Down the Susquehanna to the Chesapeake (Keystone Books)

Rating:
Summary: Examines both the natural and human history of the river
Review: Down The Susquehanna To The Chesapeake by Jack Brubaker (columnist for the Lancaster New Era) traces the course of the Susquehanna River as it winds through New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland ending at the Chesapeak bay. Comprised of 56 brief chapters discussing key locations along the route, as well as how the river changes from its sources to the sea, the reader is informed as to how natural resources influence and shape the lives of the people and the communities along the way. Brubaker deftly examines both the natural and human history of the river, exploring how it has been both used and abused, its current condition and its future prospects. Of special note is how this unusually shallow, rocky river has substantially altered its drainage pattern over geologic time and how it continues to cut channels while erasing and creating islands. Enhanced with more than 70 maps and illustrations, Down The Susquehanna To The Chesapeake is a fascinating, well written, highly recommended treatise and would serve as an admirable model to writing about and exploring the histories of other major American rivers.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reading
Review: It should come as no surprise that I would pick up DOWN THE SUSQUEHANNA TO THE CHESAPEAKE since I live within a few blocks (and, gratefully, a few feet above the flood plain) of the beautiful Susquehanna River. However, I read it not because I heard about it from local sources but because the estimable literary critic, Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post, named it as a top non-fiction book of 2002, a competitive year for quality publishing. In other words, this book is that good and I recommend it not only to fellow citizens of the huge watershed that feeds the river but to everyone.

Author Jack Brubaker reminds me of John McPhee as he deftly corrals a considerable volume of information on both natural and human history into a fine narrative. The Susquehanna offers universal lessons in the human effect on our waters and the effect of the waters on humans. The river is an important feature in Pre-Columbian cultures in North America and its European contacts go all the way back to 1588. Settlements as far north as Northumberland were originally considered as possible sites for our nation's capital. The river is an often ironic education in the development of American commerce and the Industrial and technological revolutions. It is the seat of Three Mile Island, the victim of Hurricane Agnes, the source of our drinking water, the playground of sportsmen, and, down river, the power behind major electrical companies. It is at once strong and fragile, feeding yet threatening the Chesapeake Bay. Its obvious non-navigability has frustrated developers for nearly four centuries now, though someone in Congress decided to have it declared navigable. There are thousands of stories to tell and Brubaker pulls together the most representative in a lucid trip from the headsprings to the Susquehanna's actual submerged mouth at the edge of the Atlantic.