Westward, Ho!

Just found this:
http://librarydust.typepad.com/library_dust/2005/08/rising_again.html

Rising Again

The New Orleans Public Library's One Book, One New Orleans selection for this year was John M. Barry's Rising Tide, the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. During the days of the celebration, the library offered discussions of the book and related issues at its branches. Author Barry participated in a talk whose subject was Our Conflict with Nature: Levees vs. Outlets. Inspired by the book project, related events concerning the flood took place throughout the city's parishes.

In a Library Journal review, archivist Charles Hay drew the scope of Barry's book:

In the spring of 1927, America witnessed perhaps its greatest natural disaster: a flood that profoundly changed race relations, government, and society in the Mississippi River valley region. Barry presents here a fascinating social history of the effects of the massive flood. More than 30 feet of water stood over land inhabited by nearly one million people. Almost 300,000 African Americans were forced to live in refugee camps for months. Many people, both black and white, left the land and never returned. Using an impressive array of primary and secondary sources, Barry clearly traces and analyzed how the changes produced by the flood in the lower South came into conflict and ultimately destroyed the old planter aristocracy, accelerated black migration to the North, and foreshadowed federal government intervention in the region's social and economic life during the New Deal.

The events of the past few days are a grim if effective rejoinder to those who suggest the public library has lost relevance in the modern age or gone out of touch with its patrons. Now, with the waters of the ocean and the Mississippi vying to complete the destruction of New Orleans, we turn again to the unlearned lesson of Barry's book, and also, when our grief will have passed, to the reestablishment of civil society in those places along the river and the ocean that have suffered such terrible losses. One of the elements of that restoration will be the rebuilding of libraries. When that work begins, let it be as a memorial to those who passed in those furious hours. Perhaps, if we have learned enough, we will name a library after John M. Barry.

Michael McGrorty

Here is more about the book. This Amazon customer review was written in May, 2005, which really makes me want to cue the "Twilight Zone" soundtrack:

" I remember not thinking much of President Hoover, but in this book he comes across as one of our most unethical presidents, as well as a typical politician. I was completely disgusted with the treatment of African-Americans by not only the politicians, the National Guard, but the Red Cross. The National Red Cross owes a huge apology to the surviving families of so many African-Americans because of their unequal treatment in a disaster situation. And Hoover, made promises he never intended to keep...sound familiar?"

Sounds like an enterprising publisher could do a search-and-replace, simply putting "Bush" in place of "Hoover," and reissue the book as "Rising Tide: The Sequel".

Memo to San DiegoPublic Library programming people:

Please do not pick any books about fires or earthquakes (or terrorist attacks on Navy and USMC bases) for a " One Book, One City" program for next year, or ever, 'kay?