Customer Reviews

New Orleans after the Promises: Poverty, Citizenship, and the Search for the Great Society

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In order to understand why New Orleans was such a mess when the federal levees broke in 2005 it is necessary to understand the decades of decline the city had undergone. After the Promises sheds light on the changes in the 60's and early 70's, an incredibly tumultuous and defining time for the city, with a strong commitment to detail, however it is marred by the presumptions of its liberal author. The book begins with Johnson's "Great Society " and ends with Marc Essex, the New Orleans sniper; this sort of framing says a lot about the attitude beneath the surface towards the poor and black in New Orleans. Ultimately, it draws questionable conclusions and doesn't look deeply enough at changes such as the decline of the city's port in the falling fortunes of the city.

In the 1960s and 70s New Orleans was transformed by a people who replaced poverty and prejudice with new architecture, a professional football team, and the Superdome. The city's mixed racial groups participated in a golden age of construction at time when liberalism was waning - only to face destruction with Hurricane Katrina. NEW ORLEANS AFTER THE PROMISES details the influences and success story of the last reconstruction period and draws important connections between this and the city's post-Katrina landscape. It's a 'must' for any collection strong in both racial issues in America and histories of either Louisiana or the South as a whole.

I ordered this book. It was a great price, arrived promptly, and was in first rate condition. The book itself is very well researched and competently written. Perhaps the best book on the subject of New Orleans anti-poverty efforts in the 1960s.

A history of modern New Orleans from the 1960's to the present with all its disappointments and reconstruction.