Building the Land of Dreams : New Orleans and the Transformation of Early America

by Eberhard L. Faber

In 1795, New Orleans was a sleepy outpost at the edge of Spain's American empire. By the 1820s, it was teeming with life, its levees packed with cotton and sugar. New Orleans had become the unquestioned urban capital of the antebellum South. Looking at this remarkable period filled with ideological struggle, class politics, and powerful personalities, Building the Land of Dreams is the narrative biography of a fascinating city at the most crucial turning point in its history.

Eberhard Faber tells the vivid story of how American rule forced New Orleans through a vast transition: from the ordered colonial world of hierarchy and subordination to the fluid, unpredictable chaos of democratic capitalism. The change in authority, from imperial Spain to Jeffersonian America, transformed everything. As the city's diverse people struggled over the terms of the transition, they built the foundations of a dynamic, contentious hybrid metropolis. Faber describes the vital individuals who played a role in New Orleans history: from the wealthy creole planters who dreaded the influx of revolutionary ideas, to the American arrivistes who combined idealistic visions of a new republican society with selfish dreams of quick plantation fortunes, to Thomas Jefferson himself, whose powerful democratic vision for Louisiana eventually conflicted with his equally strong sense of realpolitik and desire to strengthen the American union.

Revealing how New Orleans was formed by America's greatest impulses and ambitions, Building the Land of Dreams is an inspired exploration of one of the world's most iconic cities

Genres: History

480 pages, Hardcover

First published October 27, 2015

Reviews

[Charles Heath · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good. A very, very in-depth portrayal of 2-3 decades of transition in Louisiana. I thought the "land of dreams" argument stretched, and while America was transformed with the Louisiana Purchase, Louisiana (in this case already stood in for by NOLA) seems to have effected the republic little. New Orleans was always a day late and a dollar short; its dreams based upon chattel slavery, death, and debt. That day of becoming the world's greatest port and or emporium, that financial center, NAH BABE. AND I LOVE NEW ORLEANS. It was an exploitive Killer Kotton Kingdom for a few decades, not much else then OR SINCE.

That said, this well written book puts the reader IN SITU with some famous CREOLES & CRACKERS all rather disagreeable. These are some solicitous, supercilious, p's os. OUI. Places the reader in the drawing rooms and offices of power where the white Euro trash ancien regime protected themselves and their incestuous lifestyles confecting SUGAR AND SIN.

Plus, one could see 4-5 men and women at any time of day defecating on the levee. SWEET JESUS. It built its "land of dreams" on rope walks, shit filled levees, and floating mausoleums. WHAT COULD GO WRONG

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book delivers an excellent overview of New Orleans between 1800-1815. I've discovered many different primary sources that have come in handy for my research. I particularly enjoyed how the author framed the racial diversity through a political lens.