Customer Reviews

Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six

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Jordan Flaherty has written an absolutely compelling and essential book for anyone interested in contemporary politics of resistance. What I really love about the book is that it offers a wonderful and oft-missing perspective on the sorts of activist projects that are going on *right now* that are doing the hard work of thinking how our world could be otherwise.

I read a lot of books that give important insight into how things got to be this way, why they are the way they are, why what makes some inequalities so dang persistent. This book *does* give important histories in this respect, but it also points us forward. And not speculatively--there's real change happening, and this book shows us where, how, and why.

This book is of particular interest to those who understand the importance of reckoning with the vital questions raised by the history, present, and future of New Orleans. In other words, this is a book for all of us. The writing style is engaging and breezy even as it is serious. I am using this book in my college courses this year (I'm a professor), and I think it would make an excellent addition to any syllabus in American studies, gender and sexuality studies, sociology, political science, or ethnic studies. I'm excited to share with my students some concrete answers to those questions they always ask: what are we supposed to *do*???

Jordan Flaherty's "Floodlines" is a compelling history of New Orleans: prior to Katrina the nation's sole majority African American city with all the beauty and culture generated from creative resistance to America's vicious history of white supremacy. Each page is a revelation of information you will not hear in the national corporate media coverage of New Orleans before, during after Katrina. For example, Flaherty describes former Governor Blanco's televised plea to the people of Louisiana to "pray" the storm down to a Category 2. And though the storm did loss energy in the Gulf before coming ashore with Category 2 winds (NOT Category 5 as widely reported) the levees failed despite being certified by the US Army Corp of Engineers to hold back a Category 3 storm surge. Other revelations include the gross incompetence of a coroner with no pathology training, police assaults on community organizers, etc. My favorite aspect of the book was the description of Mardi Gras, often portrayed as a drunken privileged white fraternity party. The Native American and African American roots of Mardi Gras and it's cultural significance as a form of resistance to racism is not widely acknowledged. I highly recommend this book, for as Flaherty so eloquently states: "continued silence diminishes us all."

It's rare to stumble across a nearly-contemporaneous record of events which also effectively grounds them in their historical context. Intelligent, well-written, and both passionate and compassionate, Flaherty's account of community response to astonishing failures of governmental action is packed with inside details -- yet is also so concise, well-written and persuasive it will appeal to people well outside the movement it documents.

Jordan Flaherty brings this one straight to your front door. If you survived the long "Road Home" you will want to read this inside story of all we heard about in soundbites. And all we missed!

Jordan Flaherty's Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six was an eye opening and pleasurable read examining the intersections of race, class, gender, immigration status, etc. and the roles they have played and continue to play in community, culture, organizing and resistance in the New Orleans gulf coast area.

An inspiring "must read" for activists, scholars, organizers, NOLA residents, those impacted by Katrina or other natural disasters, those impacted by systemic and institutional oppression, and those who are curious about the vibrant community of New Orleans.

Floodlines is a bracing, insightful and, ultimately, frustrating read as Jordon Flaherty's paper documentary pulls the curtain back on the systemic issues that turned Hurricane Katrina into much more than a natural disaster. He explores the history of New Orleans and the surrounding region, weaving a variety of compelling individual stories and noteworthy events, before and after Katrina, that illustrate the long-standing socio-political inequities that were fully exposed in the weeks, months, and sadly, years after the flood waters receded.

Where Zeitoun zoomed in on New Orleans with a very personal, Katrina-filtered lens, Floodlines pulls the camera back to show the bigger picture, and it's not always a pretty one. The two books complement each other well and should be read together as they offer the slightest glimmers of hope that something good might eventually come from a disaster whose enormity and repercussions are still difficult to fully grasp.

Recommended!

Your top 10 books to read list should include Floodlines, by Jordan Flaherty. The book is a masterpiece, a must read for anyone who wants to know the hard truths buried beneath sensational headlines about New Orleans. Flaherty's subtitle is "Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six". His writing has been forcing news and information about such topics upstream to the masses who deserve to know the real story of New Orleans, and the battle for democracy going on there. The book is designed not just for progressives, but for the majority of Americans who are not in the top one percent of wage earners. The activists described here are working for the kind of change promised by President Obama, but not yet delivered. These detailed stories of activists seeking changes in housing, education, and the criminal justice system, are inspiring, and Jordan Flaherty's treatment of them make him a significant author for our times. Put this book on your must read list, your Christmas list, your suggestions to library's list, or on your syllabus. Dori Smith, Talk Nation Radio

FLOODLINES: COMMUNITY AND RESISTANCE FROM KATRINA TO THE JENA SIX provides an outstanding firsthand approach of race and community struggles in New Orleans. The stories of public housing residents, Mardi Gras Indians, Arab immigrants and activities are woven into a survey of post-Katrina issues in a compelling social issues saga highly recommended for any collection strong in minority group social change, from college to general lending libraries.

I was forced to read this book for a class I am taking, and the thing that really ticked me off was that the book was messed up because of the publisher. Several chapters were missing, and a few chapters were printed twice, and some of the chapters were out of order.
I expected it to be a left-leaning book as I am reading it for a college course taught by a radical democrat, but come on! My biggest problem was the slanderous accusations made by Flaherty against members of the NOPD. I would not be surprised if he had a lawsuit brought against him.
Overall, if you are not forced to read this book for a college course, I wouldn't buy it. Even if you have to read it for a college course, check the library first. This book is just not worth spending any money on.