Suggested Reading List
Cajun Country
Author: Barry Ancelet, Glen Pitre, Jay Edwards
Description: An insightful study of the people of south Louisiana. It examines their traditional culture and its impact on modern ways.
Cajun Music: Its Origins and Development
Author: Barry Jean Ancelet
Description: Author Barry Ancelet examines the multicultural and multiracial origins of Cajun music, the major figures in the music's development and the circumstances which caused these diverse musical strains to fuse into the the culture's present musical repertoire. Ancelet also traces the evolution of the traditional French ballads that the Acadian settlers took with them to Canada and the songs that the Acadians sang during their years of exile, as well as describes the new musical influences that were encountered in Louisiana.
Stir the Pot: The History of Cajun Cuisine
Author: Marcelle Bienvenu, Carl A. Brasseaux and Ryan Brasseaux
Description: Interesting read on how the cuisine developed in south Louisiana. Will appeal to foodies as well as history buffs.
Founding of New Acadia: The Beginnings of Acadian Life in Louisiana, 1765-1803
Author: Carl A. Brasseaux
Description: Founding of New Acadia is about the Acadian people that had to live in one of America's colonies in Louisiana during the 18th-19th centuries. The Acadians, who lived in modern day Nova Scotia, would not side with the French or the British, and remained neutral, therefore, the British exiled first the men then women and children from their home of Acadia to the colonies of America throughout New England, Virginia, and what this book focuses on, Louisiana. Their life in Louisiana has brought many influences including one of it's most famous, modern day Cajun.
French, Cajun, Creole, Houma: A Primer on Francophone Louisiana
Author: Carl A. Brasseaux
Description: In recent years, ethnographers have recognized south Louisiana as home to perhaps the most complex rural society in North America. More than a dozen French-speaking immigrant groups have been identified there, Cajuns and white Creoles being the most famous. In this guide to the amazing social, cultural, and linguistic variation within Louisianas French-speaking region, Carl A. Brasseaux presents an overview of the origins and evolution of all the Francophone communities.
Scattered to the Wind: Dispersal and Wanderings of the Acadians, 1755-1809
Author: Carl A. Brasseaux
Description: The dispersal of the Acadian populationperhaps better known to historians as the Grand Drangementis unquestionably the pivotal event in Acadian history. Longfellow attempted to portray the tragic consequences of the deportation of the Acadian population from the Bay of Fundy Basic through his epic Evangeline, but the narrow focus of this work failed to convey the magnitude of the disruption and the resulting misery upon the Acadian population. Scholarly works dealing with the Acadian dispersal have also tended to focus on one group, or one aspect of this historical event. Scattered to the Wind fills the resulting need for an overview of the tragic episode, providing detailed accounts of the dispersal, Acadian life during the exile, the ensuing migrations, and the ultimate transplantation of various Acadian groups in widely separated geographic areas. Segments of the booklet examine the impact of the Grand Drangement, the dispersal, Acadians in each of the Eastern seaboard colonies, as well as post-dispersal Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Madawaska (Maine), England, France, Saint-Domingue, Martinique, French Guiana, the Falkland Islands, St. Pierre, Miquelon, and Louisiana. This short monograph also examines little known late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Acadian migrations to the lower Mississippi Valley. This fully documented narrative will provide engrossing reading for genealogists, history buffs, and anyone interested in Louisiana's Acadian heritage.
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