Bright Lights Revealed: Book Talk with Author John Bardes

Admission is free, and registration is encouraged.

Recently the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities announced The Carceral City: Slavery and the Making of Mass Incarceration in New Orleans by John Bardes as the 2025 Humanities Book of the Year. This award honors a book that best exemplifies scholarship on Louisiana topics or by Louisiana writers.

About the Book:

In “The Carceral City” Bardes examines connections between slavery and later systems of incarceration, exploring how slavery, prisons, and race are linked in American history. Bardes’s research dives into a breadth of materials from Louisiana university archives at LSU, Tulane, and Xavier to the US Library of Congress and National Archives. Grounding his work in primary source documents, Bardes’s gripping storytelling connects the past to the present.

About the Author:

John Bardes is a historian of slavery, race and emancipation at Louisiana State University.

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