Finally: "Rising Tide. The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America"

It was my frustration with the US media's nonsense over hurricane Katrina last year that got me to dive in to this. I got to the point that if I heard another "worst natural disaster in American history" or "storm of the century" remark I just knew I'd throw something at the TV or radio or rip up the newspaper or magazine or whatever.

First up ... "American history"? What's that? We've got like 200 years or so of the kind of presence on the continent that might be capable of recording this kind of information for posterity.

Second ... the idea that the kind of mess that was Katrina needed to be reported in superlatives is beyond me.

I can't pretend to be aware of the whole panoply of history, but I was aware (partly because it happened around my birthday) that the Galveston hurricane of 1900 was horribly more deadly. See "Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History".

"Rising Tide" is a hard slog. I won't try and convince anyone otherwise. On the other hand, it's worth every re-read of a pithy comment, or double-take at a surprising fact. And if when you're done you want to learn more, there's an excellent bibliography at the back.

Barry's epic - and it is just that - covers not just the flood which dispaced almost a million people (in a nation 1/3 of it's current size) and inundated many times more millions of acres in up to 30 feet of water. It's an incredible commentary on the national society of the day, on New Orleans politics and personalities (the "Big Easy" was by far the most influential city in the South at the time and was, essentially, the cause of much - if not all - of the upstream disaster). This alone is worth the price of the book. Was it ever more colorful or interesting anywhere else? Still is.

Barry gives insight into the national politics of the day (and I had forgotten - or never knew - that the Republicans owned the black vote back then). The disaster was the launching pad for the presidential ambitions of Herbert Hoover (and many think he would never have been president without it). He's a terribly interesting recurring character, by the way.

Sometimes there are flashes of brilliance in the way Barry turns a phrase or expresses a concept. But at other times the text is about as clear as the Mississippi mud of which he writes. Never mind. You'll learn of the engineering history of the Mississippi, and of the fascinating personalities who fought over their theories, sometimes in the most incredibly violent of ways.

The economy of the South and integration of ex-slaves is given a rather different treatment by Barry than what one is accustomed to in popular films and media. The thought comes across quite clearly that were it not for the 1927 flood, integration - at least in the Mississippi Delta states - would have taken a much different turn. Many assume that the black exodus from the South to the North had to do with the Civil War or, later, the legal racial discrimination which was so prevalent. Not the vast majority. It was the 1927 flood, which left a devastated economy and destroyed the infrastructure in the Mississippi Delta, and particularly on the east bank all the way up beyond St. Louis. No houses, no jobs, no home-town - why hang around?

So ... dive in. I don't think I've ever felt more educated by a book. Take it in small doses if you will, but you'll end up knowing a heck of a lot more than virtually every news anchor out there, as far as I can tell!