Starting in 1699, a teenaged French Canadian named Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville grappled with a high-stakes dilemma: where should the primary city for the new French colony of Louisiana be located? Bienville eventually selected, in 1718, a swampy crescent of alluvium nestled between a flood-prone river and a storm-prone tidal lagoon.

Bienville's Dilemma presents sixty-eight articles on the historical geography of New Orleans, covering the formations and foundation of the city, its urbanization and population, its "humanization" into a place of distinction, the manipulation of its environment, its devastation by Hurricane Katrina, and its ongoing recovery.

Prof. Richard Campanella, geographer and Associate Dean for Research with the Tulane School of Architecture, is the author of eleven books and over 220 articles on the geography, history and culture of the New Orleans region and related topics.

ISBN: 978-1-887366-85-7

6 x 9 Paperback

429 pages, color photographs and maps, table of contents, index

Publisher: UL Press