Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

Starts strong, then loses its way:

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... more info

the best book i've read in years:

Picked this book up after the recent PBS/ American Experience documentary based on it. It's far better than that show was, is wonderfully written, is as solidly researched a book as you are likely to find on any subject, and it's as tense as a disaster movie. The author was blessed, of course, with great material: some extraordinary characters, not to mention the Mississippi River itself, and the greatest natural disaster in American history (close to 1 million people flooded out of their homes). He more... more info

Comprehensive well-written history:

This lengthy book can stand alongside Tuchman's STILWELL as one of those rare studies that combine personalities, good intentions, overwhelming events, and political fallout, and I was captivated by every page of it. With the exception of portraying the human tendency to "believe rather than understand," the Ku Klux Klan demagogue leaders, and General Humphreys (whose behavior indicates mental illness) there are few villains in this book except the weather and the inexorable Mississippi River.

I found... more info

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