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

Description

In 1927, the Mississippi River swept across an area roughly equal in size to Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont combined, leaving water as deep as thirty feet on the land stretching from Illinois and Missouri south to the Gulf of Mexico. Close to a million people - in a nation of 120 million - were forced out of their homes. Some estimates place the death toll in the thousands. The Red Cross fed nearly 700,000 refugees for months. Rising Tide is the story of this forgotten event, the greatest natural disaster this country has ever known. But it is not simply a tale of disaster. The flood transformed part of the nation and had a major cultural and political impact on the rest. Rising Tide is an American epic about science, race, honor, politics, and society. Chapter Twenty-ThreePart Six: THE SON Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Part Seven: THE CLUB Chapter Twenty-Eight Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty Part Eight: THE GREAT HUMANITARIAN Chapter Thirty-One Chapter Thirty-Two Chapter Thirty-Three Part Nine: THE LEAVING OF THE WATERS Chapter Thirty-Four Chapter Thirty-Five Appendix: The River Today Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments and Methodology Index