Overview

"A richly nuanced cultural history of the Great Mississippi floodThe Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in U.S. history, drowning crops and displacing more than half a million people across seven states. It was also the first environmental disaster to be experienced virtually on a mass scale. The Flood Year 1927 draws from newspapers, radio broadcasts, political cartoons, vaudeville, blues songs, poetry, and fiction to show how this event provoked an intense and lasting cultural response. Americans at first seemed united in what Herbert Hoover called a ""great relief machine,"" but deep rifts soon arose. Southerners, pointing to faulty federal levee design, decried the attack of Yankee water. The condition of African American evacuees prompted comparisons to slavery from pundits like W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells. And environmentalists like Gifford Pinchot called the flood ""the most colossal blunder in civilized history."" Susan Scott Parrish examines how these and other key figures-from entertainers Will Rogers, Miller & Lyles, and Bessie Smith to authors Sterling Brown, William Faulkner, and Richard Wright-shaped public awareness and collective memory of the event. The crises of this period that usually dominate historical accounts are war and financial collapse, but The Flood Year 1927 allows us to assess how mediated environmental disasters became central to modern consciousness."

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Parrish artfully examines the cultural hegemony of 'natural-disaster' thinking and unveils the sources of an environmentally enlightened 'man-made-disaster' perspective. -Choice Parrish paints a multifaceted portrait of catastrophe: sometimes puzzling, often surprising, and wholly original. -Kirkus Reviews Ambitious. . . . [W]ell researched and well argued. -History News Network Parrish successfully and eloquently captures the sense of humanity and personal loss among the million refugees whose experiences gave rise to artistic efforts and environmental issues that continue to resonate. -Publishers Weekly

Parrish successfully and eloquently captures the sense of humanity and personal loss among the million refugees whose experiences gave rise to artistic efforts and environmental issues that continue to resonate. --Publishers Weekly Parrish artfully examines the cultural hegemony of 'natural-disaster' thinking and unveils the sources of an environmentally enlightened 'man-made-disaster' perspective. --Choice Parrish paints a multifaceted portrait of catastrophe: sometimes puzzling, often surprising, and wholly original. --Kirkus Reviews Ambitious. . . . [W]ell researched and well argued. --History News Network

Parrish artfully examines the cultural hegemony of 'natural-disaster' thinking and unveils the sources of an environmentally enlightened 'man-made-disaster' perspective. --Choice Parrish paints a multifaceted portrait of catastrophe: sometimes puzzling, often surprising, and wholly original. --Kirkus Reviews Ambitious. . . . [W]ell researched and well argued. --History News Network Parrish successfully and eloquently captures the sense of humanity and personal loss among the million refugees whose experiences gave rise to artistic efforts and environmental issues that continue to resonate. --Publishers Weekly

Parrish artfully examines the cultural hegemony of 'natural-disaster' thinking and unveils the sources of an environmentally enlightened 'man-made-disaster' perspective. --Choice Ambitious. . . . [W]ell researched and well argued. --History News Network Parrish paints a multifaceted portrait of catastrophe: sometimes puzzling, often surprising, and wholly original. --Kirkus Reviews Parrish successfully and eloquently captures the sense of humanity and personal loss among the million refugees whose experiences gave rise to artistic efforts and environmental issues that continue to resonate. --Publishers Weekly

Author Information

Susan Scott Parrish is professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and the Program in the Environment at the University of Michigan. She is the author of American Curiosity.

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