Working in the Big Easy

"Working in the Big Easy redresses the longstanding neglect of one of the nation's most distinctive urban labor sites. . . this book offers a fascinating new look at those who had it less than easy in the Big Easy." --Leon Fink, Distinguished Professor of History, University of Illinois, Chicago, and co-editor of Workers Across the Americas: The Transnational Turn in Labor History "This instructive collection has something new and surprising to offer about dockworkers and streetcar men, the building trades and the restaurant industry. Even voodoo practitioners, Preservation Hall, and praline mammies are given their due. A very welcome addition." --Lawrence Powell, Professor Emeritus of History, Tulane University, and author of The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans "[In] Working in the Big Easy, we meet the men and women who have built and rebuilt this city for three centuries, from slave labor to service work, from union organizers to undocumented immigrants. A critical text for anyone interested in labor history in U.S. cities." --Matt Sakakeeny, Associate Professor of Music, Tulane University, and author of Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans "Working in the Big Easy not only provides rich accounts of discrete cases in the city's labor history; it is also a significant call for further research as well as a substantive argument that study of New Orleans offers distinctive potential for integrating the fields of urban, labor, political, and ethnic history." --Adolph Reed, Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania, and author of Class Notes: Posing as Politics and Other Thoughts on the American Scene