All on a Mardi Gras Day: Episodes in the History of New Orleans Carnival [Hardcover]

Reid Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 28, 1995

With this colorful study, Reid Mitchell takes us to Mardi Gras--to a yearly ritual that sweeps the richly multicultural city of New Orleans into a frenzy of parades, pageantry, dance, drunkenness, music, sexual display, and social and political bombast. In All on a Mardi Gras Day Mitchell tells us some of the most intriguing stories of Carnival since 1804. Woven into his narrative are observations of the meaning and messages of Mardi Gras--themes of unity, exclusion, and elitism course through these tales as they do through the Crescent City.

Moving through the decades, Mitchell describes the city's diverse cultures coming together to compete in Carnival performances. We observe powerful social clubs, or krewes, designing their elaborate parade displays and extravagant parties; Creoles and Americans in conflict over whose dances belong in the ballroom; enslaved Africans and African Americans preserving a sense of their heritage in processions and dances; white supremacists battling Reconstruction; working-class blacks creating the flamboyant Krewe of Zulu; the birth and reign of jazz; the gay community holding lavish balls; and of course tourists purchasing an authentic experience according to the dictates of our commercial culture. Interracial friction, nativism, Jim Crow separatism, the hippie movement--Mitchell illuminates the expression of these and other American themes in events ranging from the 1901 formation of the anti-prohibitionist Carrie Nation Club to the controversial 1991 ordinance desegregating Carnival parade krewes.

Through the conflicts, Mitchell asserts, "I see in Mardi Gras much what I hear in a really good jazz band: a model for the just society, the joyous community, the heavenly city...A model for community where individual expression is the basis for social harmony and where continuity is the basis for creativity." All on a Mardi Gras Day journeys into a world where hope persists for a rare balance between diversity and unity.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Mitchell's Mardi Gras observations are indeed "episodic," to the degree that broader claims he may intend to make about carnival?concerning racial stereotyping, the ritualization of violence, and the mixing up of sexual identities?become diluted. But this native is certainly thoroughgoing. Mitchell examines the major parading "krewes" in detail. He traces the evolution of carnival from a strictly Creole cultural phenomenon at the time of the Louisiana Purchase to its acceptance and cooptation by a new Anglo elite to its status today as a megadollar tourist attraction. The most interesting chapter is on the role of the black organization, Zulu, in highlighting tensions not only between black and white New Orleanians but between the Civil Rights generation and an older one of less educated "maskers." Though generally not as interesting as Carol Flake's meditations in New Orleans: Behind the Masks of America's Most Exotic City (LJ 4/15/94), this is recommended for academic folklore and urban anthropology collections.?Scott H. Silverman, Bryn Mawr Coll. Lib., Pa.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

The author is from New Orleans...and places himself within the narrative...This is an excellent illustration of the new type of social history as narrative that fuses sociological and historical motifs. It contributes to this school of historical writing by presenting its stories with clarity and freshness. (Joseph Boskin, Boston University )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (February 28, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067401622X
• ISBN-13: 978-0674016224
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #695,734 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reviews by Redmon, February 2, 2000

By 

David Redmon - See all my reviews

This review is from: All on a Mardi Gras Day: Episodes in the History of New Orleans Carnival (Paperback)

In All on a Mardi Gras Day, Reid Mitchell writes an outstanding book that approaches Mardi Gras from both a historical and cultural perspective. Mitchell's attention to historical details, his courage to make certain claims---and then supporting them by citing references---and his devotion to posing and answering questions using concise and clear paragraphs makes this book a joy to read and accessible to almost anyone!

5 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Mardi Gras is FUN, October 7, 2002

By 

Anonymous (New Orleans) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All on a Mardi Gras Day: Episodes in the History of New Orleans Carnival (Paperback)

Pssssst! Don't tell the author of this book, but Mardi Gras is actually FUN! Reid Mitchell makes it sound like one long dreary class war. And he gets his facts wrong. The chapter about gay Carnival, around p. 144 or so, is full of errors that anybody could have fact-checked for him, and total misunderstandings of the New Orleans community. For example, the Bourbon St. Awards had not been held "at Bourbon and St.Anne" for many and many a year prior to the publication of this book. But the author has axes to grind, and facts aren't going to stand in the way.

Skip the dour, depressing, politically correct social commentary and y'all come to the Mardi Gras, and see for yourself. You will have fun!!!!!!