LSU Faculty Published Books

Printing is not supported at the primary Gallery Thumbnail page. Please first navigate to a specific Image before printing.

Switch View to Grid View Slideshow

Becoming Ronald Reagan: The Rise of a Conservative Icon

2019
Robert Mann

In the 1960s transitioning from acting to politics was rare. Ronald Reagan was not the first to do it, but he was the first to jump from the screen to the stump and on to credibility as a presidential contender. Reagan's transformation from struggling liberal actor to influential conservative spokesman in five years--and then to the California governorship six years later--is a remarkable and compelling story.

In Becoming Ronald Reagan Robert Mann explores Reagan's early life and his career during the 1950s and early 1960s: his growing desire for acclaim in high school and college, his political awakening as a young Hollywood actor, his ideological evolution in the 1950s as he traveled the country for General Electric, the refining of his political skills during this period, his growing aversion to big government, and his disdain for the totalitarian leaders in the Soviet Union and elsewhere. All these experiences and more shaped Reagan's politics and influenced his career as an elected official.

Mann not only demonstrates how Reagan the actor became Reagan the political leader and how the liberal became a conservative, he also shows how the skills Reagan learned and the lessons he absorbed from 1954 to 1964 made him the inspiring leader so many Americans remember and revere to this day. Becoming Ronald Reagan is an indelible portrait of a true American icon and a politician like none other.
Black Community Uplift and the Myth of the American Dream

2019
Lori Latrice Martin

The book uses the politics of respectability concept as an appropriate framework to show why racial disparities between black and white people in America persist. The politics of respectability originated with black Baptist women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sadly, the politics of respectability is under utilized and often confused with respectability politics. The book using the politics of respectability to examine three important myths: the myth of the American Dream, the myth of America as a meritocracy, and the model minority myth. Additionally, the politics of respectability is used to understand #BlackLivesMatter and recent NFL protests led by Colin Kaepernick.
Black Women as Leaders: Challenging and Transforming Society

2019
Lori Latrice Martin

This book examines how black women have identified challenges in major social institutions across history and demonstrated adaptive leadership in mobilizing people to tackle those challenges facing black communities.Most studies about black women and social justice issues focus on the responses of black women to racism within the context of the feminist movement and/or the responses of black women to sexism in black liberation movements. Such discussions often fail to explore the ways in which black women's commitment to negotiating their racial, gender, and class identities, while engaged in the practice of leadership, is discouraged and ignored. Black Women as Leaders analyzes the commitment of contemporary black women to social justice issues from the perspective of adaptive leadership. It shows how black women are often forced into the public practice of leadership due to violent attacks from people with whom they are in engaged in interpersonal relationships. The book also breaks new ground by revealing how black women suffer from the devaluation and vilification of their engagement in the practice of leadership in private settings, such as their homes and selected religious and institutional settings.
Handbook of Intellectual Disabilities: Integrating Theory, Research, and Practice

2019
Johnny L. Matson

This handbook offers a comprehensive review of intellectual disabilities (ID). It examines historical perspectives and foundational principles in the field. The handbook addresses philosophy of care for individuals with ID, as well as parent and professional issues and organizations, staffing, and working on multidisciplinary teams. Chapters explore issues of client protection, risk factors of ID, basic research issues, and legal concerns. In addition, chapters include information on evidence-based assessments and innovative treatments to address a variety of behaviors associated with ID. The handbook provides an in-depth analysis of comorbid physical disorders, such as cerebral palsy, epilepsy and seizures, and developmental coordination disorders (DCD), in relation to ID.
Topics featured in this handbook include: Informed consent and the enablement of persons with ID. The responsible use of restraint and seclusion as a protective measure. Vocational training and job preparation programs that assist individuals with ID. Psychological and educational approaches to the treatment of aggression and tantrums. Emerging technologies that support learning for students with ID. Key sexuality and relationship issues that are faced by individuals with ID. Effective approaches to weight management for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The Handbook of Intellectual Disabilities is an essential reference for researchers, graduate students, clinicians and related therapists and professionals in clinical child and school psychology, pediatrics, social work, developmental psychology, behavioral therapy/rehabilitation, child and adolescent psychiatry, and special education.
Maya Salt Works

2019
Heather Irene McKillop

n Maya Salt Works, Heather McKillop details her archaeological team's groundbreaking discovery of a unique and massive salt production complex submerged in a lagoon in southern Belize. Exploring the organization of production and trade at the Paynes Creek Salt Works, McKillop offers a fascinating new look at the role of salt in the ancient Maya economy.

McKillop maps over 4,042 wooden posts and wedges, the first known wooden structures preserved underwater from the Classic period, describing new methods of underwater archaeology developed specifically for this shallow maritime setting. She explains the technology of salt production, examining fragments of briquetage?the pots that boiled brine over fires in the kitchens. McKillop theorizes that different households operated different salt kitchens and distributed their goods via canoe to sell at marketplaces at nearby inland cities.

By evaluating the scale, concentration, intensity, and context of the Paynes Creek Salt Works, McKillop provides a model for interpreting existing salt works sites as well as future discoveries along the Yucatan Peninsula.

A volume in the series Maya Studies, edited by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase.
Public Relations and Journalism in Times of Crisis: A Symbiotic Partnership

2019
Andrea Miller and Jinx Coleman Broussard

Public Relations and Journalism in Times of Crisis dissects crisis communication case studies from both the journalists' and the public relations professionals' perspectives. The authors, Andrea Miller, a former journalist, and Jinx Coleman Broussard, a former public relations professional, interviewed dozens of journalists and PR professionals involved in some of the most visible crises of the last few years: Hurricane Katrina, Ebola in America, the Blue Bell Ice Cream recall, Susan G. Komen vs. Planned Parenthood, race relations in Ferguson, Missouri, and at the University of Missouri, the great flood of Baton Rouge in 2016, and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Hundreds of press releases and press stories were also reviewed. The authors provide practical strategies for working journalists and public relations practitioners to enhance the flow of information in a crisis so that audiences and stakeholders can make educated, rational decisions to protect their families and livelihoods. The book also acquaints professors and students of PR and journalism with the realities of covering and managing crises, including what works and why, as well as mistakes that occur that could damage their organizations. Public Relations and Journalism in Times of Crisis is unique for its analysis of the communication of cases from both perspectives. At the end of each case are takeaways for both sets of professionals, as well as industry best practice suggestions.
Edges of the State

2019
John Protevi

Using philosophical and scientific work to engage the perennial question of human nature

This book takes a look at the formation, and edges, of states: their breakdowns and attempts to repair them, and their encounters with non-state peoples. It draws upon anthropology, political philosophy, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, child developmental psychology, and other fields to look at states as projects of constructing "bodies politic," where the civic and the somatic intersect. John Protevi asserts that humans are predisposed to "prosociality," or being emotionally invested in social partners and patterns. With readings from Jean-Jacques Rousseau and James C. Scott; a critique of the assumption of widespread pre-state warfare as a selection pressure for the evolution of human prosociality and altruism; and an examination of the different "economies of violence" of state and non-state societies, Edges of the State sketches a notion of prosocial human nature and its attendant normative maxims.
Technology Leadership for Innovation in Higher Education

2019
Yufeng Qian

Higher education today faces several challenges including soaring cost, rising student debt, declining state support, and a staggering dropout rate. Digital technology enables numerous paths to innovation and promising solutions to these crises in higher education. However, few efforts have been made to look into the dynamic relationship between technology, innovation, and leadership and how they work together to transform teaching and learning, campus life, student service and support, administration, and university advancement. Technology Leadership for Innovation in Higher Education is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on the intersection of technology, innovation, and leadership in higher education by examining the role of technology in activating, promoting, and accelerating innovation and by identifying challenges regarding technology leadership. While highlighting topics such as blended teaching, faculty development, and university advancement, this publication is ideally designed for teachers, principals, educational and IT management and staff, researchers, students, and stakeholders in higher education seeking current research on critical leadership dimensions required for effective education leaders.
Global Perspectives on Issues and Solutions in Urban Education

2019
Petra A. Robinson

In 2014, The Urban Education Collaborative at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte hosted its first biennial International Conference on Urban Education (ICUE) in Montego Bay, Jamaica. In 2016, the second hosting of the conference took place in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Additionally, in 2018, the third hosting of the conference took place in Nassau, Bahamas. These solution-focused conferences brought together students, teachers, scholars, public sector and business professionals as well as others from around the world to present their research and best practices on various topics pertaining to urban education.

With ICUE's inspiration, this book is a response to the growing need to highlight the multifaceted aspects of urban education particularly focusing on common issues and solutions in urban environments (e.g., family and community engagement, student academic achievement, teacher preparation and professional development, targeted instructional and disciplinary interventions, opportunity gaps, culturally-relevant and sustaining practices, etc.). Additionally, with this book, we seek to better understand the challenges facing urban educators and students and to offer progressive initiatives toward resolutions.

This unique compilation of work is organized under four major themes all targeted at critically addressing concerns that may inhibit the success of urban learners and providing solutions that have implications for curriculum design, development, and delivery; teacher preparation and teaching diverse populations; career readiness and employment; and even more nuanced issues related to foster care, undocumented students and mental health, sustainable consumption, childhood marriage, food deserts, and marine life and urban communities.
History of Voice Pedagogy: Multidisciplinary Reflections on Training

2019
Rockford Sansom

This ambitious publication draws from the knowledge and expertise of leading international figures in voice training in order to examine the history of the voice from an interdisciplinary perspective.

The book explores the historical arc of various voice training disciplines and highlights significant people and events within the field. It is written by voice specialists from a variety of backgrounds, including singing, actor training, public speaking, and voice science. These contributors explore how voice pedagogy came to be, how it has organized itself as a profession, how it has dealt with challenges, and how it can develop still.

Covering a variety of voice training disciplines, this book will be of interest to those studying voice and speech, as well as researchers from the fields of rhetoric, music and performance. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Voice and Speech Review journal.
The Cambridge History of the American Civil War

2019
Aaron Charles Sheehan-Dean

The Cambridge History of the American Civil War provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of the American Civil War. With contributions from over seventy-five leading historians of the Civil War, the three-volume reference work investigates the full range of human experiences and outcomes in this most transformative moment in American and global history. Volume 1 is organized around military affairs, assessing major battles and campaigns of the conflict. Volume 2 explores political and social affairs, conveying the experiences of millions of Americans who lived outside the major campaign zones in both the North and South. Volume 3 examines cultural and intellectual affairs, considering how the War's duration, scale, and intensity drove Americans to question how they understood themselves as people. The volumes conclude with an assessment of the legacies of the Civil War, demonstrating that its impact on American life shaped the country in the decades long after the end of the War.
Surface Production Operations: Pumps and Compressors

2019
Maurice Stewart

or over thirty years, the Surface Production Operations Series has taken the guess work out of the design, selection, installation, operation, testing, and troubleshooting of surface production equipment. The fourth volume in this series, Pumps and Compressors is directed to both entry-level personnel and practicing professionals looking for an up-to-date reference book on managing, evaluating, sizing, selecting, installing, operating and maintaining pump and compressor systems. Packed with examples drawn from years of design and field experience, this reference features many charts, tables, equations, diagrams, and photographs to illustrate the basic applications including pump hydraulics, centrifugal and reciprocating compressor applications, compressor performance maps, pump performance curves, pump and compressor testing and installation, and many more critical topics. Packed with practical solutions Surface Production Operations: Pumps and Compressors delivers an essential design and specification reference for today's engineers.

Covers application and performance considerations for all types of pumps and compressors Delivers hands-on manual for applying mechanical and physical principles to select and design pump and compressor systems, supported by many tables and diagrams Gives expert advice on how to apply design codes and standards such as API 610, API 674, ANSI B78.1, API 617, API 11P, API RP 14C and the Hydraulic Institute
Self-Portrait in Three Colors: Gregory of Nazianzus's Epistolary Autobiography

2019
Bradley K. Storin

A seminal figure in late antique Christianity and Christian orthodoxy, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus published a collection of more than 240 letters. Whereas these letters have often been cast aside as readers turn to his theological orations or autobiographical poetry for insight into his life, thought, and times, Self-Portrait in Three Colors focuses squarely on them, building a provocative case that the finalized collection constitutes not an epistolary archive but an autobiography in epistolary form--a single text composed to secure his status among provincial contemporaries and later generations. Shedding light on late-ancient letter writing, fourth-century Christian intelligentsia, Christianity and classical culture, and the Christianization of Roman society, these letters offer a fascinating and unique view of Gregory's life, engagement with literary culture, and leadership in the church. As a single unit, this autobiographical epistolary collection proved a powerful tool in Gregory's attempts to govern the contours of his authorial image as well as his provincial and ecclesiastical legacy.
Handbook of Nonlocal Continuum Mechanics for Materials and Structures

2019
George Z. Voyiadjis

This handbook covers all areas of nonlocal continuum mechanics including theoretical aspects, computational procedures, and experimental advances. The multidisciplinary scope of articles that comprise this reference are written by internationally recognized experts in the field and stand as the most-up-to-date, established knowledge base on using nonlocal continuum mechanics to characterize material behavior for advanced composites and nano-materials, as well as for engineering scale structures. The handbook is at once a comprehensive reference for academic researchers and engineers in industry concerned with nonlocal continuum mechanics for materials and structures as well as a supplement for graduate courses on a range of topics.
Side Effects in Plasticity: From Macro to Nano

2019
George Z. Voyiadjis

Size Effects in Plasticity: From Macro to Nano provides concise explanations of all available methods in this area, from atomistic simulation, to non-local continuum models to capture size effects. It then compares their applicability to a wide range of research scenarios. This essential guide addresses basic principles, numerical issues and computation, applications and provides code which readers can use in their own modeling projects. Researchers in the fields of computational mechanics, materials science and engineering will find this to be an ideal resource when they address the size effects observed in deformation mechanisms and strengths of various materials.
Broadening Participation in STEM: Effective Methods, Practices, and Programs

2019
Zayika S. Wilson-Kennedy and Eugene Kennedy

U.S. students exit undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs at alarming rates. Less than 50 percent of the undergraduate students who enter STEM degree programs as aspiring freshmen complete degrees in these areas. This is especially true for minorities, whose departure from STEM degree programs is often twice the rate of others. Broadening Participation in STEM features chapters from developers of high impact educational practices and programs that have been effective at broadening the participation of underrepresented groups in the STEM disciplines. It explores strategies used with special populations of STEM aspirants including minority groups such as African Americans, Latino Americans, and Native Americans; persons from economically disadvantaged background; and persons with disabilities. This volume contributes to national knowledge of best practices in educating underrepresented students aspiring to STEM careers. This book provides campus-based faculty, administrators, and diversity professionals with a guide that can be used to develop programs designed to address specific student success and inclusion goals in STEM programs.
Routledge Companion to Shen Congwen

2019
Gang Zhou

This volume is about studies of Shen Congwen (1902-1988), one of the most important writers in modern China, but more importantly, it is about how Shen Congwen has been received in and beyond Mainland China. By presenting the best literary criticism on Shen Congwen in Mainland China over the past eighty years, and views of how Shen Congwen has been understood, interpreted, and appreciated in Japan, the US, France, and other European countries, the editors propose a new way to approach the topics of canonic writers, modern Chinese literature, and world literature.

This is itself a translated project. Its Chinese edition appeared in May 2017. The bilingual rendering of the best criticism of Shen Congwen from a global perspective intends to initiate and advance dialogues between Chinese- and English- language scholarly communities. We strive to explore the complexities of "worldwide" images and interpretations of Shen Congwen. By calling attention to the foreign spaces into which overseas Shen Congwens and modern Chinese literature are reborn as world literature, we acknowledge and celebrate the study of Shen Congwen and modern Chinese literature as ongoing and endless cross-cultural dialogues and manifestations

By calling attention to the foreign spaces into which overseas Shen Congwens and modern Chinese literature are reborn as world literature, we acknowledge and celebrate the study of Shen Congwen and modern Chinese literature as ongoing and endless cross-cultural dialogues and manifestations
Advances in Analysis and Design of Deep Foundations

2018
Murad Abu-Farsakh

This volume on "Advances in Analysis and Design of Deep Foundations" contains 22 technical papers which cover various aspects of analysis and design of deep foundations based on full-scale field testing, numerical modeling, and analytical solutions. The technical papers are 8-10 pages long that present the results and findings from research as well as practical-oriented studies on deep foundations that are of interest to civil/geotechnical engineering community. The topics cover a wide spectrum of applications that include evaluation of the axial and lateral capacity of piles, pile group effects, evaluation of the increase in pile capacity with time (or pile setup), influence of excavation on pile capacity, study the behavior of pile raft caisson foundations, evaluate the bearing capacity and settlement of piles from cone penetration tests, etc. This volume is part of the proceedings of the 1st GeoMEast International Congress and Exhibition on Sustainable Civil Infrastructures, Egypt 2017.
Wind Engineering for Natural Hazards: Modeling, Simulation, and Mitigation of Windstorm Impact on Critical Infrastructure

2018
Aly Mousaad Aly

Selected papers from presentations at the EMI 2016 conference held at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, May 22-25, 2016

Are engineers ready to design and build critical infrastructure to withstand the fury of windstorms? Are the current structures safe, and what does it take to make them more reliable against extreme winds?

Wind Engineering for Natural Hazards: Modeling, Simulation, and Mitigation of Windstorm Impact on Critical Infrastructure addresses the challenges of understanding and mitigating windstorm impact on high-rise buildings, long-span bridges, power transmission lines, and other critical infrastructure.

Topics in this Trends in Engineering Mechanics Special Publication (TEMSP) include

Optimal design wind loads Simulation of stochastic dynamics of high-rise buildings under turbulent winds, Performance-based design, Wind fairings and wind-adaptable design, Wind response control with tuned mass dampers, Wind induced vibrations in bridge cables, Bridge deck shape and aerodynamic stability, Downburst-induced forces for transmission lines, Laboratory simulation of tornado-like vortices, and Atmospherics boundary layer computational simulation.

TEMSP 3 provides up-to-date content in wind engineering research for engineers and scientists working to develop a more resilient and sustainable built environment.
Early Modern English Literature and the Poetics of Cartographic Anxiety

2018
Chris Barrett

The Cartographic Revolution in the Renaissance made maps newly precise, newly affordable, and newly ubiquitous. In sixteenth-century Britain, cartographic materials went from rarity to household decor within a single lifetime, and they delighted, inspired, and fascinated people across thesocioeconomic spectrum. At the same time, they also unsettled, upset, disturbed, and sometimes angered their early modern readers. Early Modern English Literature and the Poetics of Cartographic Anxiety is the first monograph dedicated to recovering the shadow history of the many anxieties provokedby early modern maps and mapping in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.A product of a military arms race, often deployed for security and surveillance purposes, and fundamentally distortive of their subjects, maps provoked suspicion, unease, and even hostility in early modern Britain (in ways not dissimilar from the anxieties provoked by global positioning-enableddigital mapping in the twenty-first century). At the same time, writers saw in the resistance to cartographic logics and strategies the opportunity to rethink the way literature represents space - and everything else. This volume explores three major poems of the period - Edmund Spenser's The FaerieQueene (1590, 1596), Michael Drayton's Poly-Olbion (1612, 1622), and John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667, 1674) - in terms of their vexed and vexing relationships with cartographic materials, and shows how the productive protest staged by these texts redefined concepts of allegory, description,personification, bibliographic materiality, narrative, temporality, analogy, and other elemental components of literary representations.
Controversies on Campus : Debating the Issues Confronting American Universities in the 21st Century

2018
Joy L. Blanchard

Providing a comprehensive review of pressing issues roiling American college campuses today, this book is a valuable resource for students and scholars alike. People often refer to America's colleges and universities as "Ivory Towers," a term that implies that campuses are innocent places of study largely insulated from wider societal concerns. In actuality, our nation's universities are hotbeds of controversy. Some of these sources of heated debate relate directly to access to the college experience, such as the rising cost of tuition and admission policies related to student diversity. Others reflect wider societal schisms, such as divisions over sexual assault (both causes and responses) and "political correctness." Controversies on Campus: Debating the Issues Confronting American Universities in the 21st Century examines the myriad controversies regarding today's college campuses and student bodies, such as tuition costs, campus rape, academic freedom/free speech, gun policies, binge drinking, "hook-up" culture, corporatization of academic research, poverty-level wages of adjunct faculty, and student-athletes in the era of big-money amateur sports. The book objectively examines these issues and others, taking care to not only present up-to-date quantifiable data to help readers understand the controversy but also to provide a fair and impartial summary of perspectives on the issue in question. It is a one-stop resource for learning about a wide range of issues and controversies confronting American colleges and universities and the people--students, professors, and administrators--who comprise those communities.
Serving the Stigmatized: Working Within the Incarcerated Environment

2018
Wesley T. Church

America's incarceration rate was roughly constant from 1925 to 1973, with an average of 110 people behind bars for every 100,000 residents. By 2013, however, the rate of incarceration in state and federal prisons had increased sevenfold to 716. Compared with 102 for Canada, 132 for England andWales, 85 for France, and a paltry 48 in Japan, the United States is the worlds' most aggressive jailer. When one factors in those on parole or probation, the American correctional system is in control of more than 7.3 million Americans, or one in every 31 U.S. adults. This means that 6.7 millionadult men and women - about 3.1 percent of the total U.S. adult population - are now very non-voluntary members of America's "correctional community."Some key questions that need to be addressed are: "What are we doing with those 7.3 million Americans? How are they being treated while they are incarcerated? How can we best prepare them to return to their communities?" More than 650,000 offenders are released back into our communities every year;however, 70% are rearrested within three years of their release. Serving the Stigmatized is the first book of its kind that explores best practices when dealing with a specific prison population while under some form of institutional control. If the established goal of a correctional facility is to"rehabilitate," then it is imperative that the rehabilitation is effective and does not simply serve as a political buzz word. The timing of releasing this book coincides with a real movement in the United States, supported by both conservative and liberal advocates and foundations, to decrease thesize of the prison population by returning more offenders to their communities. The text examines 14 specific populations and how to effectively treat them in order to better serve them and our communities.
Project Management in the Library Workplace

2018
Alice Daugherty

An important component of library administration and organization in the modern age is managing projects. Once the realm of technology and business gurus, formal project management tools, techniques and schemas have become more commonplace in libraries. Using formal project management components can help libraries achieve their desired outcomes with less stress for employees. However, there can be an entry barrier to project management, since the concepts are still somewhat out of the range of the usual library administration experience. This volume of Advances in Library Administration and Organization attempts to put project management into the toolboxes of library administrators through overviews of concepts, analyses of experiences, and forecasts for the use of project management within the profession.
Mississippi Delta Restoration: Pathways to a Sustainable Future

2018
John W. Day

This book is a new and provocative treatment dealing with and defining sustainable pathways for the restoration of the Mississippi Delta. Based on a consideration of natural functioning of the Mississippi delta, factors that led to its severe deterioration, and major global trajectories of the 21st century, the authors investigate possible future pathways for sustainable management of the delta. They consider current conditions as well as future trajectories of climate and energy and resource scarcity. The book concludes that without profound changes of how humans live in and manage the delta, sustainability of the delta will be profoundly compromised.
Speaking French in Louisiana, 1720-1955: Linguistic Practices of the Catholic Church

2018
Sylvie Dubois and Malcolm Richardson

Over the course of its three-hundred-year history, the Catholic Church in Louisiana witnessed a prolonged shift from French to English, with some south Louisiana churches continuing to prepare marriage, baptism, and burial records in French as late as the mid-twentieth century. Speaking French in Louisiana, 1720?1955 navigates a complex and lengthy process, presenting a nuanced picture of language change within the Church and situating its practices within the state?s sociolinguistic evolution.

Mining three centuries of evidence from the Archdiocese of New Orleans archives, the authors discover proof of an extraordinary one-hundred-year rise and fall of bilingualism in Louisiana. The multiethnic laity, clergy, and religious in the nineteenth century necessitated the use of multiple languages in church functions, and bilingualism remained an ordinary aspect of church life through the antebellum period. After the Civil War, however, the authors show a steady crossover from French to English in the Church, influenced in large part by an active Irish population. It wasn?t until decades later, around 1910, that the Church began to embrace English monolingualism and French faded from use.

The authors? extensive research and analysis draws on quantitative and qualitative data, geographical models, methods of ethnography, and cultural studies. They evaluated 4,000 letters, written mostly in French, from 1720 to 1859; sacramental registers from more than 250 churches; parish reports; diocesan council minutes; and unpublished material from French archives. Their findings illuminate how the Church?s hierarchical structure of authority, its social constraints, and the attitudes of its local priests and laity affected language maintenance and change, particularly during the major political and social developments of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Speaking French in Louisiana, 1720?1955 goes beyond the ?triumph of English? or ?tragedy of Cajun French? stereotypes to show how south Louisiana negotiated language use and how Christianization was a powerful linguistic and cultural assimilator.