Before and since its official closure in 1985, historic U.S. 66 became associated with the deserts, Indians, and cowboys of the Southwest, the "Okies" of the Great Depression, and the millions of vacationers who took to the highway in their streamlined automobiles and found adventure on the open road from the late 1940s to the 1970s. Route 66 has such name recognition that in the past twenty years it has been used to advertise products ranging from blue jeans, to root beer, to automobiles.

The highway enjoyed only about thirty years of dominance as a primary auto and truck route from 1926...

In The Cemeteries of New Orleans, Peter B. Dedek reveals the origins and evolution of the Crescent City s world-famous necropolises, exploring both their distinctive architecture and their cultural impact. Spanning centuries, this fascinating body of research takes readers from muddy fields of crude burial markers to extravagantly designed cities of the dead, illuminating a vital and vulnerable piece of New Orleans s identity.

Where many histories of New Orleans cemeteries have revolved around the famous people buried within them, Dedek focuses on the marble cutters, burial...