Rising Tide

A “gripping narrative” of natural disaster and human corruption and “an accomplished and important social history, magisterial in its scope” (The New York Times).

Rising Tide tells the riveting story of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. It is an American epic of science, politics, race, honor, high society, and the Mississippi River itself. The flood inundated the homes of almost one million people, helped elect Huey Long governor and made Herbert Hoover president. It drove hundreds of thousands of African Americans north, and transformed American society and politics forever.

The disaster response incited clashes of all kinds: white vs. black, honor vs. money, regional vs. national powers. New Orleans’s elite diverted the flood to poorer communities, causing Black sharecroppers to abandon their lands. Unprepared for this disaster, the states failed to support the Black community. And the racial divides only widened when a white officer killed a Black man for refusing to return to work on levee repairs after a sleepless night of work.

In the powerful prose of Rising Tide, John M. Barry removes any remaining veil that there had been equality in the South. This flood not only left millions of people ruined, but further emphasized the racial inequality that have continued even to this day.

A New York Times Notable Book

Southern Book Critics Circle Award Winner

Lillian Smith Award Winner