An American epic of science; politics; race; honor; high society; and the Mississippi River; Rising Tide tells the riveting and nearly forgotten story of the greatest natural disaster this country has ever known -- the Mississippi flood of 1927. The river inundated the homes of nearly one million people; helped elect Huey Long governor and made Herbert Hoover president; drove hundreds of thousands of blacks north; and transformed American society and politics forever. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year; winner of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award and the Lillian Smith Award.
#257753 in Books Simon n Schuster 2001-03-15Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.46 x 1.92 x 6.48l; #File Name: 0684807475700 pages
Review
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. If you do not openly sob at the closing of this tale you missed its message.By wsmrerAs a southerner and as a fellow student at the Monterey Defense Language Institute in 1965 with FBI agents being reassigned from their stint in Birmingham Alabama I have personal connections to Diane McWhorter incredible story of the breaking of Jim Crow in the years she covers by what came to be call the Civil Rights Movement. J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI was a mar on our history along with other law enforcing agencies; local state and federal as Ms McWhorter well reveals. It is part of her tale.Until I saw that she has spend 19 years on intense research it was impossible to imagine she might have acquired the detail interactions of the participants in that drama. The out standing actor is Fred Shuttlesworth and on my reading that at the entrance to his final resting place; “at the wooded entrance to the historic downtown graveyard; a giant American flag swelled from the extended ladder of a Birmingham fire truck;†I could not suppress a thunderous sob.Who might look forward to reading Carry Me Home; very few I suspect. It lays open a grotesque sore of American History and the author’s technique of laying down detain; hour by hour day by day; is trying to any reader; take it in small doses but persist for there is pleasure in knowing that for almost all Americans today North and South that sore was well lanced by Shuttlesworth and his better known assistances’; we are healthier people for it. But healthier is not synonymous with well as McWhorter goes on to show discussing more current Birmingham Alabama and American events.The author’s sections entitled ‘McWhorter’ goes a long way towards explaining motivation for the book; as father and family holds a role as racist; if not bomber.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Detailed study of the historical turning point in modern American historyBy Leon LamThis book is a study of the history of race relations in Birmingham; Alabama from late 1930s to 1963; the year of the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. McWhorter provides a comprehensive account of the story of the Pittsburgh of the South. As she presents; resistance to integration was not only the view of the extreme fringe of the white community; but also a nuanced consensus that linked the gentlemen in country clubs and humbler working class families together. The vestige of white supremacy; still largely intact in the older generation; should be embraced but not intentionally ignored. The solid work is a cornerstone of the plethora of literature on the civil rights movement. Prior knowledge is preferable as the author gives a lot of details on local actors and minor events.5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. One of the best books about the civil rights struggleBy ColoCustomerIt's easily one of the best books I have read about the Civil Rights struggle. McWhorter was a 5th grader in Birmingham; AL the year Birmingham was the focus of the struggle - in one of the leading families there (in a middle class branch). That impacts her writing; not that she heard any of it at the time; but that she knows the culture of the rich who controlled the town. And that drives her in to detail that I think an outside historian would never get.I read in numerous books how Birmingham was the city of hate. And how the children marching was key to the shift in people's views that led to civil rights. But this explained why.With the focus on Birmingham you see the South in detail and how the culture; the local politics; and the specific people impacted and eventually shifted the world. It also paints a complete picture of the key people involved which adds so much.I was reading until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer at night. And then back to reading the first thing the next morning. Incredibly well written.
