New Orleans loves Mardi Gras (any excuse for a good party)! This is a well-researched history of Carnivale published in 1995 and some things have changed in the intervening 2+ decades, but if you want to know how the parades and krewes began, please start here. A scholarly work, this book brings forth lesser-known anecdotes and also explains many of the class and race struggles inherent in New Orleans society from 1804 when Louisiana was first under American rule until the City Council meetings in the early 1990s when integrating the krewes and parades was a hotly debated topic.

Fascinating reading on a city's culture and highly recommended.

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