This Book Allowed me to Understand New Orleans in a New Way
This book, as previously noted, is a complex, detailed and enthralling (for history buffs) book that ties together many different historical threads that make up one part of the culture, especially the music culture, of New Orleans. While my heart has gone out to New Orleans and its people since Katrina, this book really made me understand so much more of what makes New Orleans unique, and what the U.S. will lose in losing some of the people who make up New Orleans' culture.

In addition, when recently in New Orleans, we attended a local festival (the Mirliton Festival), and when a local group, 101 Runners, played "Injun" music, I knew exactly what was going on, thanks to Mr. Sublette's book. I felt privileges to see, and be a little part of, this apect of the local culture.

Best History of New Orleans Available
There aren't many good histories of New Orleans available and this is one of the best and most comprehensive (as far as how much of that history it covers...i don't mean to imply it is a complete history) i have come across. For those who know the New Orleans area well, the anecdotes regarding characters who have generally been lost to history for whom bridges, neighborhoods, and streets are named will fascinate and amuse. Overall the information and the reverent tone with which it is presented make this a must read for both citizens and lovers of the City of New Orleans.I have made this a gift for a half dozen friends and family.

Wow!
Sublette has done an amazing job pulling together political, cultural and social elements into a very compelling narrative. And super-informative too. Extremely impressive historical writing (and this is coming from a history major).

I LOVE how international and broad the perspective is. He really illuminates the dynamics of the time in a fantastic and vivid way.
It's seriously among the most readable and thorough books I've read.

A fascinating book but....
as enlightening as it is it has a couple of major problems. It just peters out at the end as if the author lost focus and couldn't figure out what to do about it. The chapter on the "Indians" seemed to be just tacked on! It was as if it was taken from another book. It didn't fit this book at all. Maybe it would have if the author had continued his narritive in a linear fashion. I'm surprised the publisher or editor let this glaring problem go! Also there is the VERY tiresome rehashing of the "Did Tom sire Sally's children " routine. To further the sin the writer uses this as premise to launch into an anti-Jefferson rant. This is amateurish and I'm again surprised the editor didn't rein the author.
Thomas Jefferson had his many flaws as did all the founders but I doubt he was as evil as the author makes him out to be. Other than those problems I enjoyed the book very much!

World That Made New Orleans
Ned Sublette, author of Cuba and Its Music, embarks on a daring undertaking in a detailed and complete history of the Big Easy. Sublette spent the 2004-2005 year in New Orleans, leaving just three months before Hurricane Katrina hit and the levees broke, changing the city forever; making this book all the more meaningful and emotional.

With extensive research, Sublette starts at the very beginning, explaining the topography and geology of the Mississippi River and the substantial yet flooded Mississippi Delta, and how there was simply nothing that could really be built there before the advent of water pumps created the potential for draining of the area. In a time when the land that would one day be Louisiana was being fought over and used by the Spanish, French, and British, while every piece of natural resource in this part of the world was being used for the benefit of the Western World, coupled with the unceasing influx of slaves, a group of settlers began a town that would one day become the great city of New Orleans. Inhabitants included an influx of forced citizens from France consisting of prostitutes and convicts.

From its genesis, New Orleans was composed of an entire world of nationalities, cultures, faiths, and languages. Like the spine of the book, Sublette uses music as the backbone of The World That Made New Orleans, discussing the influences and developments of these different people, many of them slaves. It is a city that, after the catastrophic events of Hurricane Katrina, will never be the same - like New York missing the World Trade Center skyline. Thankfully, Sublette does an incredible job of revealing the many chapters in the history of New Orleans.

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