“The Great River is easily one of the best books ever written about the Mississippi.”
Boyce Upholt, a “nature critic,” is the author of The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi, the 2024 nonfiction of the Willie Morris Award for Southern Writing. He is the founder of Southlands, a forthcoming magazine about Southern nature.
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A sweeping history of the Mississippi River—and the centuries of human meddling that have transformed both it and America.
Over thousands of years, the Mississippi watershed was home to millions of Indigenous people who regarded “the great river” with awe and respect, adorning its banks with astonishing spiritual earthworks. But European settlers and American pioneers had a different vision: the river was a foe to conquer. In this landmark work of natural history, Boyce Upholt tells the epic story of human attempts to own and contain the Mississippi River, from Thomas Jefferson’s expansionist land hunger through today’s era of environmental concern. He reveals how an ambitious and sometimes contentious program of engineering—government-built levees, jetties, dikes, and dams—has not only damaged once-vibrant ecosystems, but may not work much longer, and explores how scientists are scrambling to restore what’s been lost. Rich and powerful, The Great River delivers a startling account of what happens when we try to fight against nature instead of acknowledging and embracing its power.
The Great River is available now at your local bookstore or online.
