In 1927, the Mississippi River swept across an area roughly equal in size to Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont combined, leaving water as deep as thirty feet on the land stretching from Illinois and Missouri south to the Gulf of Mexico. Close to a million people -- in a nation of 120 million -- were forced out of their homes. Some estimates place the death toll in the thousands. The Red Cross fed nearly 700,000 refugees for months.
Rising Tide is the story of this forgotten event, the greatest natural disaster this country has ever known. But it is not simply a tale of disaster. The flood transformed part of the nation and had a major cultural and political impact on the rest. Rising Tide is an American epic about science, race, honor, politics, and society.
Rising Tide begins in the 19th century, when the first serious attempts to control the river began. From the engineers and the dominant families in the Delta to the New Orleans elite, Rising Tide tells how the flood changed the face of American and laid the groundwork for the New Deal.
When Mother Nature rages, the physical results are never subtle. Because we cannot contain the weather, we can only react by tabulating the damage in dollar amounts, estimating the number of people left homeless, and laying the plans for rebuilding. But as John M. Barry expertly details in Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, some calamities transform much more than the landscape.
While tracing the history of the nation's most destructive natural disaster, Barry explains how ineptitude and greed helped cause the flood, and how the policies created to deal with the disaster changed the culture of the Mississippi Delta. Existing racial rifts expanded, helping to launch Herbert Hoover into the White House and shifting the political alliances of many blacks in the process. An absorbing account of a little-known, yet monumental event in American history, Rising Tide reveals how human behavior proved more destructive than the swollen river itself.

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

Just right:

The book was exactly as described. It arrived promptly and was well-packed. I'm a happy buyer.

Utterly Fascinating Account of Men vs. the Mississippi!:

What's left to say about a book after 100+ reviewers have already had their say? Given some of the insightful reviews posted on John Barry's book, there's probably little new to offer. Yet I felt Barry's book on the great flood of 1927 was so good I wanted to add my "atta-boy" to those countless other readers who found the book (1) a fascinating account of man vs. the Mississippi and (2) an absolute page-turner. I enjoyed this book more than any I can think of in recent memory and would recommend it to... more info

Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927:

Great reading! This book is a terrific combination of science, history and politics. It was hard to put down, and kept me interested like a good novel does.

Book Club loved this book:

My book club of 7 very different women all loved this book. It is a riveting story of the development of the Mississippi River Delta area and how Louisiana came to be what it is today. The story starts in the 1920-30s and is a fascinating tale of politics, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, New Orleans, local politics, racial relations, the engineering of the Mississippi River, the beginnings of the Corps of Engineers and Civil Engineers, natural disasters, national politics, etc. Really an amazing book that we... more info

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