Garry Boulard

Last updated
Garry Boulard
Born1953

Garry Boulard (born 1953) is a reporter and author whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Tribune and Times-Picayune , among other publications.

Boulard's first book was published in 1989: Just a Gigolo: The Life and Times of Louis Prima by the Center for Louisiana Studies. The book was praised in 1990 by musicologist Rhodes Spedale in the journal Louisiana History: "There is much to recommend in this biography...the author's depiction of Prima as a bandleader and businessman is illuminating in a factual, historical manner." The book was re-released in 2002 by the University of Illinois Press as Louis Prima. Said writer Bill Sweeney in the journal Popular Music : "Boulard is at his best in painting the social, ethnic, and family background to Prima's development in the early decades of the twentieth century." Keitth Briggs in the monthly Blues Revue lauded the book, noting "It's quality is attested by its being judged worthy enough to win release under its new title in the University of Illinois Press' prestigious Music in American Life series." 1

In 1998, the Pelican Publishing Company released Boulard's Huey Long Invades New Orleans , a book that won the praise of Lester Sullivan in Gambit Weekly: "Boulard knows how to write. The prose is succinct and well-paced, the book is smoothly read and hard to put down." [1]

In the Times-Picayune, Susan Larsen characterized Boulard's writing as "vivid and compelling, he captures Huey Long in all his larger-than-life appetites and ambitions." [2]

David Roberts in the Bloomsbury Review remarked: "With the skills of a researcher and the descriptive talents of a story teller, Boulard keeps the history interesting, the story moving and the passages colorful." [3]

Michael L. Kurtz, Southeastern Louisiana University history professor, wrote in the Journal of American History that Boulard's book was "well-written and thoroughly researched...a valuable contribution to our knowledge and understanding of that fascinating individual and era in Louisiana history." [4]

The 2001 release of Boulard's The Big Lie—Hale Boggs, Lucille May Grace and Leander Perez in 1951 (Pelican) prompted Louisiana State University history professor Jerry Sanson to laud a "Well-written, highly useful account of a colorful event in the state's political history." Boulard's footnotes, added Sanson, "include references to copious amounts of primary and secondary resources as well as numerous interviews that he conducted as he explored his topic." [5]

In 2003 North Carolina State University history professor Pamela Tyler in the Journal of Southern History, described Boulard as "a freelance journalist with an obvious relish for the pungency of Louisiana politics," adding that Boulard had done "solid work in a multitude of archival sources." [6]

The Big Lie has since been listed in the bibliography for Hale Boggs on the official site of the U.S. Congress Biography Guide. [7]

A second Boulard book on Long published by Pelican Publishing in the summer of 2003 won mixed reviews. University of Wisconsin professor Glen Jeansonne, also the author of a Huey Long biography, criticized it for being too much of a popular history and failing to explore the dark side of the Long regime: "Boulard is chiefly a storyteller and his book is breezy and brisk," wrote Jeansonne, "yet the ideas are derivative." [8] Times-Picayune columnist Angus Lind described the book as a "quick read" that "tells not only in words but in a wonderful collection of artwork the story of the man dubbed 'the Kingfish.'" [9] In the Arkansas Review, Gordon Harvey wrote: "Garry Boulard has attempted, and succeeded, in capturing Long's larger-than-life career and persona." [10]

In 2006, Boulard released The Expatriation of Franklin Pierce—The Story of a President and the Civil War. (iUniverse). The book is included in the Library of Congress's Research Guides website notes that the book is among "the most significant editions of works by Pierce". [11] It has since been referenced in the World Book Encyclopedia.[ citation needed ]

Boulard released The Swing Around the Circle--Andrew Johnson and the Train Ride that Destroyed a Presidency in 2008. It has since been referenced by Áine Cain in Business Insider, [12] Justin Fox in BNN Bloomberg, [13] and Jamelle Bouie in The New York Times . [14]

Boulard released The Worst President: The Story of James Buchanan, in the summer of 2015, a book looking at the life of the 15th president of the United States with a focus on the months between the 1860 election and the coming of the Civil War in 1861. The book was also recommended was James Carafano, writer and vice-president of The Heritage Foundation, in The National Interest . [15]

When the University of New Hampshire considered renaming the Franklin Pierce School of Law in the aftermath of the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul in 2020, Boulard argued that maintaining Pierce's name was "worthy of careful consideration" due to his record as an anti-war dissident during the American Civil War. [16]

In April 2021 Boulard was the guest of the White House Historical Association as part of a program discussing the life and career of President Franklin Pierce. [17]

Boulard's essays and reviews have appeared in the Journal of Southern History , Louisiana History, Journal of Mississippi History, Florida Historical Quarterly and Gulf Coast Historical Review.

  1. "Book Reviews," Louisiana History, Volume 31, Number 3, Summer 1990, 311-12; "Reviews," Popular Music, Volume 23, Number 1, January 2004, 99-100; "Louis Prima," Blues Revue , November 2002, 124.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Huey Long</span> American politician from Louisiana

Huey Pierce Long Jr., byname "The Kingfish", was an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a United States senator from 1932 until his assassination in 1935. He was a left-wing populist member of the Democratic Party and rose to national prominence during the Great Depression for his vocal criticism of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal, which Long deemed insufficiently radical. As the political leader of Louisiana, he commanded wide networks of supporters and often took forceful action. A controversial figure, Long is celebrated as a populist champion of the poor or, conversely, denounced as a fascistic demagogue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hale Boggs</span> American politician (1914–1972)

Thomas Hale Boggs Sr. was an American Democratic politician and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the House majority leader and a member of the Warren Commission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earl Long</span> American politician

Earl Kemp Long was an American politician and the 45th governor of Louisiana, serving three nonconsecutive terms. Long, known as "Uncle Earl", connected with voters through his folksy demeanor and colorful oratory. He departed from other Southern politicians of his time by promoting a progressive agenda, expanding school-lunch programs, teacher pay, public-works projects, and minority voting rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerald L. K. Smith</span> American politician and clergyman (1898–1976)

Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith was an American clergyman, politician and organizer known for his populist and far-right demagoguery. A leader of the populist Share Our Wealth movement during the Great Depression, afterward he became known for far-right causes including the Christian Nationalist Crusade, which he founded in 1942. He founded the America First Party in 1943 and was its 1944 presidential candidate, winning fewer than 1,800 votes. He was a preeminent antisemite and a white supremacist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam H. Jones</span> American politician

Samuel Houston Jones was the 46th Governor of Louisiana for the term from 1940 to 1944. He defeated the renowned Earl Kemp Long in the 1940 Democratic runoff primary election. Eight years later, Long then in a reversal of 1940 defeated Jones in the 1948 party primary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James A. Noe</span> American politician

James Albert Noe Sr. was an American businessman and politician from Louisiana, who was briefly the 43rd Governor of Louisiana following the death of Oscar K. Allen in 1936.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1960 Louisiana gubernatorial election</span>

The 1960 Louisiana gubernatorial election was held on April 19, 1960.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1934 New Orleans mayoral election</span>

The New Orleans mayoral election of 1934 was held on January 23, 1934. It resulted in the re-election of T. Semmes Walmsley as Mayor of New Orleans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1930 New Orleans mayoral election</span>

The New Orleans mayoral election of 1930, held in January of that year, resulted in the election of T. Semmes Walmsley to his first full term as Mayor of New Orleans.

Dudley Joseph LeBlanc was an American entrepreneur and politician. He created the patent medicine Hadacol and promoted it through the 'Hadacol Caravan' which featured major celebrities of the day including Mickey Rooney, Ava Gardner, Cesar Romero, Hank Williams, and many others. Williams began writing the song 'Jambalaya' while traveling on the Hadacol bus, listening to the Cajun conversation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1928 Louisiana gubernatorial election</span>

The 1928 Louisiana gubernatorial election was held on April 17, 1928. Like in most Southern states between the Reconstruction era and the civil rights movement, Louisiana's Republican Party was virtually nonexistent in terms of electoral support. This meant that the Democratic primary held on January 17 was essentially the real contest to decide the governor, as winning the Democratic nomination would be tantamount to election as governor.

Pelican Publishing Company is a book publisher based in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans. It was acquired in 2019 by Arcadia Publishing, a leading publisher of local and regional content in the United States.

Seymour Weiss was a prominent hotel executive and civic leader from New Orleans, Louisiana, who was a close confidant of the legendary Huey Pierce Long, Jr. Weiss, the most loyal of the Longites, bore the same last name as the apparent Long assassin, Carl Weiss, M.D.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame</span>

The Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame is a museum and hall of fame located in Winnfield, Louisiana. Created by a 1987 act of the Louisiana State Legislature, it honors the best-known politicians and political journalists in the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jamelle Bouie</span> American columnist and political correspondent (born 1987)

Jamelle Antoine Bouie is an American columnist for The New York Times. He was formerly chief political correspondent for Slate. David Uberti, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review in 2019, called Bouie "one of the defining commentators on politics and race in the Trump era".

Lucille May Grace was an American politician who was the Louisiana Register of State Lands from 1931 to 1952 and again from 1956 to 1957. She was the state's first female statewide elected officeholder and first female gubernatorial candidate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assassination of Huey Long</span> 1935 murder in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, US

On Sunday, September 8, 1935, United States senator and former Louisiana governor Huey Long was fatally shot at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Long was an extremely popular and influential politician at the time, and his death eliminated a possible 1936 presidential bid against incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political views of Huey Long</span> Longism

The political views of Huey P. Long have presented historians and biographers with some difficulty. While most say that Louisiana Governor and Senator Huey Long was a populist, little else can be agreed on. Huey Long's opponents, both during his life and after, often drew connections between him and his ideology and far-left and right political movements, comparing it to everything from European Fascism, Stalinism, and later McCarthyism. When asked about his own political personality, Long simply replied: "Oh, hell, say that I’m sui generis and let it go at that." Writer Robert Penn Warren said "my guess is he was a remarkable set of contradictions."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">US Senate career of Huey Long</span> American Politician, Governor, Senator

Huey Long, the former governor of Louisiana, served in the United States Senate from 1932 until his assassination in 1935. A powerful figure, Long was integral in Franklin Roosevelt's 1932 Democratic Nomination and the election of the first woman, Hattie Caraway, to the US Senate. He was investigated for election discrepancies regarding the election of his friend John H. Overton, but no evidence of fraud was found. He proposed sweeping legislation, known as the Share Our Wealth plan, to end the Great Depression. Long often used filibusters to prevent or slow the passage of New Deal legislation.

Huey Long, governor of Louisiana and US Senator, has inspired or been portrayed in numerous cultural works. He has served as the template for fascistic politicians in novels like It Can't Happen Here (1935), A Lion Is in the Streets (1945), and All the King's Men (1946). The latter two were adapted into Oscar-winning films.

References

  1. ↑ "A Man in Full," Lester Sullivan, Gambit Weekly, July 27, 1999.
  2. ↑ "Long's Arm of the Law," Susan Larsen, Times-Picayune, October 4, 1998.
  3. ↑ "Huey Long Invades New Orleans," David Roberts, the Bloomsbury Review, April 1999.
  4. ↑ "Book Reviews," Michael Kurtz, Journal of American History, March 2000, 1842.
  5. ↑ "The Big Lie," Jerry Samson, Louisiana History, Winter 2003, 120-22.
  6. ↑ "The Big Lie," Pamela Tyler, Journal of Southern History, May 2003.
  7. ↑ United States House of Representatives. "BOGGS, Thomas Hale, Sr. (1914-1972) / Extended Bibiliography". bioguideretro.congress.gov. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
  8. ↑ "Book Review," Glen Jeansonne, Louisiana History, Spring 2004
  9. ↑ "The Long and Short of it," Angus Lind, Times-Picayune , July 30, 2003
  10. ↑ "Book Reviews," Gordon Harvey, Arkansas Review, April 2004
  11. ↑ Library of Congress. "Research Guides / Franklin Pierce: A Resource Guide". guides.loc.gov. Library of Congress. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
  12. ↑ Cain, Áine (April 20, 2017). "How one of the worst US presidents in history alienated Congress to the point that he was impeached". Business Insider. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
  13. ↑ Fox, Justin (November 21, 2018). "Trump's 2018 Hasn't Been as Bad as Andrew Johnson's 1866". BNN Bloomberg. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
  14. ↑ Bouie, Jamelle (October 2, 2019). "Andrew Johnson's Violent Language — and Trump's". The New York Times. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
  15. ↑ Carafano, James Jay (February 16, 2020). "Happy Presidents' Day! I Ranked the 5 Best and 5 Worst U.S. Presidents Ever". The National Interest. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  16. ↑ Boulard, Garry (June 28, 2020). "My Turn: The most important legacy of Franklin Pierce, 'an attorney of the first order'". Concord Monitor. Concord New Hampshire. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  17. ↑ White House Historical Association (8 April 2021). "History Happy Hour: Franklin Pierce's Perseverance". www.whitehousehistory.org. White House Historical Association. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.