Read a free excerpt here! American engineers have done astounding things to bend the Mississippi River to their will: forcing one of its tributaries to flow uphill, transforming over a thousand miles of roiling currents into a placid staircase of water, and wresting the lower half of the river apart from its floodplain. American law has aided and abetted these feats. But despite our best efforts, so-called “natural disasters” continue to strike the Mississippi basin, as raging floodwaters decimate waterfront communities and abandoned towns literally crumble into the Gulf of Mexico. In some places, only the tombstones remain, leaning at odd angles as the underlying soil erodes away. Mississippi River Tragedies reveals that it is seductively deceptive—but horribly misleading—to call such catastrophes “natural.” Authors Christine A. Klein and Sandra B. Zellmer present a sympathetic account of the human dreams, pride, and foibles that got us to this point, weaving together engaging historical narratives and accessible law stories drawn from actual courtroom dramas. The authors deftly uncover the larger story of how the law reflects and even amplifies our ambivalent attitude toward nature—simultaneously revering wild rivers and places for what they are, while working feverishly to change them into something else. Despite their sobering revelations, the authors’ final message is one of hope. Although the acknowledgement of human responsibility for unnatural disasters can lead to blame, guilt, and liability, it can also prod us to confront the consequences of our actions, leading to a liberating sense of possibility and to the knowledge necessary to avoid future disasters.
In this book, author and Mississippi River historian Dean Klinkenberg explores the many disastrous events to have occurred on and along the river in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—from steamboat explosions, to Yellow Fever ...
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Local author Steve Gardiner examines these powerful natural disasters and their ramifications on the people of Southeast Minnesota.
The story is street wise and a touch cruel, but just as things begin to look up, it all crashes down and leaves only one friend in the end to reflect on where it all went wrong.
At the center of the book are descriptive accounts of 150 of the state’s most severe events.
The story of the common refugee who suffered most from the effects of the flood emerges alongside the details of the massive rescue and relief operation - one of the largest ever mounted in the United States.
Originally published in 1892, Loss of the Sultana and Reminiscences of Survivorsis a collection of first-hand accounts by those who lived to tell the story of perhapsthe worst maritime disaster in U.S. history.On the Mississippi River just ...
The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson is a novel written by Mark Twain that is set near the Mississippi River. The action centers around a young lawyer who is often misunderstood and disrespected by his community.
On a cold night in late April 1865, on the mighty Mississippi River just north of Memphis, Tennessee, scores of unsuspecting souls suddenly found themselves desperately struggling for their lives after the boilers exploded on the riverboat ...
In a compelling, exhaustively researched account, renowned author Sally M. Walker joins the ranks of historians who have been asking the same question for 150 years: who (or what) was responsible for the Sultana’s disastrous fate?