Book excerpt: Today, Shreveport boasts the largest collection of important twentieth-century buildings in the state of Louisiana, and is surpassed only by New Orleans in the number of locations listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Well-known Shreveport historian Eric J. Brock details the history of the city's commerce, civic development, neighborhoods, architecture, cemeteries, peculiar events, culture, religion, and education. Based on his columns for the long-running series, "The Presence of the Past," which appeared weekly in the Shreveport JournalPage, it is the result of many years of documentation and research. One can witness the breakup of the Great Raft, relive the yellow fever epidemic of 1873, sing along at the Louisiana Hayride, and retrace the steps of Martin Luther King, Jr. Written in response to an overwhelming number of requests and suggestions for a book of its kind, Eric Brock's Shreveport should fill the void for academic books depicting the area.