Louisiana had been part of the United States for a little over a year when, on 9 January 1805, Charles Etienne Arthur Gayarré was born--the man whose name became, and remains, synonymous with the history of the region. At the time of Gayarré's birth the United States was grappling with the multiple problems of how to amalgamate the Mediterranean traditions of Louisiana with the Anglo-Saxon heritage of the remainder of the nation. Gayarré helped to explain those traditions and by his life and writings exemplified the Americanization of Louisiana. In his ninety years Gayarré could not eliminate his Franco-Hispanic culture, nor could his native state. In the process of explaining his native state to the rest of the nation and to those within the area, Gayarré became one of the South's foremost antebellum historians. Praise of his work has continued for well over a...