Southern Comfort: The Garden District of New Orleans, 1800-1900
Southern Comfort: The Garden District of New Orleans is a 1989 non-fiction book by S. Frederick Starr, published by MIT Press. It is about the architecture of the Garden District, New Orleans.
The book describes how the district was developed.[1]
According to reviewer Richard Longstreth, at the time of the publication of this book, there had not been very much research into the book.[2]
Later printings are from the Princeton Architectural Press.
Background
The author used archives as source.[3]
Contents
Chapter 5 discusses the construction of antebellum buildings (buildings constructed before the American Civil War).[3]
Chapter 9 describes the civil war period in the city.[3]
The book includes photographs from Robert S. Brantley that are in black and white.[3]
Reception
Anne Rice, who reviewed the book, described it as "landmark piece of scholarship" that has a "economical and enjoyable style".[1]
John Archer of the University of Minnesota wrote that the book is "valuable and overdue".[4]
Longstreth overall praised the book as "an unusually vivid case study"; he argued the text covering the development and its factors as being done "with imagination and skill" and he praised the integration of the book's content, though he argued the portions about the architecture are "sometimes weaker."[2]
References
- Archer, John (March 1991). "Review: Southern Comfort: The Garden District of New Orleans by S. Frederick Starr". Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 50 (1): 91–93. doi:10.2307/990559. JSTOR 990559.
- Longstreth, Richard (1990). "Southern Comfort: The Garden District of New Orleans, 1800-1900". American studies international. 28 (2): 128. JSTOR 41280806.
Notes
- ^ a b Rice, Anne (1989-12-31). "Eden in the Heart of the City". The New York Times. Retrieved 2025-08-04.
- ^ a b Longstreth, p. 128.
- ^ a b c d Archer, p. 92.
- ^ Archer, p. 93.
Further reading
- Gutterman, Scott (1990). "Books: Southern Comfort". Architectural Record. Vol. 178, no. 7. p. 51.
- Scotto, Barbara (1990). "Architecture/Cultural History -- Southern Comfort: The Garden District of New Orleans, 1800-1900 by S. Frederick Starr and photographed by Robert Brantley". Wilson library bulletin. Vol. 64, no. 9. p. 120.
- Touchstone, Blake (1992). "Southern Comfort: The Garden District of New Orleans, 1800-1900". The Journal of southern history. 58 (1): 129–130.
- Wilson, Samuel (1990). "Southern Comfort: The Garden District of New Orleans, 1800-1900". Louisiana history. 31 (4): 441–443.