and crime in the Quarter and ushering in the third phase Persons of Interest of the street’s 20th-century recovery. Garrison’s raids and Fifty Pieces from the Road subsequent efforts by Mayor “Moon” Landrieu’s admin- BY CURTIS WILKIE istration in the 1970s to clean up Bourbon Street proved A compilation from the incomparable successful. The 1960s and early ’70s were certainly the career of one of the original “Boys on low point for the famous street. How bad, then, did the Bus” Bourbon get? “A place that was once famous, fashionable, $30 and pertinent to local lives had become infamous, embar- rassing, and irrelevant,” Campanella explains. City offi- Wednesdays in Mississippi cials recognized that cleaning up the street would boost Proper Ladies Working for Radical tourism, which, in the 1970s, surpassed the Port of New Change, Freedom Summer 1964 Orleans as the city’s most profitable industry. BY DEBBIE Z. HARWELL Today, it is hard for tourists to walk down Bourbon The story of brave women who met Street and realize that it was once a working-class neigh- to build bridges between the races borhood. Campanella cautions modern-day visitors and end segregation of desiring that authentic Bourbon Street experience. $65 “Authenticity,” writes Campanella, “is seductive; we em- brace it because it makes us feel exclusive. Declaring something to be authentic puts us in the know; it posi- Ed King’s Mississippi tions us in a place of power and authority, flatters our Behind the Scenes of taste, and flaunts our cultural savvy.” Freedom Summer In Bourbon Street: A History, Campanella provides a rich BY REV. ED KING AND look into one of America’s famous street’s using a wealth TRENT WATTS of primary sources and quantitative analysis. His multi- An extraordinary photographic disciplined approach is comprehensive. The inclusion documentary from behind the of a bibliography, however, would have enhanced the scenes during the struggle for civil rights work by allowing readers to continue their own research. $40 Because of its concentration, there is a lot of material to absorb, which may distract the general reader, but schol- Faulkner and Film ars wishing to write about New Orleans should have this EDITED BY PETER LURIE work on their shelf. AND ANN J. ABADIE A collection exploring the extensive T. L. Van Cleave connections between the Nobel Laureate’s work and cinema $65 AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSELLER www.upress.state.ms.us 800-737-7788 Southern RegisterFall2014.indd 1 10/6/14 10:00 AM The Southern Register Fall 2014 Page 23.

Load more