{"product_id":"the-accidental-city-improvising-new-orleans-9780674059870","title":"The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is the story of a city that shouldnt exist. In the seventeenth century  what is now Americas most beguiling metropolis was nothing more than a swamp: prone to flooding  infested with snakes  battered by hurricanes. But through the intense imperial rivalries of Spain  France  and England  and the ambitious  entrepreneurial merchants and settlers from four continents who risked their lives to succeed in colonial America  this unpromising site became a crossroads for the whole Atlantic world.  Lawrence N. Powell  a decades-long resident and observer of New Orleans  gives us the full sweep of the citys history from its founding through Louisiana statehood in 1812. We see the Crescent City evolve from a French village  to an African market town  to a Spanish fortress  and finally to an Anglo-American center of trade and commerce. We hear and feel the mix of peoples  religions  and languages from four continents that make the place electric-and always on the verge of unraveling. The Accidental City is the story of land-jobbing schemes  stock market crashes  and nonstop squabbles over status  power  and position  with enough rogues  smugglers  and self-fashioners to fill a picaresque novel.  Powells tale underscores the fluidity and contingency of the past  revealing a place where people made their own history. This is a city  and a history  marked by challenges and perpetual shifts in shape and direction  like the sinuous river on which it is perched.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45280468172853,"sku":"ByrdShop_0674059875","price":42.22,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780674059870.jpg?v=1780637698","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-accidental-city-improvising-new-orleans-9780674059870","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}