Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
    Date:   1/29/99
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple   65

SLU'S KURTZ EDITS NEW BOOK ON LOUISIANA 
     HAMMOND -- History professor Michael Kurtz, dean of Southeastern Louisiana
University's Graduate School, has edited a new book, Louisiana Since the Longs: From 1960 to
Century's End, published by the Center for Louisiana Studies at the University of Southwestern
Louisiana.
     The book is the ninth volume in The Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Series in
Louisiana History, with Glenn R. Conrad as general editor of the 19-volume series scheduled to
be complete in 2003. 
  Louisiana Since the Longs is a 731 page compilation of articles from scholarly journals,
excerpts from books, and journalistic pieces covering many aspects of the history of Louisiana
since the death of Earl K. Long in 1960. The book covers topics such as politics, the economy,
the environment, race, education, crime, literature, the arts and music. 
  It includes selections by Roman Heleniak, head of southeastern's history and government
department, on President Lyndon Johnson's speech advocating racial equality in Louisiana in
1964; John Maginnis's account of the lively campaign between Edwin Edwards and David Treen
in 1983 and Tyler Bridges's account of the race between Edwin Edwards and David Duke in
1991. It includes Wiley Hillburn Jr.'s observations about life in North Louisiana and John R.
Kemp's account of life in the Manchac swamp. The book also covers Louisiana political humor;
the plight of the Louisiana brown pelican; Bogalusa's Deacons for Defense and their fight against
the Ku Klux Klan; the Garrison investigation into the Kennedy assassination; the high rate of
cancer in south Louisiana; Cajun music; Walker Percy; and Louis Armstrong. Kurtz's
introduction explains the selections and the reason for the publication of the volume.
  The book may be purchased from the Center for Louisiana Studies, USL, P.O. Box
40831, Lafayette, LA 70504-0831.
                            - SLU -
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www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsp99.htm