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Authentic New Orleans: Tourism, Culture, and Race in the Big Easy
Contributor(s): Gotham, Kevin Fox (Author)
ISBN: 0814731856     ISBN-13: 9780814731857
Publisher: New York University Press
OUR PRICE:   $88.11  
Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats
Published: December 2007
Qty:
Annotation: A seminal social and economic history of tourism and travel promotion in New Orleans, covering nearly two centuries from the early 1800s to the present. Authentic New Orleans should instantly become a standard case history in the sociology of tourism.
--John Hannigan, author of "Fantasy City: Pleasure and Profit in the Postmodern Metropolis"

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 of the grit that made it great. He continues with the origins of Carnival and the Mardi Gras celebration in the nineteenth century, showing how, through careful planning and promotion, the city constructed itself as a major tourist attraction. By examining various image-building campaigns and promotional strategies to disseminate a palatable image of New Orleans on a national scale Gotham ultimately establishes New Orleans as one of the originators of the mass tourism industry -- which linked leisure to travel, promoted international expositions, and developed the concept of pleasure travel.

Gotham shows how New Orleans was able to become one of the most popular tourist attractions in the United States, especially through the transformation of Mardi Gras into a national, even international, event. All the while Gotham is concerned with showing the difference betweentourism from above and tourism from below -- that is, how New Orleans distinctiveness is both maximized, some might say exploited, to serve the global economy of tourism as well as how local groups and individuals use tourism to preserve and anchor longstanding communal traditions.
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- History | United States - State & Local - South (al,ar,fl,ga,ky,la,ms,nc,sc,tn,va,wv)
- Business & Economics | Industries - Hospitality, Travel & Tourism
- Business & Economics | Economic History
Dewey: 306.097
LCCN: 2007023495
Physical Information: 0.88" H x 6.56" W x 8.97" (1.09 lbs) 288 pages
Themes:
- Locality - New Orleans, Louisiana
- Geographic Orientation - Louisiana
- Chronological Period - 19th Century
- Chronological Period - 20th Century
- Cultural Region - Deep South
- Cultural Region - Mid-South
- Cultural Region - Southeast U.S.
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

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 of the grit that made it great. He continues with the origins of Carnival and the Mardi Gras celebration in the nineteenth century, showing how, through careful planning and promotion, the city constructed itself as a major tourist attraction. By examining various image-building campaigns and promotional strategies to disseminate a palatable image of New Orleans on a national scale Gotham ultimately establishes New Orleans as one of the originators of the mass tourism industry--which linked leisure to travel, promoted international expositions, and developed the concept of pleasure travel.
Gotham shows how New Orleans was able to become one of the most popular tourist attractions in the United States, especially through the transformation of Mardi Gras into a national, even international, event. All the while Gotham is concerned with showing the difference between tourism from above and tourism from below--that is, how New Orleans' distinctiveness is both maximized, some might say exploited, to serve the global economy of tourism as well as how local groups and individuals use tourism to preserve and anchor longstanding communal traditions.

Contributor Bio(s): Gotham, Kevin Fox: -

Kevin Fox Gotham is Associate Professor of Sociology at Tulane University. He is the author of Race, Real Estate, and Uneven Development: The Kansas City Experience, 1900-2000 and the editor of Critical Perspectives on Urban Redevelopment.