French Colonial Louisiana and the Atlantic World - by Bradley G Bond (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

French colonial Louisiana has failed to occupy a place in the historic consciousness of the United States, perhaps owing to its short duration (1699--1762) and its standing outside the dominant narrative of the British colonies in North America. This anthology seeks to locate early Louisiana in its proper place, bringing together a broad range of scholarship that depicts a complex and vibrant sphere.
Colonial Louisiana comprised the vast center of what would become the United States. It lay between Spanish, British, and French colonies in North America and the Caribbean, and between woodland and eastern plains Indians. As such, it provided a meeting place for Europeans, Africans, and native Americans, functioning as a crossroads between the New World and other worlds. While acknowledging colonial Louisiana's peripheral position in U.S. and Atlantic World history, this volume demonstrates that the colony stands at the thematic center of the shared narratives and historiographies of diverse places. Through its twelve essays, French Colonial Louisiana and the Atlantic World tells a whole story, the story of a place that belongs to the historic narrative of the Atlantic World.

Review Quotes

"A monumental work of collaborative scholarship that demonstrates why French colonial Louisiana has become so vital to the study of early America. It broadens our understanding of Louisiana beyond the lower Mississippi valley and helps connect the various regions of the colony to each other and to American history overall."

About the Author

Bradley G. Bond is the author of Political Culture in the Nineteenth-Century South: Mississippi, 1830--1900 and the editor of Mississippi: A Documentary History. He is a professor of history at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.