Richard Campanella is a geographer and associate dean for research at the Tulane School of Architecture. He is the author of fourteen books, including The West Bank of Greater New Orleans and Cityscapes of New Orleans, as well as hundreds of articles on Louisiana history and geography.

Praise for Bourbon Street

“Persuasive. . . gleefully subversive. . . . Campanella writes in a straightforward, unadorned style, combining a historian’s scrupulousness, a sociologist’s attention to demotic sources, and a geographer’s fascination with the influence of terrestrial conditions on culture, politics, and development. . . . Part of the delight of the various charts and maps included in the book is to imagine Campanella, clicker and stopwatch in hand, standing motionless amid the drunk, swelling mobs as he soberly records his data.”—Nathaniel Rich, New York Review of Books

“The smartest book I’ve read this year about American cities. . . . A fascinating account of how urban cultures persist and evolve and are perceived.”—John King, San Francisco Chronicle

“A lively blend of narrative microhistory and data-driven urban geography. . . . [Campanella’s] close readings of archival records and painstakingly collected data offer valuable insights into Bourbon Street’s origins and persistence as an iconic streetscape rooted in history, geography, and collective memory.”—Journal of Southern History

“Campanella becomes the ultimate tour guide, immersing readers in the spectacular, cacophonous, and malodorous sensory experience of the booming vice district. . . . Campanella does an excellent job of mapping ‘geographies of pleasure’ (99) that have made the tourist promenade such a central part of New Orleans's economic and cultural identity.”—Southern Spaces

“Campanella’s archives are as rich and idiosyncratic as Bourbon Street itself; his prose is both witty and inviting; his argument is forceful, lucid, and often convincing. . . . An important intervention in the study of New Orleans history and culture—and a welcome invitation for further inquiry into this extraordinary and still controversial Street.”—The Common Reader

“A detailed and chronological narrative. . . . Campanella provides a rich look into one of America’s famous street’s using a wealth of primary sources and quantitative analysis. His multidiscipline approach is comprehensive.”—Southern Register

“Campanella’s book is at times as R-rated as its subject, but it is a scholarly work, well documented, and informed. Anyone interested in the history of one of this country’s most famous and important streets should read it.”—Arkansas Review

“Campanella provides an entertaining but still profound historical, geographical, and economic tour of a street that he portrays as vital not only to the prosaic development of New Orleans but also to its more fanciful image—an image that historical and cultural preservationists strenuously oppose.”—Journal of Interdisciplinary History

“Campanella's vividly told, fact-packed account of the French Quarter entertainment strip couldn't be more topical. It should be required reading for anyone who wants to discuss New Orleans crime, economic development, the value of historic preservation, the business of vice, and the touchy subject of ‘authenticity’ in a city that celebrates its past.”—Times-Picayune

“A fantastically in-depth examination of what may be the most famous street in America....Campanella’s Bourbon is more than just a street, and this history covers more than just Bourbon. It is, in many ways, a history of New Orleans, or, rather, a history of what New Orleans makes itself out to be. He doesn’t stop there. He delves into the polarizing nature of modern Bourbon Street and the argument over the authentic New Orleans experience....Campanella proves [that Bourbon Street] is a global phenomenon, irrevocably married to Louisiana’s image.”—New Orleans Advocate

“Campanella...juggles statistics, geography, demographics, analysis, history and storytelling with brevity and wit…will make even the staunchest enemies of [Bourbon Street] reexamine his/her biases....An informative joy.”—Leigh Checkman, Antigravity

“A thoroughly researched, engagingly written, and altogether fascinating account of the mile-long street's history, from the Louisiana Purchase to the present.”—La Voce di New York

“Richard Campanella’s thoughtful exploration of New Orleans’s most contentious street is more than just a geographical or cultural history. . . . It may be one of the most hated streets in New Orleans, but may also be the one with the strongest will. We’ll raise a tacky, plastic hand-grenade cup to that.”—Edible New Orleans

“Weaves together history, geography, and culture to explain how Bourbon came to exist…. fascinating…delightful…both amusing and informative….” —Walter Isaacson

“Richly researched…engaging… [Campanella] shows how Bourbon Street has constantly evolved.” —S. Frederick Starr

Campanella, elsewhere

Richard Campanella talks to Susan Larson of WWNO's The Reading Life about Bourbon Street: A History. - The Reading Life

Richard Campanella quoted in "Debate on Bourbon Street: Should the Good Times Roll Less Loudly?" - New York Times

Bibliography for BOURBON STREET: A History

Bibliography for BOURBON STREET: A HISTORY by Richard Campanella

• Press Release
• Author Image
• Book Cover Image