
Inside the Carnival
Unmasking Louisiana Politics
Wayne Parent(Author)
Louisiana State University Press
Published on 5. April 2004
Book
Hardback
208 pages
978-0-8071-2938-8 (ISBN)
Description
In the popular American imagination, Louisiana may come closer than any other state to offering the experience of a foreign culture - a Spanish-moss-draped netherland filled with friendly but vaguely threatening Cajuns, seething creature-infested swamps, the whirling masked chaos of Mardi Gras, seductive N'awlins cadences, and most vividly, even pruriently, the train wreck of Louisiana politics: cash-under-the-table shenanigans, fat and sassy environmental polluters, devil-and-the-deep-blue-sea electoral choices like the 1991 gubernatorial runoff between the Klan-tainted David Duke and the criminally indicated Edwin Edwards. Wayne Parent sees all of this clearly with both an entertainer's eye and a social scientist's rigor. He subjects Louisiana's politics to rational and empirical analysis, seeking and finding coherent reasons for the state's bizarre spectacle without resorting to vague hand-waving about "exoticism," while at the same time bringing to life the juicy stories that illustrate his points. Parent's main theme is that Louisiana's ethnic mix, natural resources, and geography define a culture that in turn produces its unique political theater.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Baton Rouge
United States
Illustrations
14 halftones, 6 maps
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8071-2938-8 (9780807129388)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
09/2006
1st Edition
LSU Press
€61.79
Available for download

E-Book
09/2006
1st Edition
LSU Press
€61.79
Available for download

E-Book
09/2006
Princeton University Press
€19.49
Available for download
Person
Wayne Parent, a native of Louisiana, is chair of the Department of Political Science at Louisiana State University and a frequent resource for regional and national media. He is coeditor of the book Blacks in the American Political System.