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Two years ago, the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina inspired emotional elegies to the long and colorful history of New Orleans. But until now, the story of French New Orleans has remained largely untold. Building the Devil’s Empire is the first comprehensive history of the city’s early years, tracing the town’s development from its origins in 1718 as an imperial experiment in urban planning through its revolt against Spanish rule in 1768.Shannon Lee Dawdy’s picaresque account of New Orleans’s wild youth features a cast of strong-willed captives, thin-skinned nobles, sharp-tongued women, and carousing travelers, as well as the sounds and smells that created the texture of everyday life there. During the French period, the city earned its reputation as the devil’s town, where laws were lax and pleasures abundant. Though New Orleans’s roguish character is sometimes exaggerated, Dawdy traces its early roots in the city’s political independence, active smuggling rings, and peculiar demographics—a diverse mix of Africans, Indians, Europeans, and Creoles all involved in the contentious process of building a new society. Dawdy also widens her lens to reveal the port city’s global significance, examining its role in the French Empire and the Caribbean, and she concludes that by exemplifying a kind of rogue colonialism—where governments, outlaws, and capitalism become entwined—New Orleans should prompt us to reconsider our notions of how colonialism works.By the end of the French period, New Orleans was one of the most modern—and most American—towns in the New World. As the city enters a new phase in its history, Building the Devil’s Empire paints a rich and thoughtful portrait of its founding.
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Subjects
History, Ethnology, French, Colonial influence, Social conditions, City planning, Ethnic relations, Nonfiction, Sociology, French, united states, Ethnology, united states, City planning, united states, New orleans (la.), history, New orleans (la.), social conditions, United states, ethnic relations, Louisiana, historyPlaces
New Orleans (La.), Louisiana, New OrleansTimes
18th century, To 1803Showing 3 featured editions. View all 3 editions?
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Building the Devil's Empire: French Colonial New Orleans
2009, University of Chicago Press
in English
1281959499 9781281959492
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2
Building the Devil's Empire
2008, University of Chicago Press
Electronic resource
in English
0226138437 9780226138435
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3
Building the Devil's Empire: French Colonial New Orleans
June 15, 2008, University Of Chicago Press
Hardcover
in English
0226138410 9780226138411
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- Created June 17, 2010
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May 26, 2022 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
June 28, 2019 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
April 6, 2014 | Edited by ImportBot | Added IA ID. |
July 31, 2012 | Edited by VacuumBot | Updated format 'electronic resource' to 'Electronic resource' |
June 17, 2010 | Created by ImportBot | Imported from marc_overdrive MARC record |