Why New Orleans Matters (eBook)

Tom Piazzas award-winning portrait of a city in crisis, with a new preface from the author, ten years after.Ten years ago, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the disaster that followed, promises were made, forgotten, and renewed. What would become of New Orleans in the years ahead? How would this city and its people recoverand what meaning would its story have, for America and the world?In Why New Orleans Matters, first published only months after the disaster, award-winning author and longtime New Orleans resident Tom Piazza illuminates the storied culture and still-evolving future of this great and vital American metropolis. Piazza evokes the sensuous textures of the city that gave us jazz music, Creole cooking, and a unique style of living; he examines the citys undercurrents of corruption and racism, and explains how its people endure and transcend them. And, perhaps most important, he bears witness to the citys spirit: its grace and beauty, resilience and soul.In the preface to this new edition, Piazza considers how far the city has come in the decade since Katrina, as well as the challenges it still facesand reminds us that people in threatened communities across America have much to learn from New Orleans disaster and astonishing recovery.