Introduction : authentic New Orleans -- Processions and parades : Carnival krewes and the development of modern Mardi Gras -- "Of incomprehensible magnitude and bewildering variety" : the 1884 World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition -- Authenticity in black and white : the rise of tourism in the twentieth century -- Boosting the Big Easy : New Orleans goes global -- From a culture of tourism to a touristic culture : the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition and the holy trinity of New Orleans tourism -- A repertoire of authenticity : contested space and transformation of the French Quarter -- "The greatest free show on earth" : intimations and antinomies of commodification and Carnival -- Conclusion : the future of New Orleans
Summary
Honorable Mention for the 2008 Robert Park Outstanding Book Award given by the ASA's Community and Urban Sociology Section. Mardi Gras, jazz, voodoo, gumbo, Bourbon Street, the French Quarter--all evoke that place that is unlike any other: New Orleans. In Authentic New Orleans, Kevin Fox Gotham explains how New Orleans became a tourist town, a spectacular locale known as much for its excesses as for its quirky Southern charm. Gotham begins in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina amid the whirlwind of speculation about the rebuilding of the city and the dread of outsiders wiping New Orleans clean
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-269) and index
