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

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Summary: Flawed by acceptance of Percy's view
Review: A wonderfully absorbing book, but flawed by acceptance of W.A. Percy's view that Mississippi consisted of a tiny white aristocracy, a white underclass, and the blacks. The people of Mississippi, black and white, formed and form a far richer and more complex tapestry than is portrayed by Barry. Makes one suspect that Barry's account of New Orleans may be similarly distorted. Nevertheless a great read, whatever its defects as history, sociology, anthropology

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Summary: Overflowing with History
Review: I was surprised at the breadth, as well as the depth, of Rising Tide. Using the mighty Mississippi to tell the story of American engineering, economic, and political history was a brilliant idea. The execution is also flawless, flowing along with a pace that makes the book difficult to put down. Superb

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Summary: A book of extraordinary richness and texture.
Review: RISING TIDE is a brilliant book. The book is nominally about a flood in 1927 that made ONE MILLION people homeless. Yet the book includes everything from a histroy of the development of the engineering profession (built around the story of James Eads, a man more impressive than any Ayn Rand character) and the profession's impact on society to the social forces behind the Ku Klux Klan and Mardi Gras. A stunning narrative succeds in weaving it all together. The flood's repercussions were as big as the disaster itself: it permanently changed southern and presidential politics, redefined race relations in part of the country, and shifted America's population. And, the next time you read a story about a flood you'll know more about how rivers and floods work than whoever wrote it. This book is special, and you will not forget it

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Summary: Jonathan Yardley in The Washington Post, 4/28/97
Review: "Rising Tide" is a big, ambitious book that is not merely engrossing and informative but also has the potential to change the way we think, and thus the way we act, about great rivers and the waters that run through them....This is, no kidding, breathtaking stuff;..."Rising Tide" is splendid and informative reading

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Summary: Unique insight into America's natural disaster
Review: Recently in The Washington Post columnist Jonathan Yardley wrote of this book " . . . breathtaking stuff," predicting it could be "One of those rare exceptions . . . a book that gets out into the larger culture, that acquires social and political as well as literary and/or journalistic import." Absolutely. The greatest natural disaster that the United States has ever experienced is the Missisippi flood of 1927. Read "Rising Tide" to put into context all other natural disasters you may know about, up to and including the floods of current media coverage. "Rising Tide" not only relates amazing detail about the physical flood, but also tells us about scoundrels and heroes, from the most obscure to the most famous. John M. Barry brings his unique insight, based on his years of research, to present us American history as never fully revealed before. This book is a "10."

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Summary: A diverse presention of an extremely important subject
Review: Mr. Barry has done a very credible job in trying to present a history of the the great Mississippi flood of 1927. After reading the book, one cannot help but to wonder what might have happened to the crescent city if the levee had not been blown up. Would Huey Long have ever bcome a power to be recognized? Would Herbert Hoover had been elected President? Would the plight of the Afro-American been reduced or increased? The major problem with the book is the diversity used in trying to bring this disaster into perspective. Perhaps some of the references noted in the back of the book would lead some to wonder if these were innuendo or just idle gossip? The Mississippi is a river that is not only a stream creates life in the surrounding lands as it flow by, but also creates thoughts and feelings in any writer who has either seen or experienced it's might.

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Summary: Publishers Weekly, boxed and starred review
Review: [A] gripping grassroots epic, redolent with gothic passions of the Old South....An extraordinary tale of greed, power politics, racial conflict and bureaucratic incompetence

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Summary: Kirkus, starred review
Review: A devastating flood is both the protagonist and the backdrop of this brilliantly narrated epic story of the misuse of engineering in thrall to politics...A fascinating, cautionary tale of humans versus nature

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Summary: Tom Wicker
Review: Rising Tide is the kind of history I love--the brilliantly told story of the great Mississippi flood of 1927, a disaster for millions but the making of a future President and a turning point for the nation

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Summary: David Herbert Donald, author of Lincoln
Review: John M. Barry's Rising Tide is a highly original and absorbing book, which I found fascinating. His account of the great Mississippi River flood of 1927 brilliantly recaptures the panic, the desperation, and the suffering of one of the greatest natural disasters in American history