Suggested Reading
By Richard Follett
Focusing on the master-slave relationship in Louisiana's antebellum sugarcane country, The Sugar Masters explores how a modern, capitalist mind-set among planters meshed with old-style paternalistic attitudes to create one of the South's most insidiously oppressive labor systems. As author Richard Follett vividly demonstrates, the agricultural paradise of Louisiana's thriving sugarcane fields came at an unconscionable cost to slaves.
As a tour guide at the museum, I have found this book to be a valuable asset in educating people about the unique and utterly brutal system of slavery used on sugar cane plantations in Louisiana. While it is a bit dry at times, Sugar Masters is brimming with a wealth of interesting information about the era. It can be disturbing at times, but the book never ceases to be intriguing and informative. It is a must read for anyone who considers themselves a student of Louisiana history.
It is available in the West Baton Rouge Museum's gift shop for $24.95.
By John M. Barry
An American epic of science, politics, race, honor, high society, and the Mississippi River, Rising Tide tells the riveting and nearly forgotten story of the greatest natural disaster this country has ever known -- the Mississippi flood of 1927.
by Mike Tidwell
Mike Tidwell knew nothing of the disappearing bayou country when he first visited the Cajun coast of Louisiana, but the evidence was all around him: the skeletons of oak trees killed by the salinity of the groundwater, whole cemeteries sinking into swampland and out of sight, telephone poles in deep, standing water.
by Robert Penn Warren
All the King's Men is also the story of Jack Burden, the scion of one of the state's aristocratic dynasties, who turns his back on his genteel upbringing and becomes Willie Stark's right-hand man. Jack uses his considerable talents as a historical researcher to dig up the unpleasant secrets of Willie's enemies, which are then used for purposes of blackmail.
