Asian-Cajun Fusion

Carl A. Brasseaux, former director of the Center for Louisiana Studies and a Louisiana Writer of the Year, has spent a lifetime studying the peoples and cultures of the Louisiana coastal plain. He is author or coauthor of more than forty books including Ain't There No More: Louisiana's Disappearing Coastal Plain; Acadian to Cajun: Transformation of a People, 1803-1877; and Creoles of Color in the Bayou Country, all published by University Press of Mississippi. Donald W. Davis has been involved in coastal-related research for more than forty years on the wide array of renewable and nonrenewable resources vital to the use of the wetlands. His work has appeared in numerous journals including Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Shore & Beach, Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, Louisiana Conservationists, and Louisiana History. He is coauthor of Ain't There No More: Louisiana's Disappearing Coastal Plain, published by University Press of Mississippi.

Woven through this exhaustive and extremely well-illustrated history of the shrimp industry in Louisiana is the fascinating story of the interaction between the largely Cajun and, first, Chinese and, later, Vietnamese participants in the industry. This interaction between Asian immigrants and other US fishermen, often immigrants themselves, which has also occurred in other US coastal fishing communities, is particularly salient and poignant as documented by Brasseaux and Davis in Louisiana.--Michael Orboch, cultural anthropologist working with fisheries and fishing communities worldwide Asian-Cajun Fusion is an impressively researched book. . . . The stories and asides add texture to an important, yet not often told, history of Louisiana shrimping. Asian-Cajun Fusion represents a beautiful and welcome addition to the scant literature on the topic.--Jen Corinne Brown "Journal of Southern History" Asian-Cajun Fusion is a meticulously researched book, magnificent in its scope and delightful in its attention to local stories.--Sydney To "64 Parishes" Asian-Cajun Fusion is a very informative, interesting, and in-depth study of the Gulf Coast shrimp industry spanning a century. It demonstrates how important shrimping has been to our culture and way of life.--Jim Gossen, past chairman of Sysco Louisiana Foods Company and member of the board of directors of the Gulf Seafood Foundation Shrimp are an integral aspect of south Louisiana's history. When people think of the economic history of Louisiana, thoughts turn to oil, but the shrimping industry is equally important, perhaps more so. Asian-Cajun Fusion: Shrimp from the Bay to the Bayou is extremely accessible to any reader who cares about the region.--Christopher Hallowell, author of Holding Back the Sea: The Struggle on the Gulf Coast to Save America