Barry - Rising Tide: the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America

The best book Ive read in years.

James Carville, Salon

Not only does Barry provide a marvelous chronicle of the worlds greatest flood since Noah, he also meticulously mines the residue of its wake for both the relics of a society washed away and the roots of a new one spawned.[A] rich deposit of passion and truth.

Jim Squires, Los Angeles Times

John M. Barrys 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.

David Herbert Donald, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lincoln

The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 had great consequences for a region and a nation, and served as a catalyst with respect to significant changes regarding race, class, power, politics and social structure. A superb account of the disaster and its impact on American society. Engrossing.

Allen J. Share, Louisville Courier-Journal

Extraordinary. Barrys account is panoramic and reads like a novel.

Steven Harvey, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

To that hypothetical list of books you intend to have when you are marooned on the desert island, please add Rising Tide .

Larry D. Woods, Nashville Banner

John Barrys Rising Tide sweeps his reader along like the Mississippi itself. It is absorbing American history about hubris, nobility, decadence, and race served up in prose that complements the grandeur of the great river.

David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of W. E. B. Du Bois

Barrys brilliant new book, Rising Tide , is a timely, disturbing and fascinating look at the Mississippi during its most powerful self-assertion. Barry is adroit at drawing his reader into complex political and scientific issues and rendering them with perfect clarity. After reading this book, youll never look at the river the same way again.

Susan Larson, New Orleans Times-Picayune

Rising Tide is a marvela tense, alarming narrative. A wonderful book.

Harry Merritt, Lexington Herald-Leader

Who could imagine that so much of the American story could be told through the story of the great flood of 1927and be told so dramatically? John Barrys masterful account of the last uncontrolled rampage of the Mississippi River shows how a natural disaster can sometimes disclose a societys fragile workings, even while it alters them forever.

Jay Tolson, editor of The Wilson Quarterly

There are many stories in here, all well toldexcellent historystories from that of an effete poet to those of abused sharecroppers. And always there is the river. Barrys prose is capable of cracking like a whip.

Bill Roorbach, Newsday

Like the river, John M. Barrys history is broad-shouldered and violent and fascinating. The Mississippi cannot be placated or conquered. I was not sure it could be captured in words, either, but I am thrilled to report that John M. Barry and Rising Tide have proven me wrong.

Peter Rowe, San Diego Union-Tribune

John Barrys Rising Tide takes us into the heart of one of Americas greatest natural disasters, but his compelling account is more than a description of natures devastation, it is a window into the end of one era and the beginning of another.

Dan T. Carter, author of The Politics of Rage

Rising Tide is a fascinating tale of the Souths greatest natural disaster. John Barry effectively uses the Great Mississippi Flood as a backdrop for the grim drama of class and race relations along the river.

William Ferris, Director, Center for the Study of Southern Culture

A vastly entertaining book.

Wendy Smith, Civilizations

Barrys epic treatment of the flood is rich in detail and draws the reader along with the power of the river itself. It is a story rich in drama, and makes a significant point for our own time.

Bill Wallace, San Francisco Chronicle

Gripping. An extraordinary tale of greed, power politics, racial conflict and bureaucratic incompetence. [A] momentous chronicle, which revises our understanding of the shaping of modern America.

Publishers Weekly (starred 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.

Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

This is a book that I suspect will be recalled as one of the best books of the decade.

Keith Runyon, Louisville Courier-Journal

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SIMON & SCHUSTER
Rockefeller Center
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New York, NY 10020

Copyright 1997 by John Barry
All rights reserved,
including the right of reproduction
in whole or in part in any form .

S IMON & S CHUSTER P APERBACKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the Simon & Schuster edition as follows: Barry, John M.
Rising tide: the great Mississippi flood of 1927 and how it changed America / John M. Barry .
p. cm .
Includes bibliographical references (p. 481) .
1. FloodsMississippi River ValleyHistory20th Century. 2. Flood controlMississippi RiverHistory. 3. Mississippi River ValleyHistory1865-4. Humphreys, A. A. (Andrew Atkinson), 1810-1883. 5. Eads, James Buchanan, 1820-1887. I. Title. F354.B47 1997
977'.03dc21 96-40077 CIP

ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-6332-7
ISBN-10: 1-4165-6332-6

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For Anne and Rose and Jane

Contents

Appendix:
The River Today

And the rain descended, and the flood came, and the wind blew, and beat upon that house;
and it fell, and great was the fall of it .

M ATTHEW 7:27

Prologue

O N THE MORNING of Good Friday, April 15, 1927, Seguine Allen, the chief engineer of the Mississippi Levee Board in Greenville, Mississippi, woke up to the sound of running water. Rain was lashing the tall windows of his home near the great river with such intensity that the gutters were overflowing and a small waterfall poured past his bedroom. It worried him. He was hosting a party that day, but his concern was not that the weather might keep guests away. Indeed, he knew that the heavy rain, far from decreasing attendance, would bring out all the communitys men of consequence, all as anxious as he for the latest word on the river.

Tributaries to the Mississippi had already overflowed from Oklahoma and Kansas in the west to Illinois and Kentucky in the east, causing dozens of deaths and threatening millions of acres of land. The Mississippi itself had been rising for weeks. It had exceeded the highest marks ever known, and was still rising. That mornings Memphis Commercial-Appeal warned: The roaring Mississippi river, bank and levee full from St. Louis to New Orleans, is believed to be on its mightiest rampage. All along the Mississippi considerable fear is felt over the prospects for the greatest flood in history.