In Louisiana, every bite of food and each turn of phrase is an expression of cultural literacy. Correctly pronouncing "Tchoupitoulas" or "Atchafalaya," knowing the difference between the first Governor Long and the second one, being able to spot the artwork of Caroline Durieux, and honoring the distinction between a Creole and a Cajun roux serve not just as markers of familiarity; they represent acts of preservation. The Louisiana Field Guide: Understanding Life in the Pelican State expand...

Religion in America: The Basics is a concise introduction to the historical development of religions in the United States.It is an invitation to explore the complex tapestry of religious beliefs and practices that shaped life in North America from the colonial encounters of the fifteenth century to the culture wars of the twenty-first century. Far from a people unified around a common understanding of Christianity, Religion in America: The Basics tracks the steady...

From the colonial period to the present, the Mississippi River has impacted religious communities from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. Exploring the religious landscape along the 2,530 miles of the largest river system in North America, the essays in Gods of the Mississippi make a compelling case for American religion in motion—not just from east to west, but also from north to south. With discussion of topics such as the religions of the Black Atlantic, religion and empire, antebellum re...

Exposes the deep Catholic roots of American horrorFrom exorcisms to suffocating catacombs, grinning corpses, and electric holy water, Catholicism and American horror go hand in hand. Body and Blood cuts horror open to reveal how the Catholic tradition has shaped its supernatural and grotesque aesthetics in the modern world.Making the case that it is impossible to understand the enduring popularity of horror without recognizing its religious element...

This book includes a selection of 30 reviewed and enhanced manuscripts published during the 15th SpaceOps Conference held in May 2018 in Marseille, France. The selection was driven by their quality and relevance to the space operations community. The papers represent a cross-section of three main subject areas:Mission Management – management tasks for designing, preparing and operating a particular missionSpacecraft Operations – preparation and implementation of all...

The Oxford History of the United States is by far the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. In this Pulitzer prize-winning, critically acclaimed addition to the series, historian Daniel Walker Howe illuminates the period from the battle of New Orleans to the end of the Mexican-American War, an era when the United States expanded to the Pacific and won control over the richest part of the North American continent. A panoramic narrative, What Hath God Wrought p...

Beneath the surface of the apparently untutored and deceptively frank Abraham Lincoln ran private tunnels of self-taught study, a restless philosophical curiosity, and a profound grasp of the fundamentals of democracy. Now, in Lincoln: A Very Short Introduction, the award-winning Lincoln authority Allen C. Guelzo offers a penetrating look into the mind of one of our greatest presidents. If Lincoln was famous for reading aloud from joke books, Guelzo shows that he also plunged deep...

**Winner of the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award for General NonfictionShortlisted for the 2014 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature**From the revered historian, the long-awaited conclusion of the magisterial history of slavery and emancipation in Western culture that has been nearly fifty years in the making.David Brion Davis is one of the foremost historians of the twentieth century, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Bancroft Priz...

From the seventeenth century Cavaliers and Uncle Tom's Cabin to Civil Rights museums and today's conflicts over the Confederate flag, here is a brilliant portrait of southern identity, served in an engaging blend of history, literature, and popular culture. In this insightful book, written with dry wit and sharp insight, James C. Cobb explains how the South first came to be seen--and then came to see itself--as a region apart from the rest of America. As Cobb demonstrates, the leg...

A "provocative and richly detailed" history of 19th-century America from the age of Jackson to the abandonment of Reconstruction ( Kirkus, starred review).From its shocking curtain-raiser—the conflagration that consumed Lower Manhattan in 1835—to the climactic centennial year of 1876, when Americans staged a corrupt, deadlocked presidential campaign (fought out in Florida), Walter A. McDougall's Throes of Democracy: The American Civil War Era, 1829-1877...

How is it that in America the image of Jesus Christ has been used both to justify the atrocities of white supremacy and to inspire the righteousness of civil rights crusades? In The Color of Christ, Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey weave a tapestry of American dreams and visions — from witch hunts to web pages, Harlem to Hollywood, slave cabins to South Park, Mormon revelations to Indian reservations — to show how Americans remade the Son of God visually time and again into a sacred...

In No Depression in Heaven, Alison Collis Greene demonstrates how the Great Depression and New Deal transformed the relationship between church and state. Grounded in Memphis and the Delta, this book traces the collapse of voluntarism, the link between southern religion and the New Deal, and the gradual alienation of conservative Christianity from the state. At the start of the Great Depression, churches and voluntary societies provided the only significant source of aid for those...