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Authentic New Orleans: Tourism, Culture, and Race in the Big Easy
Honorable Mention for the 2008 Robert Park Outstanding Book Award given by the ASA’s Community and Urban Sociology Section
Mardi Gras, jazz, voodoo, gumbo, Bourbon Street, the French Quarter—all evoke that place that is unlike any New Orleans. In Authentic New Orleans , Kevin Fox Gotham explains how New Orleans became a tourist town, a spectacular locale known as much for its excesses as for its quirky Southern charm.
Gotham begins in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina amid the whirlwind of speculation about the rebuilding of the city and the dread of outsiders wiping New Orleans clean of the grit that made it great. He continues with the origins of Carnival and the Mardi Gras celebration in the nineteenth century, showing how, through careful planning and promotion, the city constructed itself as a major tourist attraction. By examining various image-building campaigns and promotional strategies to disseminate a palatable image of New Orleans on a national scale Gotham ultimately establishes New Orleans as one of the originators of the mass tourism industry—which linked leisure to travel, promoted international expositions, and developed the concept of pleasure travel.
Gotham shows how New Orleans was able to become one of the most popular tourist attractions in the United States, especially through the transformation of Mardi Gras into a national, even international, event. All the while Gotham is concerned with showing the difference between tourism from above and tourism from below—that is, how New Orleans’ distinctiveness is both maximized, some might say exploited, to serve the global economy of tourism as well as how local groups and individuals use tourism to preserve and anchor longstanding communal traditions.
Mardi Gras, jazz, voodoo, gumbo, Bourbon Street, the French Quarter—all evoke that place that is unlike any New Orleans. In Authentic New Orleans , Kevin Fox Gotham explains how New Orleans became a tourist town, a spectacular locale known as much for its excesses as for its quirky Southern charm.
Gotham begins in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina amid the whirlwind of speculation about the rebuilding of the city and the dread of outsiders wiping New Orleans clean of the grit that made it great. He continues with the origins of Carnival and the Mardi Gras celebration in the nineteenth century, showing how, through careful planning and promotion, the city constructed itself as a major tourist attraction. By examining various image-building campaigns and promotional strategies to disseminate a palatable image of New Orleans on a national scale Gotham ultimately establishes New Orleans as one of the originators of the mass tourism industry—which linked leisure to travel, promoted international expositions, and developed the concept of pleasure travel.
Gotham shows how New Orleans was able to become one of the most popular tourist attractions in the United States, especially through the transformation of Mardi Gras into a national, even international, event. All the while Gotham is concerned with showing the difference between tourism from above and tourism from below—that is, how New Orleans’ distinctiveness is both maximized, some might say exploited, to serve the global economy of tourism as well as how local groups and individuals use tourism to preserve and anchor longstanding communal traditions.
- GenresSociologyNonfiction
288 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 11, 2009
From Storyville to Katrina, 'Authentic New Orleans' exposes the multitude of forces that have helped shape New Orleans into the cultural and tourist mecca that it is today.
According to Gotham, today's New Orleans that we know and love is inextricably connected to every 'New Orleans' that has come before. Despite the title's implications, this book does not try to tackle the question of what is and is not 'authentic New Orleans.' Rather, Gotham guides readers on a chronological tour starting with the fall of New Orleans as an industrial hub, the subsequent development of a culture of tourism and the eventual emergence of the 'touristic culture' that is so pervasive in post-K Nola.
As any examination of culture in New Orleans would be incomplete without due attention being focused on Mardi Gras, Gotham does not fail to dish up the Carnival course. More than two full chapters are dedicated to the subject and the entire book is imbued with the idea that perhaps nothing is more significant in the rise of New Orleans than is the Carnival season.
Where a number of sociological works might focus on the negative effects that tourism has on the authenticity of place, Gotham routinely employs a heuristic model that examines a dialectic relationship between what he defines as 'tourism from below,' and 'tourism from above.'
The former he recognizes as civic groups and the actual people at street level whose daily lives both revolve around and culminate into the cultural products that the later attempts to package and commodify in a rationalized fashion. Instead of trying to argue the merits of each group, Gotham's focus is on how they both feed off each other to continually reshape the meaning of both local culture and more importantly, precepts of authenticity.
This was a very interesting book that has lots to offer to a student of sociology, urban space, tourism or, perhaps most importantly, New Orleans. Interested in almost all of the above topics, I found this to be a fascinating read that hit home on a number of levels. I've yet to read anything on, from or involving New Orleans that doesn't resonate as once one has dwelt in this city, there's no shaking it from your blood!
Long live New Orleans!
According to Gotham, today's New Orleans that we know and love is inextricably connected to every 'New Orleans' that has come before. Despite the title's implications, this book does not try to tackle the question of what is and is not 'authentic New Orleans.' Rather, Gotham guides readers on a chronological tour starting with the fall of New Orleans as an industrial hub, the subsequent development of a culture of tourism and the eventual emergence of the 'touristic culture' that is so pervasive in post-K Nola.
As any examination of culture in New Orleans would be incomplete without due attention being focused on Mardi Gras, Gotham does not fail to dish up the Carnival course. More than two full chapters are dedicated to the subject and the entire book is imbued with the idea that perhaps nothing is more significant in the rise of New Orleans than is the Carnival season.
Where a number of sociological works might focus on the negative effects that tourism has on the authenticity of place, Gotham routinely employs a heuristic model that examines a dialectic relationship between what he defines as 'tourism from below,' and 'tourism from above.'
The former he recognizes as civic groups and the actual people at street level whose daily lives both revolve around and culminate into the cultural products that the later attempts to package and commodify in a rationalized fashion. Instead of trying to argue the merits of each group, Gotham's focus is on how they both feed off each other to continually reshape the meaning of both local culture and more importantly, precepts of authenticity.
This was a very interesting book that has lots to offer to a student of sociology, urban space, tourism or, perhaps most importantly, New Orleans. Interested in almost all of the above topics, I found this to be a fascinating read that hit home on a number of levels. I've yet to read anything on, from or involving New Orleans that doesn't resonate as once one has dwelt in this city, there's no shaking it from your blood!
Long live New Orleans!
September 19, 2019
When I first selected this book it was because I live in New Orleans and quite often have conversations with other residents about Tourism. Any conversation would start with a wax poetic of the pre katrina days, maybe a little snippet of what used to be there before a new trendy coffee shop opened and what it was like growing up in New Orleans.
The Author does a great job providing a chronological overview of the cities founding, boom and bust cycles, reconstruction and of course an in depth history of Carnival. The sources cited, graphs and data provided were very insightful.
I would have expected to see more conversation around the impacts of an economy centered around Tourism. The book was written in 2007 so perhaps two years after Katrina the effects were not yet evident.
I would implore the Author to update the book or to make a second printing. Since 2007, the policies enacted by City Government have been focused on tourist pandering dollars instead of providing the infrastructure for residents. Case and point, 2018 was the highest visitation of tourists to New Orleans on record. The previous mayor prioritized creating a pedestrian walkway on Bourbon street instead of using the cities tax revenue to fix broken pumps, levees, car sized sink holes on busy streets, expansion of public education......all overlooked for the almighty tourist dollar. How do these large scale tourist improvements effect the authenticity of a 300 year old city? How does this impact the longevity of the city?
The Author does a great job providing a chronological overview of the cities founding, boom and bust cycles, reconstruction and of course an in depth history of Carnival. The sources cited, graphs and data provided were very insightful.
I would have expected to see more conversation around the impacts of an economy centered around Tourism. The book was written in 2007 so perhaps two years after Katrina the effects were not yet evident.
I would implore the Author to update the book or to make a second printing. Since 2007, the policies enacted by City Government have been focused on tourist pandering dollars instead of providing the infrastructure for residents. Case and point, 2018 was the highest visitation of tourists to New Orleans on record. The previous mayor prioritized creating a pedestrian walkway on Bourbon street instead of using the cities tax revenue to fix broken pumps, levees, car sized sink holes on busy streets, expansion of public education......all overlooked for the almighty tourist dollar. How do these large scale tourist improvements effect the authenticity of a 300 year old city? How does this impact the longevity of the city?
June 29, 2016
This is not a fast-paced work, but it is an important one.
Tulane University sociologist Kevin Fox Gotham uses New Orleans as his test case to discuss how tourism affects culture. Building on New Orleans' fascinating history, he looks at how the city was promoted to travelers. From historic Mardi Gras krewes, to the New Orleans Exposition of 1884, the World's Fair 100 years later, Storyville (the red light district), and even Hurricane Katrina, he examines how various convention bureaus, writers, and the citizenry at large view tourism and the city's promotional position.
One of the things I found most interesting was the concept of a touristic culture (as opposed to a culture of tourism). In a touristic culture, branding efforts and emphasis provoke the local citizenry to shift concepts of what is or is not an "authentic" experience. Thus, what constitutes authenticity shifts over time.
I read this book as part of my research for a piece I'm writing myself, and gained new understandings that will doubtless improve my own work.
Tulane University sociologist Kevin Fox Gotham uses New Orleans as his test case to discuss how tourism affects culture. Building on New Orleans' fascinating history, he looks at how the city was promoted to travelers. From historic Mardi Gras krewes, to the New Orleans Exposition of 1884, the World's Fair 100 years later, Storyville (the red light district), and even Hurricane Katrina, he examines how various convention bureaus, writers, and the citizenry at large view tourism and the city's promotional position.
One of the things I found most interesting was the concept of a touristic culture (as opposed to a culture of tourism). In a touristic culture, branding efforts and emphasis provoke the local citizenry to shift concepts of what is or is not an "authentic" experience. Thus, what constitutes authenticity shifts over time.
I read this book as part of my research for a piece I'm writing myself, and gained new understandings that will doubtless improve my own work.
December 26, 2010
Very academic, but a very interesting analysis of tourism in New Orleans. Also a lot about the history of the World's Fairs in New Orleans.
April 29, 2015
In this remarkable book, Gotham combines careful historical research, observation, and insight to produce an indispensable account of the New Orleans tourist economy.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews