Rising Tide - Book Review
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America
By John M. Barry
Simon and Schuster edition
This book was chosen for our History book club's February-March reading. Most of my review includes my take and a few points discussed in our book club.
The first thing that crossed my mind was the remarkable similarities of man-made disasters[1] being created because of the chasm between the Scientists/Researchers/Engineers and the policymakers. Given the response to the recent global pandemic from the public, policymakers, scientists, and people in power, this book shows that history is doomed to repeat if we don't learn from it. (Interestingly the author has written another best seller "The Great Influenza" - Now on my wish list). Everyone in the book club was sad about the current US political climate, where this chasm is again expected to widen intentionally.
Another fun rabbit hole was (1) the mud volcanoes/vents in the Mississippi River at the time, which can harm the ships, and are somewhat unique to this river. (2) There are parts of the river that are below sea level, so the water in the river bottom does not desire to flow but the top part wants to due to inertia and drags it (Alright! This is an oversimplification, the process is more complicated). (3) The sheer volume of water and sediment displacement this river handles and (4) the human attempts to contain it throughout history.
A few of the book club members who are US citizens and have lived a considerable amount of time in the US exclaimed that the story of Greenville was unknown to them before this book, despite their visits to Louisiana and particularly New Orleans. As a foreigner, I was scratching my head as, to why this book was locked in a small location called Greenville, given the vast basins of Mississippi spanning several US states. The book later justifies this choice by explaining the unique political, economic, and social landscape this small city held while witnessing the single greatest levee crevasse during the 1927 flood season.
It was also interesting to read about the economic rivalry that prevailed between New Orleans and Chicago that shaped their culture including music. The silence of the press in warning people while intentionally flooding parishes to save the city of New Orleans. The skewed thought process and lobbying in choosing one over the other. How certain people were allowed to escape while others were forced to stay. How a great flood in Mississippi changed not just the delta and the people living there but the secretary of commerce into a president. This book does a remarkable job of connecting pieces and giving a quick panoramic view across history, people, culture, economy, and politics.
I felt this book goes hand in hand with another book that I skimmed through - The Great Displacement (by Jake Bittle), which covers the human side of ecological disasters as the climate change starts to grip us tighter.
[1] A bookclub member pointed out the absence of women in this book in key roles