Mary Lou Widmer

Beautiful Crescent: A History of New Orleans by Joan Garvey is one of the most comprehensive and least, shall, I say, tourist-minded books on the politics, culture, history, and geography of the New Orleans area. I possess the 1988 third edition, but I presume the newer edition goes into Katrina and its effect on the city. I must say that this book is a great resource for middle and high school students to have on the history of the city. Though some might argue that it does not give enough information, I challenge those people to find a more comprehensive book on New Orleans. Perhaps there is more information in electronically archived periodicals, but in terms of a single representation of the city's history, this book is much more informational than your traditional Louisiana history textbook, while remaining accessible to students sixth grade and up. Split up into chapters dealing with the ancient geography of the area, the French, Spanish, and American periods, the civil war, reconstruction, culture, industrialization, and the modern additions to the city, the book is fairly thorough, and my only complaint would be that my edition is older than the newly published revised reprint, which I have yet to survey.… (mehr)

A clear reference book for students, teachers, toursts and native New Orleanians. Beautiful Crescent is a chronologcal history of New Orleans that gives just enough factual political and people history. It has a great list of governors, mayors, and noted personalities. The book includes some black and white photos, sketches, maps, and illustrations. It also has a table of context which begins with how the river played a part in the development of New Orleans then chronological order of periods to today. There is a bibliography, glossary, chronology, lists of noted personalities, governors mayors, directions in New Orleans, Statues and monuments and an index. Ienjoyed learning about how many things came about in New Orleans such as street names. I feel that this book is a must have book for middle and high school teachers. I used it t find information about yellow fever for my book page.… (mehr)