Rent Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America

Synopsis

Historian John M. Barry dramatically reconstructs a key chapter in American history as he recalls the devastating 1927 flood that caused widespread destruction in Louisiana and Mississippi and throughout the region. In April of that year, after weeks of rain, the Mississippi River overflowed its banks. Over a million people were affected as homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed, communities were devastated, and there was a great loss of life. After several months, the waters receded, but there were long-term political, social, and historical consequences. John M. Barry, who is from the area, dramatically recalls those events, analyzing their causes and effects. He tells how local politics and a rivalry between two engineers--Andrew Atkinson Humphreys of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and James Eads--played perhaps as significant a role as nature in what occurred. Barry provides a lucid account of the complex scientific issues involved, deftly explains local politics and personalities, and analyzes how the aftershocks of the 1927 flooding rippled far beyond its time and far beyond Louisiana. It is said that the flood was responsible for electing Hoover over Coolidge, and that it contributed to the shift of African-American voters to the Democratic Party. It also was a significant factor in the migration of African Americans to northern cities, and set a precedent for large-scale intervention by federal government that was followed a few years later by the New Deal. THE RISING TIDE reminds us that those who do not heed the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.

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