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With masterful research and reporting, Boyce Upholt makes a compelling case that, despite our centuries-long efforts to control its unpredictable pulses with concrete, steel, and earthen berms, the Mississippi River in many ways remains wild as ever. And he shows us why that is good.--Dan Egan, author of The Death and Life of the Great Lakes The Great River is easily one of the best books ever written about the Mississippi. It brings depth of scholarship to everything from geology to history to current politics, all of it elegantly written.--John M. Barry, author of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America An epic alluvial chronicle. On his travels through the geological, hydrological, archeological, and historical records, Boyce Upholt unearths the stories and meanings, injustices and mysteries and fugitive beauties to be found among the relict meanders and chemical refineries of the flood plains. As the best environmental journalism does, by bringing the past to bear upon the present, The Great River complicates our understanding of both.--Donovan Hohn, author of Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Sea Few books have ever chronicled a landform as beautifully as The Great River, a thorough and wise meditation on the United States's mightiest watershed. Like a savvy riverboat captain, Boyce Upholt expertly pilots his narrative across shoals of history and through oxbows of science; like the Mississippi itself, his book braids and bends, carrying its readers from deep time to the Anthropocene on a swift current of reportage.--Ben Goldfarb, author of Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet From mound-builders to levee-makers, Boyce Upholt gives us a Mississippi both wild and engineered, life-giving and furious--a river as full of contradictions as the country that has tried and failed to tame it. Impossible to stop reading, The Great River is a deeply felt meditation on the ways people have lived with nature's changes, and how we might live differently in the future.--Bathsheba Demuth, author of Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait With tributaries of history, geography, engineering, and environmental science, Boyce Upholt's The Great River brings clarity and cohesion to a topic that intermixes complex stories across, quite literally, a million square miles. Using elements of travelogue and including fine maps, this compelling book takes readers through the making and unmaking of the Mississippi River, and leaves them with a hunch that, in the end, the river will remake itself.--Richard Campanella, Associate Dean for Research, Tulane University School of Architecture and author of Draining New Orleans

"[A] sweeping ecological history of the Mississippi River....[F]ascinating and troubling....Upholt deftly weaves the river's story with deep historical research, as well as reporting from canoes and atop levees.--Meera Subramanian ""Scientific American"" Boyce Upholt wrangles the geological, political and cultural history of the wild Mississippi River in a compelling, lively narrative.-- ""Bookpage"" Examines the Mississippi's tortuous history, from its geological origins to the present day, with particular attention on our long struggle to mold the river for our own purposes.--Gerard Helferich ""Wall Street Journal"" Gives readers a direct sensory encounter with the beauty and boldness of the river....[T]ells an eloquent story of the ways the Mississippi River is a separate world, hidden in plain sight.--W. Ralph Eubanks ""Washington Post"" An experienced paddler who has rowed from St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico, Upholt takes a deep dive into the Mississippi's past, present, and future, interspersing research and reporting with stories from his own travels.--Julia Holmes ""Outside Magazine"" In his new chronicle of the South's iconic waterway, the New Orleans journalist Boyce Upholt slides fascinating lore alongside jolting conservation truths.--CJ Lotz Diego ""Garden & Gun"" A majestic history of the Mississippi River....[A]n exceptional natural history that never loses sight of the human players involved.-- ""Publishers Weekly (starred review)"" A lively survey of Old Man River, born of extensive research and travel....A fluent addition to the literature of America's rivers.-- ""Kirkus Reviews"" With masterful research and reporting, Boyce Upholt makes a compelling case that, despite our centuries-long efforts to control its unpredictable pulses with concrete, steel, and earthen berms, the Mississippi River in many ways remains wild as ever. And he shows us why that is good.--Dan Egan, author of The Death and Life of the Great Lakes In his deeply researched book The Great River, Boyce Upholt makes clear that a true accounting of the mighty river has all of the elements of a frontier novel: violence, death, greed, resilience and big dreams.--Bob Timmons ""Star Tribune"" The Great River is easily one of the best books ever written about the Mississippi. It brings depth of scholarship to everything from geology to history to current politics, all of it elegantly written.--John M. Barry, author of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America An epic alluvial chronicle. On his travels through the geological, hydrological, archeological, and historical records, Boyce Upholt unearths the stories and meanings, injustices and mysteries and fugitive beauties to be found among the relict meanders and chemical refineries of the flood plains. As the best environmental journalism does, by bringing the past to bear upon the present, The Great River complicates our understanding of both.--Donovan Hohn, author of Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Sea Few books have ever chronicled a landform as beautifully as The Great River, a thorough and wise meditation on the United States's mightiest watershed. Like a savvy riverboat captain, Boyce Upholt expertly pilots his narrative across shoals of history and through oxbows of science; like the Mississippi itself, his book braids and bends, carrying its readers from deep time to the Anthropocene on a swift current of reportage.--Ben Goldfarb, author of Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet From mound-builders to levee-makers, Boyce Upholt gives us a Mississippi both wild and engineered, life-giving and furious--a river as full of contradictions as the country that has tried and failed to tame it. Impossible to stop reading, The Great River is a deeply felt meditation on the ways people have lived with nature's changes, and how we might live differently in the future.--Bathsheba Demuth, author of Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait With tributaries of history, geography, engineering, and environmental science, Boyce Upholt's The Great River brings clarity and cohesion to a topic that intermixes complex stories across, quite literally, a million square miles. Using elements of travelogue and including fine maps, this compelling book takes readers through the making and unmaking of the Mississippi River, and leaves them with a hunch that, in the end, the river will remake itself.--Richard Campanella, Associate Dean for Research, Tulane University School of Architecture and author of Draining New Orleans"

Rivers are the lifeblood of an ecosystem and the Mississippi is North America's jugular. With masterful research and reporting, Boyce Upholt makes a compelling case that, despite our centuries-long efforts to control its unpredictable pulses with concrete, steel and earthen berms, the river in many ways remains wild as ever. And he shows us why that is good.--Dan Egan, author of The Death and Life of the Great Lakes The Great River is easily one of the best books ever written about the Mississippi. It brings depth of scholarship to everything from geology to history to current politics, all of it elegantly written.--John M. Barry, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America Few books have ever chronicled a landform as beautifully as The Great River, a thorough and wise meditation on the United States's mightiest watershed. Like a savvy riverboat captain, Boyce Upholt expertly pilots his narrative across shoals of history and through oxbows of science; like the Mississippi itself, his book braids and bends, carrying its readers from deep time to the Anthropocene on a swift current of reportage. What emerges is a river neither wholly natural nor entirely conquered by engineers--a basin at once enchanting in its own right, and a fitting exemplar of all we've done to nature.--Ben Goldfarb, author of Crossings From mound-builders to levee-makers, Boyce Upholt gives us a Mississippi both wild and engineered, life-giving and furious--a river as full of contradictions as the country that has tried and failed to tame it. Impossible to stop reading, The Great River is a deeply felt meditation on the ways people have lived with nature's changes, and how we might live differently in the future.--Bathsheba Demuth, author of Floating Coast Paddling through archives and down tributaries, wading knee-deep through estuarial mud and environmental controversy, Boyce Upholt, like the Mississippi itself, has written an epic alluvial chronicle. On his travels through the geological, hydrological, archeological, and historical records, he unearths the stories and meanings, injustices and mysteries and fugitive beauties, to be found among the ghost forests and relict meanders and chemical refineries of the flood plains. As the best environmental journalism does, by bringing the past to bear upon the present, The Great River complicates our understanding of both. The Mississippi, Twain wrote, was 'not a book to be read once and thrown aside, for it had a new story tell every day.' Upholt has updated the ancient and ongoing story for our own turbulent times.--Donovan Hohn, author of Moby-Duck With tributaries of history, geography, engineering, and environmental science, Boyce Upholt's The Great River brings clarity and cohesion to a topic that intermixes complex stories across, quite literally, a million square miles. Using elements of travelogue and including fine maps, this compelling book takes readers through the making and unmaking of the Mississippi River, and leaves them with a hunch that, in the end, the river will remake itself.--Richard Campanella, Associate Dean for Research, Tulane University School of Architecture and author of Draining New Orleans

Author Information

Boyce Upholt is an award-winning journalist whose writing has appeared in the Atlantic, National Geographic, Outside, the New Republic, and Time, among other publications. He lives in New Orleans.

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