John M. Barry

Rising Tide: How the Great Mississippi Flood Changed America

Entretenimiento: 7/10

Información: 9/10

There are several stories here interelated that make an epic mosaic of Mississippian proportions.  The interacial relations always on the background of what the high potentates -both from Washington and otherwise- decided to do with the lives of those under their arrogant and jealous rule, blacks and whites, and otherwise too. All classes of Americans are presented here during those fast and furious years of America's coming-of-age. The genious of America, the enterprising, the ambitions and dreams, and the sheer survival skills against all odds.  Alas, America untamed.

Here are the engineers who competed to tame the Mississippi; here are the rich and poor; the genius and the average; the privileged and the oppressed; all together in a land that reminds one of many biblical passages: Eden and the expulsion therefrom; the Deluge, of course ...and not to forget that 'love of money is the root of evil'. I keep wondering if teenage America could have grown to be a real man, and not the mama's boy it's become for good if the leaders of the country then weren't the up-to-no-good rascals they were, and instead, were worthy of the Adamses, Washingtons, Jeffersons and all those who made the country whose flag we now burn and despise.

Well told; not at all in the sanctimonious tone one would expect; fast paced, right to the point, entertaining all the time. A little too technical, perhaps, when dwelling in the engineering chapters of the levees, but nothing serious.

“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved!” - Jer. 8:20