The Great River; The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi

The Great River: A Reckoning with the Mississippi

Finalist for the 2024 Willie Morris Award for Southern Nonfiction
A Chicago Public Library Must-Read of 2024
A Booklist Editors' Choice

A sweeping history of the Mississippi River and the centuries of human intervention that have reshaped both the river and the nation itself.

Spanning nearly half of the United States, the Mississippi River has long been a defining force in American history, culture, and identity. It inspired Mark Twain’s classic literature, nurtured the birth of jazz and blues, and sustained Indigenous civilizations for millennia.

In this landmark work of natural and cultural history, Boyce Upholt traces the epic story of the Mississippi—its wild, ever-changing nature and the relentless human efforts to control it. Indigenous peoples revered and adapted to the river’s dynamic power, embracing its floods as part of life. But European settlers and American pioneers saw it differently: a force to be conquered and tamed.

From Thomas Jefferson’s expansionist ambitions to modern-day environmental challenges, centuries of engineering—levees, jetties, dams, and dikes—have drastically altered the river’s landscape. Now, as these human-made structures strain against the forces of nature, scientists are racing to restore what has been lost.

Rich, thought-provoking, and urgent, The Great River is a powerful meditation on humanity’s complex relationship with nature—and a stark reminder of what happens when we try to bend the natural world to our will.