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A review by megancmahon
The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
This was a really interesting look at the musical and economic forces that shaped New Orleans. I'd read a lot of fiction about New Orleans and figured it was time to read some nonfiction so I could learn a bit more about the city. This book gives a history of the many forces that came together to make the city, focusing mainly on the large-scale colonial and governmental forces, as well as that various different cultures that contributed to the city's music (this author's main focus).
I was disappointed that this book didn't have more micro, cultural and social history involved - I wanted to learn about the history of Mardi Gras (only really barely touched on), voodoo (more explained, to be fair, and very interesting) and its reputation as a haunted city (only barely touched on but movingly explained as a city haunted by its memory of enslavement, and of the horrors of the massacres in Saint-Domingue).
This book also left a HUGE gap: it began at the very beginning, with the Indigenous folks who lived in the territory, then put a lot of emphasis on the separate cultures that made New Orleans and their various influences (cool but not really what I was looking for) and then, at the start of the Civil War, the author skips to Katrina!! Where is New Orleans during the Jazz Age?? In fact, for much of this book New Orleans isn't really mentioned at all; it's a book about the various forces that contributed to its making but not so much about its current culture.
Also, and more importantly: this is a book about Black American culture. This author is not, himself, Black American - which is fine, but I would have appreciated a positionality statement or an acknowledgment that he was not coming at it as a neutral party (because there are no neutral parties). He was respectful in everything, but I would have appreciated a more concrete statement of this author's relationship with this work and a more clearly decolonial lens. None of this, however, stopped this book from being very interesting and well-researched, even if it skipped what I really wanted to know! The chapters about the Haitian Revolution were particularly awesome, as that's an area of history I don't know very much about.
I was disappointed that this book didn't have more micro, cultural and social history involved - I wanted to learn about the history of Mardi Gras (only really barely touched on), voodoo (more explained, to be fair, and very interesting) and its reputation as a haunted city (only barely touched on but movingly explained as a city haunted by its memory of enslavement, and of the horrors of the massacres in Saint-Domingue).
This book also left a HUGE gap: it began at the very beginning, with the Indigenous folks who lived in the territory, then put a lot of emphasis on the separate cultures that made New Orleans and their various influences (cool but not really what I was looking for) and then, at the start of the Civil War, the author skips to Katrina!! Where is New Orleans during the Jazz Age?? In fact, for much of this book New Orleans isn't really mentioned at all; it's a book about the various forces that contributed to its making but not so much about its current culture.
Also, and more importantly: this is a book about Black American culture. This author is not, himself, Black American - which is fine, but I would have appreciated a positionality statement or an acknowledgment that he was not coming at it as a neutral party (because there are no neutral parties). He was respectful in everything, but I would have appreciated a more concrete statement of this author's relationship with this work and a more clearly decolonial lens. None of this, however, stopped this book from being very interesting and well-researched, even if it skipped what I really wanted to know! The chapters about the Haitian Revolution were particularly awesome, as that's an area of history I don't know very much about.