News release Public Information Office   SLU 10880   Hammond, LA 70402   phone: 985-549-2341   fax: 985-549-2061 publicinfo@selu.edu     www.selu.edu/news Contact: Christina Chapple Date: 6/16/03 Click on image for publication quality photo LOUISIANA SCHOLARS -- Southeastern Louisiana University history professors Michael L. Kurtz, left, and Samuel C. Hyde Jr, are among the scholars who have contributed to a Louisiana Public Broadcasting series and companion book celebrating Louisiana history. SOUTHEASTERN PROFESSORS CONTRIBUTE TO LOUISIANA HISTORY BOOK, TELEVISION SERIES       HAMMOND -- Southeastern Louisiana University history professors Samuel C. Hyde Jr. and Michael L. Kurtz are among the scholars who have contributed to a public television series and companion book celebrating Louisiana history.       Hyde, director of the university’s Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies and the Ford Chair in Regional Studies, and Kurtz, dean of the Graduate School, contributed to  Louisiana: An Illustrated History and Louisiana Public Broadcasting’s upcoming documentary series, “Louisiana: A History.”       Louisiana: An Illustrated History is the 224-page companion book to Louisiana Public Broadcasting’s landmark documentary series “Louisiana: A History,” which will premiere Sept. 14 as part of the Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial celebration. The late historian, Stephen Ambrose wrote  the book’s introduction and hosts each of the series’ six one-hour episodes.       Hyde said the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies’ resources, including its photographic collections and his own expertise, were tapped for the book and series. Hyde is the author of Pistols and Politics: The Dilemma of Democracy in Louisiana’s Florida Parishes, and has edited two books for the Center, Sunbelt Revolution: The Historical Progression of the Civil Rights Struggle in the Gulf South, 1866-2000, and Plain Folk of the South Revisited. He helped edit the narrative for several segments and was interviewed about Louisiana’s reconstruction period.       Kurtz, who is co-author of a biography of Louisiana Governor Earl Long, was a consultant on the series’ last two episodes, which cover the state’s history from the era of Governor Huey Long to the present. In addition to the Longs, the episodes deal with topics such as governors John McKeithen, Edwin Edwards, and Mike Foster; Senators Russell Long, Mary Landrieu, and John Breaux; and the civil rights movement.       The book’s author, award-winning screenwriter Charles Richard, tells a spellbinding tale of the state’s colorful past and present. Image editor, internationally acclaimed documentary producer Tika Laudun, and a staff of researchers, searched museums, archives and private collections throughout the world to find historically relevant and rarely seen images to tell the story of Louisiana and her people as never before.       During the writing process, LPB consulted the most knowledgeable and renowned scholars of Louisiana history and utilized hundreds of interviews with people who lived the most important events of the last century. Return to News Releases