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Rising Tide- The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America

5 stars (Of Man and the River) - If you thought Hurricane Katrina packed a devastating whallop to the Louisiana and Mississippi Coast, wait until you read this engrossing story of the 1927 Great Mississippi Flood which inundated the entire Misssissippi Delta. Barry does a great job of providing the background for the levee system which has repeatedly failed the Delta because beauracrats were unwilling to bend to any common sense when it came to handling the mighty Mississippi. They insisted on building their levees higher and wider, channeling the river into a raging torrent come high water. The Army Corps of Engineers chose to cling to outdated manuscripts rather than study the situation first hand, which was repeatedly asked for by civil engineers who saw a monumental crisis in the making. Barry makes a good case for Eads' proposal for jetties in deepening the mouth of the Mississippi and creating a greater flow of water into the Gulf of Mexico. While this was done primarily to increase navigation into and from the Port of New Orleans, jetties would have made a lot more sense than a system of levees that essentially served to choke the river. To make matters worse the Corps systematically closed off spillways and refused to cut canals even after the 1922 flood should have served as a warning call. But, Barry treats the rising Mississippi as a metaphorical tool as well, describing Jim Crow South in intimate detail, contrasting the bigoted paternalism of the Percy family with the malignant growth of the Ku Klux Klan, and its impact on Southern politics. It is a well written book that focuses mostly on the Mississippi Delta, the cultural and economic battle for this prized acreage and the river that would ultimately engulf the region. 5 stars (Prophetic and lively read) - John Barry's superb RISING TIDE can be viewed through many prisms, but obviously today, we will all see it through post-Hurricane Katrina eyes. Let it first be said that Barry is a superb ...
Simon - Schuster :: History & United States & 20th Century :: United States - State & Local - General :: United States - 20th Century&20s :: Natural Disasters :: Mississippi Rive :: Rising Tide- The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America