Unfathomable City

Rebecca Solnit is the author of many books, including Savage Dreams, Storming the Gates of Paradise, and Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas, all from UC Press. Rebecca Snedeker is an Emmy Award--winning independent filmmaker and native New Orleanian.

Introduction: Sinking In and Reaching Out Map 1. A City in Time: La Nouvelle-Orleans over 300 Years How New Orleans Happened, by Richard Campanella Map 2. Ebb and Flow: Migrations of the Houma, Erosions of the Coast Southward into Vanishing Lands, by Monique Verdin Map 3. Stationary Revelations: Sites of Contemplation and Delight On a Strange Island, by Billy Sothern Map 4. People Who Here They Come, There They Go, by Lolis Eric Elie Map 5. Moves, Remains: Hiding and Seeking the Dead Bodies, by Nathaniel Rich Map 6. Oil and Water: Extracting Petroleum, Exterminating Nature When They Set the Sea on Fire, by Antonia Juhasz Map 7. Of Levees and Prisons: Failures of Containment, Surges of Freedom Lockdown Louisiana, by Lydia Pelot-Hobbs Map 8. Civil Rights and Lemon Ice: Three Lives in the Old City The Presence of the Past, by Dana Logsdon and Dawn Logsdon Map 9. Sugar Heaven and Sugar Hell: Pleasures and Brutalities of a Commodity No Sweetness Is Light, by Shirley Elizabeth Thompson Map 10. !Bananas! Fruits' Fortunes at the Gate of the Tropics, by Joshua Jelly-Schapiro Map 11. Hot and Steamy: Selling Seafood, Selling Sex Salacious and Crustaceous, by Evan Casper-Futterman Map 12. The Mississippi Is (Not) the Nile: Arab New Orleans, Real and Imagined The Ibis-Headed God of New Orleans, by Khaled Hegazzi and Andy Young Map 13. The Line-Up: Live Oak Corridors and Carnival Parade Routes Sentinels and Celebrants, by Eve Abrams Map 14. Repercussions: Rhythm and Resistance across the Atlantic "It Enriches My Spirit to Be Linked to Such a Deep and Far-Reaching Piece of What This Universe Is": A Conversation with Herreast Harrison and Donald Harrison Jr. Map 15. Thirty-Nine Sundays: Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs Take It to the Streets Rollin' Wid It, by Joel Dinerstein Map 16. Bass Lines: Deep Sounds and Soils The Floating Cushion: George Porter Jr. on the City's Low End Map 17. Where Dey At: Bounce Calls Up a Vanished City A Home in Song, by Garnette Cadogan Map 18. Snakes and Ladders: What Rose Up, What Fell Down During Hurricane Katrina Nothing Was Foreordained, by Rebecca Solnit Map 19. St. Claude Avenue: Loss and Recovery on an Inner-City Artery The Beginning of This Road, by Maurice Carlos Ruffin Map 20. Juju and Cuckoo: Taking Care of Crazy Holding It Together, Falling Apart, by Rebecca Snedeker Map 21 . Lead and Lies: Mouths Full of Poison Charting the Territories of Untruth, by Rebecca Solnit Map 22. Waterland The Cement Lily Pad, by Rebecca Snedeker Acknowledgments Contributors