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| |  | Health, Mind & Body | Home » » » RISING TIDE: THE GREAT MISSISSIPPI FLOOD OF 1927 AND HOW IT CHANGED AMERICA | | | | | | | Description: | | An American epic of science, politics, race, honor, high society, and the Mississippi River, Rising Tide tells the riveting and nearly forgotten story of the greatest natural disaster this country has ever known -- the Mississippi flood of 1927. The river inundated the homes of nearly one million people, helped elect Huey Long governor and made Herbert Hoover president, drove hundreds of thousands of blacks north, and transformed American society and politics forever. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year, winner of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award and the Lillian Smith Award. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| John M. Barry | | Paperback:
| 528 pages | | Publisher:
| Simon & Schuster | | Publication Date:
| April 02, 1998 | | Package Length:
| 9.0 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.1 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.3 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.35 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 118 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
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 A historical eye opener to the laws of physics vs. politics...Dec 28, 2009
This book provides an eye-opening history of how our country began planning, designing, financing and building our nations infrastructure. It involves competing egos of brillant men who challenged one another through the laws of physics and politics that all came to reality during the Great Flood of 1927. The Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans in 2005 tells us we didn't learn our lessons in '27. Have we learned them now? Only time will tell. This book will continue to be a popular historical read as future floods challenge our levee systems and flood control projects across the nation. It should be required reading for anyone involved in public service; especially those who work for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
 a story of the flood, but not the aftermathDec 28, 2009
I highly recommend this book, but not for the sake of the subtitle. I expected a story of the flood and then a telling of the "great migration" that must have followed, but that is not this book. This riveting story begins about a few key men who tried to tame (direct) the river in good times and, more importantly, in flood times. In the beginning, the mid-1800s, rival engineers argue over and build various flood control systems. This part tells the tale of good science versus political connections. In the middle, mid-1800s to early 1900s, plantations are built in the Yazoo-Mississippi delta. Apparently the richest farmland imaginable on earth -- fortunes are made, slaves are kept, then sharecroppers are employed. Again, politics and flood control mix to mediocre effect. Last, the story of the great 1927 flood is told. For the bulk of the human aspect of the story, the author chose west-central Mississippi (Greenville) down the river to New Orleans and the Gulf. One great lesson is how vast the Mississippi delta truly is. Ohio to Colorado, Minnesota to Louisiana, the combined river system is staggeringly interconnected.
A Chance Encounter With a Great Author!Oct 07, 2009
I happened across this book at the library, during a very snowy period in Wisconsin last winter. Many thanks to the author, as it is a wonderful book for someone who loves history and a great story. I will never forget it. It really enlightened me as to what factors made up our American history. The events drew my mind to what my grandparent's lives were like in those days. It's not trite to say that this book was riveting, as so few are these days. Very well done!
What a great readSep 06, 2009
Rising Tide is a too overlooked book and a must-read. It reads like a novel but it's painfully true. With the great (amazingly great) flood of 1927 as the central character, it's a tale of the river from the mid-17th century, a tale of politics, civil rightsd and New Orleans power eleites. Don't miss it!
America untamedJul 21, 2009
There are several stories here intertwined that make an epic mosaic of Mississippian proportions. The interacial relations always on the background of what the high potentates -both from Washington and otherwise- decided to do with the lives of those under their arrogant and jealous rule, blacks and whites, and otherwise too. All classes of Americans are presented here during those fast and furious years of America's coming-of-age. The genious of America, the enterprising, the ambitions and dreams, and the sheer survival skills against all odds. Alas, America untamed.
Here are the engineers who competed to tame the Mississippi; here are the rich and poor; the genius and the average; the privileged and the oppressed; all together in a land that reminds one of many biblical passages: Eden and the expulsion therefrom; the Deluge, of course ...and not to forget that 'love of money is the root of evil'. I keep wondering if teenage America could have grown to be a real man, and not the mama's boy it's become for good if the leaders of the country then weren't the up-to-no-good rascals they were, and instead, were worthy of the Adamses, Washingtons, Jeffersons and all those who made the country whose flag we now burn and despise.
Well told; not at all in the sanctimonious tone one would expect; fast paced, right to the point, entertaining all the time. A little too technical, perhaps, when dwelling in the engineering chapters of the levees, but nothing serious. Read it, y'all, you Washintongs and Benedict Arnolds.
"The harvest is past,
the summer is ended,
and we are not saved!"
Jer. 8:20
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