Bourbon Street, one of the four original streets in the city of New Orleans, has evolved over more than three centuries from a middle-class mix of homes and schools to a center of entertainment ranging from the bawdy to the elegant. In this role, it has come to represent, in the mind of many, the city itself.

Geography, as Campanella shows, shaped history. First staked out by France in 1682, La Nouvelle-Orleans was designed and built between 1717 and 1722, angled to follow the Mississippi River and to provide a sound defense against other colonial powers. Rue Bourbon, named for the French royal House of Bourbon, was the fourth street from the river; as the settlement grew, it fell between the busy docks and the elegant Royal and Chartres Streets near the Mississippi River and the less affluent backside of the town, mired in swamps, at the far end. For...

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