Prologue -- Prelude: The American watershed -- Book one. River of giants : continents collide, glaciers recede, mastodons bellow and humans arrive -- Ice on the rocks -- The Missouri leviathan -- Broken arrows -- Mammoth season -- Book two. River of mounds -- The rise and fall, and rise and fall, and rise of Native America -- Among the effigies -- Poverty point -- 35,000 pearls -- Among the Mississippians -- The great serpent -- Book three. River of fortune -- The Spanish exit, the French arrive, the Iroquois take action -- Bonjour Great Khan -- In the Iroquois longhouse -- The American bottom -- The Illinois Country -- Adrift -- The incomparable La Salle -- Nous sommes tous sauvages -- The wrath -- If the river don't rise -- Book four. River of empires -- The English enter, the French exit, the Iroquois negotiate, and the Americans take over -- The scramble for the Forks -- The half king -- Adieu New France -- The American watershed -- Allegheny mornings -- Book six. Life on the Mississippi -- Flatboats and keelboats, steamboats and showboats, slave boats and warships -- Down a lazy river -- I long to see you -- Up the wicked river -- All aboard -- Down below -- Blood on the tracks -- Anaconda -- Down in flames -- Book seven. On the lake of the engineers -- The mouth -- All the lists of Clay -- Old Man River.
Summary:
A fascinating account of how the Mississippi River shaped America.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.