From Powells.com
In
Rising Tide, John
Barry chronicles the events that precipitated and resulted from the Mississippi
flood of 1927, starting with the engineers and committees who battled greedily
and ultimately foolishly to master North America's mightiest river.
The flood represented the greatest natural disaster America had ever known; water
claimed the lives of over 1,000 people and the homes of nearly one million, exposing
racism, greed, power politics, and bureaucratic incompetence at every turn while
simultaneously creating national heroes and lasting social change throughout the
Deep South. Hundreds of thousands of African Americans were packed into squalid
refugee camps and many more migrated north and west as the myths of friendly
feudal plantation and sharecropping dissolved behind them. Southern
plantation aristocracy was wiped out and a new elite was created. The Ku Klux
Klan rose in power.
Barry's account of the 1927 flood provides a widely-acclaimed exploration of
the reshaping of American culture, economy and politics. Powell's own Michael
Powell calls Rising Tide his favorite among his Staff
Picks. The book is also the winner of the Francis Parkman Prize, the Southern
Book Critics Circle Award, the Lilian Smith Award, and has been named a New
York Times Notable Book of the Year. Malia, Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
An American epic of science, politics, race, honor, high society, and the Mississippi River,
Rising Tide tells the riveting and nearly forgotten story of the greatest natural disaster this country has ever known -- the Mississippi flood of 1927. The river inundated the homes of nearly one million people, helped elect Huey Long governor and made Herbert Hoover president, drove hundreds of thousands of blacks north, and transformed American society and politics forever.
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year, winner of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award and the Lillian Smith Award.
Review
"A gripping account of the mammoth flooding of 1927 that devastated Mississippi and Louisiana and sent political shock waves to Washington...Rising Tide is a brilliant match of scholarship and investigative journalism." Jason Berry, Chicago Tribune
Review
"Barry clearly traces and analyzes how the changes produced by the flood in the lower South came into conflict and ultimately destroyed the old planter aristocracy...and foreshadowed federal government intervention in the region's social and economic life during the New Deal." Library Journal
Review
"[I]mplicates both the Mississippi River and the South in a deeper, darker side of the American experience....[The book reminds] us that Americans are just beginning to comprehend the power of their geography." John Opie, Mississippi Quarterly
Synopsis
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year, winner of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award and the Lillian Smith Award. An American epic of science, politics, race, honor, high society, and the Mississippi River, Rising Tide tells the riveting and nearly forgotten story of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. The river inundated the homes of almost one million people, helped elect Huey Long governor and made Herbert Hoover president, drove hundreds of thousands of African Americans north, and transformed American society and politics forever.
The flood brought with it a human storm: white and black collided, honor and money collided, regional and national powers collided. New Orleans's elite used their power to divert the flood to those without political connections, power, or wealth, while causing Black sharecroppers to abandon their land to flee up north. The states were unprepared for this disaster and failed to support the Black community. The racial divides only widened when a white officer killed a Black man for refusing to return to work on levee repairs after a sleepless night of work.
In the powerful prose of Rising Tide, John M. Barry removes any remaining veil that there had been equality in the South. This flood not only left millions of people ruined, but further emphasized the racial inequality that have continued even to this day.
About the Author
John M. Barry is the author of The Great Influenza and The Ambition and the Power: A True Story of Washington, and co-author of The Transformed Cell, which has been published in twelve languages. As Washington editor of Dunn's Review, he covered national politics, and he has also written for The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and Sports Illustrated. He lives in New Orleans and Washington, D.C.
Table of Contents
ContentsPrologue 13
Part One: THE ENGINEERS 19
Chapter One 21
Chapter Two 32
Chapter Three 46
Chapter Four 55
Chapter Five 67
Chapter Six 78
Part Two: SENATOR PERCY 93
Chapter Seven 95
Chapter Eight 107
Chapter Nine 122
Chapter Ten 132
Chapter Eleven 143
Chapter Twelve 156
Part Three: THE RIVER 169
Chapter Thirteen 173
Chapter Fourteen 179
Chapter Fifteen 190
Chapter Sixteen 202
Part Four: THE CLUB 211
Chapter Seventeen 213
Chapter Eighteen 222
Chapter Nineteen 234
Chapter Twenty 245
Part Five: THE GREAT HUMANITARIAN 259
Chapter Twenty-One 261
Chapter Twenty-Two 272
Chapter Twenty-Three 282
Part Six: THE SON 291
Chapter Twenty-Four 293
Chapter Twenty-Five 303
Chapter Twenty-Six 318
Chapter Twenty-Seven 324
Part Seven: THE CLUB 337
Chapter Twenty-Eight 339
Chapter Twenty-Nine 344
Chapter Thirty 352
Part Eight: THE GREAT HUMANITARIAN 361
Chapter Thirty-One 363
Chapter Thirty-TwO 378
Chapter Thirty-Three 387
Part Nine: THE LEAVING OF THE WATERS 397
Chapter Thirty-Four 399
Chapter Thirty-Five 412
Appendix:
The River Today 423
Notes 427
Bibliography 481
Acknowledgments and Methodology 497
Index 501