West Baton Rouge Parish was established in 1807 along the banks of the Mississippi River across from what would become Louisiana's capital. Its connection to the river has long been an attraction for the people who live here and the pioneers who first settled the area more than 200 years ago. Today, the parish has three incorporated towns--Addis, Brusly, and Port Allen. Because of the rich alluvial soil deposited by the Mississippi River, West Baton Rouge largely became an agricultural community; sugar has always been it biggest crop. In the early 20th century, the Texas & Pacific Railroad made the community a bustling hub. Over the years, West Baton Rouge's position along the river attracted petrochemical companies like Dow, ShinTech, and Placid Refining Company. Now, the parish has one of the largest deepwater ports and a thriving major chemical and manufacturing industry.

''The History of West Baton Rouge Parish: People, Places, Progress'' is comprehensive. This book will take readers from discovery of the area now called West Baton Rouge Parish from the end of the seventeenth century to 2010. Readers will not only experience the age of steamboats and frontiersmen, they will also discover the complexity of a parish adapting to the various influences of the twentieth century and beyond. This book describes in chronological order how the parish evolved through economic, political, and social developments with stories of individuals that helped mold a community.

In the United States, places of drink are historically linked to community and social interactions, and such establishments often possess loyal patrons for whom going to the local bar is a natural and routine part of their daily life. In People, Place, and Attachment in Local Bars, John McEwen places drinking establishments at the fore of American geography as containers of material culture and collective history. McEwen draws on ethnographic data collected in four local bars in West Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to present a new unified theory of people-place relationships. McEwen highlights sense of place, place attachment, and the concept of rootedness.