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

I ordered this title because I grew up near Greenville, MS, and was curious what a comparative "outsider" might say so long after the fact.
I heard many tales of this flood, and the Percy family so key to this book was well known (believe a room in the local library was named for them among other items, and read Lanterns on the Levee in high school).
The reader does a good job.
A cautionary tale of scientific and engineering rivalry over flood control theory, and how it combined with having the absolutely wrong leader in place at a critical time. Those power struggles are timeless. As Katrina shows, they never DID get the flood control problems handled right. . .but the lessons go well beyond just the Mississippi River and who claims to control it.
Not preachy, and not dry. Truly well done.

This book was suggested by a friend who was reading the hard cover version. When I ordered it I didn't realize it was the abridged version. Actually, it was just long enough. I got all the great stories and history of how the Mississippi river changed New Orleans and it was not too long and drawn out. It gave me a wonderful understanding of the political machine that shaped New Orleans.

A great story. Very interesting character development; plot development was well conceived. Some parts made you feel you were there. Recommended for history buffs.

The author brings the reader's interest in right from the beginning, and paints a panoramic picture of the forces, both of nature and man, at play in this stunning event that altered national politics. It's sobering that we (and the media) are so unaware of the regular, catastrophic flood history of the region.

Well told story of the issues of the 1920's handling of New Orleans flood management had me comparing the results to the outcomes we saw with Katrina. Good background of Louisiana political arena that seems to have a core value much the same today as the period this book describes.

I very much enjoy books like this that present the engineering wrapped inside an excellent study of the people and the politics of complex times. The reader is extremely talented and makes the book very exciting. The story starts around 1840 and leads into the 1930's. I was very fascinated with the story of the Percy family of Greenville MS and of course with the politics of New Orleans. The section that discusses the conflicts between EADS and Humphreys is also very entertaining.