Louisiana is our most exotic state. It is religious and roguish, a place populated by Cajuns, Creoles, Rednecks, and Bible-thumpers. It is a state that loves good food, good music, and good times. Laissez les bons temps rouler -- let the good times roll -- is the unofficial motto. Louisiana is also excessively corrupt. In the 1990s, it plunged headlong into legalized gambling, authorizing more games of chance than any other state. Leading the charge was Governor Edwin Edwards, who for years had flaunted his fondness for cold cash and high-stakes gambling, and who had used his razor-sharp mind and catlike reflexes to stay one step ahead of the law. Gambling, Edwin Edwards, and Louisiana's political culture would prove to be a combustible mix. Bad Bet on the Bayou tells the story of what happened when the most corrupt industry came to our most corrupt state. It is a sweeping morality tale about commerce, politics, and what happens when the law catches up to our most basic human desires and frailties.

Piyush "Bobby" Jindal is an American politician who was the 55th Governor of Louisiana between 2008 and 2016, and previously served as a U.S. Congressman and as the vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association.

The Louisiana Governors is a one-volume reference work on the diverse, frequently colorful leaders of Louisiana since the eighteenth century. From Iberville to Edwards, this biographical directory provides a comprehensive look into the lives of sixty-six men who have wielded their political power in molding the history of the state. Joseph G. Dawson’s introduction sets the stage for this knowledgeable look at Louisiana’s governors by examining the historical evolution of the governorship over the past three centuries. Dawson focuses not only on the evolution of the office but also on the dominant personalities who have served it and the ever changing constitutions that have guided it. For the first time, students of Louisiana history will have at their disposal a chronological compilation of scholarly essays on the lives of the men who have served at Louisiana’s chief executive. Providing first a short biographical sketch of the governor under consideration, each essay includes an analytical discussion of the governor’s administration and of his role in the state’s history. A bibliography pertaining to the governor and his era follows each essay. The Louisiana Governors describes in rich detail the influence of French and Spanish colonial governors on Louisiana’s leaders of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The rivalry that now exists between the chief executive and the legislature, as well as the factionalism that has surfaced in the political system, is directly rooted in the state’s colonial past. It has been said that Louisianians like their politicians like their food—hot and spicy. They have not been disappointed. From the Lemoyne brothers, Iberville and Bienville, of the French colonial era, to the Long brothers, Huey and Earl, of the twentieth century, Louisiana’s governors have attracted ardent loyalty and vigorous criticism simultaneously. They have been hailed by critics as dictators, political mavericks, puppets, and even rubber-stamp governors. But whether weak or powerful, charismatic or unimposing, these men have braved controversy and political turmoil to create a governorship steeped in tradition.

Walter Greaves Cowan and Jack B. McGuire, veteran authorities on the Louisiana political scene, trace the history of the state's leaders from the French and Spanish colonial eras to the present day. Using a variety of sources, including personal interviews with the recent governors, they describe unforgettable personalities. Such early figures as Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville set the tone for later colonial governors. They had their troubles, fending off protesting Indians and other French and Spanish leaders vying for power. Following the Louisiana Purchase, American politics took control. The Whigs, Know Nothings, Republicans, and Democrats have all waxed and waned through times of slavery, secession, suffrage, and segregation. The early twentieth century saw the rise of Huey P. Long, who established himself as a virtual dictator. An assassin's bullet ended Long's life in 1935, but his followers managed to hold on to the governorship until 1940. In 1948 his brother, Earl Long, brought the family back into power. Over the years, two governors were impeached but were not removed from office, and two governors were jailed in federal prison. The experiences, decisions, and conflicts of Louisiana governors have reflected and influenced the history of the state, often in dramatic and fascinating ways.

A new edition of the notorious carpetbagger's personal and political memoir A memoir of the ambitious life and controversial political career of Louisiana governor Henry Clay Warmoth (1842-1931), War, Politics, and Reconstruction is a firsthand account of the political and social machinations of Civil War America and the war's aftermath in one of the most volatile states of the defeated Confederacy. An Illinois native, Warmoth arrived in Louisiana in 1864 as part of the federal occupation forces. Upon leaving military service in 1865, he established himself in private legal practice in New Orleans. Taking full advantage of the chaotic times, Warmoth rapidly amassed fortune and influence, and soon emerged as a leader of the state's Republican Party and, in 1868, was elected governor. Amid an administration rife with scandal and corruption, the Louisiana Republican Party broke into warring factions. Warmoth survived an impeachment attempt in 1872, but a second attempt in 1873 culminated with his removal from office. This fall from Republican grace stemmed from his allegiance with white conservatives, remnants of the old guard, and staunch opponents of those Republicans who sought a wider role for African Americans in Louisiana's changing political landscape. Never again to hold political office, Warmoth remained in his adopted Louisiana, enjoying the fruits of his investments in plantations and sugar refineries. In 1930, the year before his death, he published War, Politics, and Reconstruction, a vindication of his public life and a rebuttal of his reputation as an opportunistic carpetbagger. Despite Warmoth's obvious self-serving biases, the volume offers unparalleled depth of personal insight into the inner workings of Reconstruction government in Louisiana in the words of one of its key architects. A new introduction by John C. Rodrigue places Warmoth's memoir within the broader context of evolving perceptions and historiography of Reconstruction. Rodrigue also offers readers a more balanced portrait of Warmoth by providing supplemental information omitted or slighted by the author in his efforts to cast his actions in the most positive light.