Swapping Stories: Folktales from Louisiana by Carl Lindahl; Maida Owens; C. Renée HarvisonReview by: Dana DavidLouisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Winter,2000), pp. 123-125Published by: Louisiana Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4233650 .

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BOOK REVIEWS 123

a major role in the early phase of this unionist foreign policy. Lewis asserts that historians have previously misunderstood the true motivation for the Louisiana Purchase. Traditional interpretations stress Jefferson's thwarting of a French presence in the lower Mississippi, the need for a geographical area of future westward expansion, and protection of American commercial stability in the west. Instead, Lewis sees the purchase as a Democratic-Republican attempt to cement "the durability of the union between the Atlantic states and the trans- Appalachian West." "A formidable power," Lewis opines, "might use its control over the river to entice or extort western settlers into leaving the union." (p. 25.)

This volume constitutes a major historiographical rethinking of early American foreign policy, especially as it emerged regarding expansion into the lower Mississippi, the acquisition of Florida, and United States recognition of the independent republics of Spanish America. It is based on a comprehensive review of archival sources that includes both government documents and relevant personal papers from the era. The author also writes within the full context of the numerous historical studies that have proceeded him on the subject. Lewis's emphasis on the concept of union is of great utility in explaining the origins of a foreign policy that indeed helped to shape the national character of the young nation.

Austin College Light Townsend Cummins

SWAPPING STORIES: Folktales from Louisiana. Edited by Carl Lindahl, Maida Owens, and C. Renee Harvison. (Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi, 1997. liv, 402 pp., Acknowledgments, The Louisiana Storytelling Project, Louisiana's Traditional Cultures: An Overview, Louisiana Folklife Bibliography, Louisiana's Folktale Traditions: An Introduction, Notes on the Tales, Folktale Bibliography, Index of Tale Types, Index of Motifs, Index of Titles, Index of Storytellers. Paper $20.00, ISBN 0-87805-931- 8).

It is rewarding to see folk and traditional arts projects spin off into other projects and develop into works that reach a wider

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124 LOUISIANA HISTORY

audience than expected. Swapping Stories: Folktales from Louisiana is one such project. Building on the 1990 Open House Storytelling Program, a public presentation program aimed at presenting storytellers at Louisiana fairs and festivals, the folktales in this collection present several years of fieldwork in the different cultural regions of the state by a dedicated community of scholars and folklorists. The title of the book points to the importance of context in the performance of folktales which the editors have made a central focus of the collection. Original and thorough, the methods used to collect the folktales reflect a commitment to the creative process of the storyteller and this makes the collection a valuable addition to existing collections on Louisiana folktales.

In her overview of the state's cultural landscape, Maida Owens, director of the Louisiana Folklife Program and one of the book's principle editors, outlines the geographical regions and the respective cultural groups represented there. The bibliography which follows offers valuable sources on the history, folklore, material culture, customs and music of the diverse groups which have produced the variation of tales that follow.

The stories featured in the first part of the book showcase six older storytellers, representing different cultural regions of the state. While their content spans the continuum from the everyday to magic tales, the stories demonstrate the ability of each storyteller to create images with words. As in the case of story 8, A Thorough Baptizing, I shared Mr. Talbert's reaction to this original baptism and found that: "I laughed so hard, I cried." The stories engage the reader and are a tribute to the storytellers. The deaths of four of the six individuals featured in this section since the project began, underscores the importance of the Folklife Project which has allowed their stories to reach a wider audience.

The remaining three sections of the book cover tales from everyday life, legendary Louisiana, and magic tales. Carl Lindahl, another of the book's editors, does a masterful job of introducing the reader to the different styles of folktales found in the collection, thus setting the stage for the storytellers. Personal experience stories, legends, tall tales, magic tales, and myths are the tools which storytellers use to recreate experiences that reflect their community. The reflexive nature

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BOOK REVIEWS 125

of storytelling emerges and the collection underlines the dynamic process in the tradition of storytelling.

The book also includes a folktale bibliography and indexes of tale and motif types, making it easier for the reader to contextualise these folktales to older traditions from other parts of the world. Swapping Stories introduces the reader to the age old tradition of storytelling while engaging them in the process.

University of Louisiana at Lafayette Dana David

A WILL OF HER OWN: Sarah Towles Reed and the Pursuit of Democracy in Southern Public Education. By Leslie Gale Parr. (Athens, Ga.: The University of Georgia Press, 1998. x, 250 pp. Acknowledgments, introduction, notes, selected bibliography, index. Cloth $40.00, ISBN 0-8203-1932-5).

In this evocative study, Leslie Gale Parr, an assistant professor of communications at Loyola University in New Orleans, presents a trenchant, but warm and revealing account of Sarah Towles Reed (1882-1978), an educator-activist, who labored indefatigably for needed reform in Southern public education. With a career spanning the decades between the Progressive Era and the civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties, "Reed emerged as a groundbreaking leader, unafraid of taking on the educational and political hierarchies of the south." (Introduction) The author presents the cogent argument that social activist Reed defied the social customs of her time, when a "respectful" Southern woman was "expected to defer to men."(p. 2) Instead, Reed, according to Parr, fought for salary equalization for male and female teachers. She waged an unrelenting battle to abrogate the policy of hiring only single, female teachers. Reed helped to organize a forceful teachers' union, and worked in tandem with African American teachers in an effort to "get equal pay and better schools-"(p. 184) Parr avers that Reed, when castigated by conservatives for her alleged un-American posture during the Cold War, continued to champion "civil liberty and academic freedom at a time" (p. 2) when other liberals were silent.

Reed's highly distinguished family came into hard times after the Civil War and her father Daniel lost their plantation.

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