Rating: 
Summary: I couldn't put it down.
Review: I love history, but most history books are not what you would call "page turners." This one is, despite the fact that it begins the story of a 1927 event in the mid-19th century, with extensive biographies of two men long dead by the time the flood occurred. The writing is terrific. Open any page and Barry hits you with another gem. This is a great and important story, beautifully told. Get it. Read it. You won't be sorry.
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Summary: How American Politics Changed Forever
Review: No one remembers the 1927 flood, or even that it happened; but it was the events surrounding that single event which more than anything else gave us modern America, and John Barry's book is essential to understanding it.Obviously the book gives a full account of the flood itself, of the history of the river and of the delta, of the people who carved a nation out of wilderness and who lived and died in the catastrophe; without a doubt, Barry does all this, and does it in gripping style: the book is hard to put down. But Barry does far more. In telling the story, he shows how a heretofore anti-socialist America was forced by unprecedented circumstance to embrace an enormous, Washington-based big-government solution to the greatest natural catastrophe in our history, preparing the way (psychologically and otherwise) for the New Deal. He shows how this was accomplished through the Republican (but left-wing) Herbert Hoover, who would never have become President without the flood. Most importantly, he shows how Hoover's foolish, all-encompassing arrogance single-handedly drove the backbone of the Republican Party -- African Americans -- away from the GOP and into the arms of the segregationist, generally pro-KKK Democrats (a truly amazing feat). It is an amazing tale indeed. It holds important lessons for the future as well. Hoover's loss of the black community is a lesson virtually unknown to modern readers (who generally assume they just drifted away under the New Deal), and holds important (and perhaps urgent) lessons for modern Democrats and Republicans alike. But on a more fundamental level, the book teaches us the power of the river, a lesson we've forgotten even in the face of some reasonably large modern floods. Someday, possibly very soon, the levy system will likely be destroyed by the long-predicted earthquake along the New Madrid Fault: when that day comes, the lessons of Rising Tide will be life and death matters. Southerners in particular may ignore Rising Tide only at their peril.
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Summary: Rising Tide
Review: This book combines a little engineering with some history of the lower Mississippi river area starting in the 1870's and then into the 1920's, culminating with the flood of 1927. I am not an historian but I found this book easy reading. The Percy family history embedded in it, is really interesting and I found myself wanting the author to mention somewhere if there were any connection to Senator Charles Percy of Illinois.
Rating:
Summary: A must read!
Review: As a transplanted "Yankee" living in the South, I had no idea as to the impact this one event had upon my adopted home and beloved culture. This book read like a novel, hits all the facts, and tells one of the most important stories of the Twentieth Century. Mr. Barry has done an amazing job of making History come alive, and shows how these events and our actions still haunt/help us to this day. A FANTASTIC BOOK!
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Summary: Deep water in the deep south
Review: Deep water in the deep south. Politics, ignorance, and greed for some of the richest land on earth set up the awesome Mississippi river for a flood so catastrophic that it literally toppled some of the societal and political structures of the time. If you like deep cause and effect historical writing you'll find this book rich and interesting. But what makes Rising Tide really great is Barry's story telling, it reads like brilliant historical fiction....but it's true! Highly recommended for all you non-fiction fanatics...a classic to have on your bookshelf.
Rating:
Summary: an amazing book, likely to become a classic
Review: Rising Tide has joined my short list of all-time personal favorites, and I am an eclectic reader who does not limit his choices to history. It's amazing both for its form, style, and substance. Re: Form: It manages to synthesize seemingly unrelated material (engineering, the Klan, the decline of New Orleans, race, control of the media, just to give a few examples) in a way that not only works but opens your eyes to the world in new ways. Re: Style: Several other reviewers have commented on how this book reads like a novel. Let me correct that,. It reads like a GOOD novel. Nonfiction is always trying to do this, but few succeed. This succeeds. Re; Substance: Rising Tide very simply teaches a tremendous amount of information that gives you a far better understanding of why things are the way they are. Re: race & politics, the book gives considerable and very original and provocative insight into the history of race relations in the Deep South, and how changes-- some of which were made by the flood-- shifted black voters from the GOP to the Democrats. Re: presidential politics, even the emergence of the New Deal, the book has something piercing and original to say. And of course on anything to do with rivers, this is an absolte must. In fact, it's a must anyway.
Rating: 
Summary: A fascinating event, but not a fascinating read
Review: The subject is indeed fascinating and neglected, but the author's treatment is often annoying. The descriptions of the flood's force and devestation suffer from repetitive, empty, hyperbole. And there is too much "deep background" on each historical figure. Like some of the other reviewers, I appreciated the early material on civil engineering, and grew weary of the later material on Hoover and the Percy family, and the New Orleans elites. For those who are most interested in controlling the river, I highly recommend John McPhee's piece on the Atchafalya river's attempt to capture the Mississippi in "Control of Nature."
Rating: 
Summary: Those who forget the past -- ought to read this.
Review: The great Mississippi Flood of 1927, one of THE greatest disasters in American history, is now largely forgotten despite the social upheavals it caused. What is eerie about "Rising Tide" is the parallels between the events of 1927 and the floods of 1993 and how the lessons of the past follies in flood control have been largely forgotten. Of course the 1993 floods caused no major social upheavals and that is at least as important to the story. At least we've evolved as a society to the point where a small clique of power brokers could never be allowed to deliberately flood a poor parrish to save their own homes. At least, I hope. This is a highly readable and very informative book for history buffs.
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Summary: One of the great events of the 20th century
Review: I agree with Frank Konopka's reaction to this amazing story. This was one of the more important domestic stories of the 20th century and I am amazed that more is not made of this great American tragedy. But in John Barry's able hands it is so much more. It is interesting to see how the event played out on a national scale, with reverberation that shook the entire nation and helped Herbert Hoover ascend to the presidency (for better or worse). The story also provides a vivid picture of the cruelty of the Jim Crow South in the years leading up to the depression.
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Summary: Epic Tragedy in the Yazoo Valley
Review: I'm a native Louisianian (Baton Rouge), and this book brings to light a historical event I never really heard that much about growing up, which is strange when you learn that 95% of my living family's from New Orleans. Barry creates a vivid picture of the Deep South in the share- cropper period (for some people, it was always the Depression) and of New Orleans and Louisiana before Huey Long, when the state was under the thumb of the Old Bourbons and still mortgaged to Standard Oil. The different strata of society affected by the flood are given a good deal of exposure, and Barry does a good job of linking the Republican Administration's flaccid response to the catastrophe with the changing political loyalties of sharecroppers and others. I thought he could have gone deeper with some of his analyses, and perhaps commented on the similar phenomenon of the present-day Mississippi changing course, flooding the Atchafalaya, permanently destroying the wetlands, and perhaps altering the political universe in the Deep South once more. Altogether, though, this book is definitely worth reading, for its dramatic retelling of a catastrophic tale and its insights into 1920s Southern society.
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