New Orleans: The Making of an Urban Landscape

This classic work in historical geography, first published in 1976 and then issued by the Center for American Places as a Second Edition in 2003, recounts the evolution of New Orleans from its founding as a European city in the early seventeenth century up to the present time, including in this edition updates on how Hurricane Katrina has affected the city. The city’s geographic location — — at the entry to the Mississippi, North America’s largest river — has helped to shape the economic, social, and demographic character of New Orleans for nearly 300 years. In the midst of the Mississippi’s huge, swampy delta, the city’s inhabitants have confronted an array of seemingly impossible environmental challenges. In meeting them, the city’s diverse ethnic groups — French, Spanish, Anglo-American, and African American residents — created a place with a history and culture unlike any other in North America. Here presented in a Third Edition that includes new material and photographs on the effects of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans: The Making of an Urban Landscape tells the story of how this remarkable city acquired its special personality and geographic shape, and what challenges now lie ahead for its civic revival.

Distributed for the Center for American Places