Rating: 
Summary: Great readable human history
Review: A fabulous story with a brilliant use of interlocking lesser stories on the river, hydro engineering, the Percys of Greenville, the power in New Orleans, and pre-depression era politics. The sections on Herbert Hoover, in dramatic contrast to the rest of the book, are profoundly boring. A few sources cited in the footnotes are missing from the bibliography; several of the tantalizing photo captions have no elaboration in the book; oral history recorded 70 years after the fact that slanders character should be more carefully handled. Barry makes too much of the flood as a major cause of black northward migration (read first part of Nick Lemann's PROMISED LAND for balance) and not enough of the, for some, inevitable claiming of the extreme lower Mississippi by the Atchafalaya (read about it in John McFee's CONTROL OF NATURE).Still, Barry's book is an awesome story based on a staggering amount of research; a present to us from somone who loves to show how much he loves his subjec
Rating: 
Summary: The South Will Never Rise Again, the Mississippi will.
Review: What a wonderful book(s) in the sense that there are three books here. The first, a history of the successful conversion of the Mississippi River to a navigable water way, the second, an impassioned view of the flood of 1927 and the third, a bittersweet memorial to Greenville Mississippi, now the home to shabby riverboat gambling hells and some "New South" light industry.
The Missippi waterway is a triumph of civil engineering but the morass of US Army Corps of Engineers bureaucracy is once again, in our times, being attacked by luddites opposed to managed rivers. The flood of 1927 that resulted in my parents marriage, altered life in the South and led to the migration of rural black people to the Northern cities where they were treated as badly as ever. The epic of the Percy family and the agony of poor Will, lyric, ...living in the shadow of daddy, but war hero, are American tragedies beyond the understanding of folks from the North: or are they?
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Stunning
Review: As a resident of Louisiana I found the history of my state discussed in this novel enthralling. The sheer scope of events both on a national and local level that the flood affected was amazing, and the way in which Barry describes historical events in detail while still maintaining the drama of the events makes this a very satisfying read. Not a boring history book, I would recommend it to anyone!
Rating: 
Summary: Starts strong, then loses its way
Review: The first section of this book, a "rippin yarn", recounts the fascinating careers of several 19th century men who made their marks on the Mississippi River. The rest of the book is a hodge-podge of variously intriguing and pointless factors leading up to and flowing from the 1927 flood (Why drag the Taylorites into this?). The author spares no effort to bludgeon the reader into accepting that the flood was one of the watershed events of the era, but it doesn't wash. The characterization of key figures is heavy-handed and simplistic, evoking a class struggle in which the rich and powerful (New Orleans (hiss), the Percy family and Herbert Hoover) were all, ultimately if not sooner, evil, or, worse yet, seeking more power. Also, after excoriating the bureaucracies (especially the Corps of Engineers) that made the flood inevitable, the author provides virtually no information about what has been done to deal with the River in the subsequent 70 years. I might tolerate such failings in a magazine article, but not in a work with pretensions to stand as a history reference work.
Rating:
Summary: Fast paced, exciting...
Review: A joy to read. History that doesn't get bogged down in superfluous detail. Excellent.
Rating:
Summary: as good as it gets
Review: I just finished this author's most recent book (The Great Influenza, about the 1918 pandemic), which was an amazing book, so I went looking for what else he had written. Rising Tide is every bit as good. Like his book on influenza, it combines great drama and great characters, then places them in a larger context with an extremely well-researched, provocative, and original rendering of the social and political history of the time. Also like the influenza book, Rising Tide brilliantly addresses and explains scientific questions (how to handle the Mississippi River). Finally, this too is a great book. Why isn't this guy better known? He's as good a writer as Caro or McCullough and handles more complex subjects.
Rating:
Summary: Historically accurate, well researched
Review: A good education on a fascinating subject by a smart, well informed author. A joy to read.
Rating:
Summary: One of best books we have read.
Review: This book was referred to us by friends in Montana. My husband and I read it this summer. The book is well-documented and provides outstanding insight into far more than flooding of the Mississippi. The book is an outstanding textbook on history of the real politics in the south. I grew up in the south and certainly never read these details in my history texts. We could hardly put this book down and wish that John Barry would write more books. His preciseness, insightfulness and writing skills keep one reading, intrigued and generate more interest. Great book for discussion and further research. Like other readers we want to read his other books. Where are you John? Write more!
Rating:
Summary: impressive
Review: I read this book several years ago and it still haunts me. I would give "Rising Tide" a 4.5 star rating were that a choice because there was so much to enjoy in its' scope. I remember a good introduction to the efforts to control the Mighty Mississippi. I remember the plight of Greenville, Mississippi and many other communities along the river. However, I remember the situation in Louisiana most of all. There the City of New Orleans made a deal with some of the lesser populated Cajun parishes to flood their land in order to save the city. The deal had a devastating affect on the Cajuns and was largely forgotten by the city fathers of New Orleans. These vignettes stand out because the author, John Barry, has a reporters sense of weaving vital facts in with human interest stories to give an inside look to an important yet largely forgotten event in American History.Everybody has his or her favorite body of water. For many it's an ocean, for some a lake or a trout stream. For me it has always been the Mississippi River. Ever since I first saw it as a child, I was impressed. Even though I have lived by the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers for the last 22 years, I have not changed my opinion. The vast expanse and power of this river is truly something to behold. "Rising Tide" is worthy of its' subject and that is saying a lot.
Rating:
Summary: The Past Repeats Itself
Review: John Barry begins his story with a prologue that describes a quasi-aristocratic party held near the Mississippi River with the threat of a flood hanging overhead. The leading men in the city attending the party are given a warning of the threat that the levees may not hold and they then drive out to the levees to examine them. The prologue leaves the reader hanging wondering the importance of the men and the relevance over whether the levees hold. In the following pages, Barry outlines his thesis as this: the 1927 Mississippi River flood changed the political, economic, and social structures in America, and how man's pride in controlling nature and was a failure. The Reviewer's Analysis
I would commend Barry for his historical venture into the Mississippi River country. Barry was at times biased in his approach, but he did keep this to a minimum and did not let it deter his story. An example would be the dynamiting of the levee: Barry implies that this was unnecessary; however, he does so in only a few areas. Barry gives almost seventy pages of documentation at the end of the book for the reader to check his work. The book's most compelling aspect in my opinion was the first section describing the engineering theory and the ensuing political battles. Its greatest shortcoming was jumping from city to city throughout the book. I also am curious as to whether the destruction of St. Bernard Parish in the twenties impeded the progress of the parish at the present time, but that is perhaps beyond the scope of this work. Overall I would recommend this work to anyone living near a river and has fought floods in the past. No doubt they can sympathize with the trials and triumphs of those who battled the flood. I believe they would find it enjoyable.
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