Life on the Mississippi: an epic American adventure
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English
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * “Audacious…Life on the Mississippi sparkles.” —The Wall Street Journal * “A rich mix of history, reporting, and personal introspection.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch * “Both a travelogue and an engaging history lesson about America’s westward expansion.” —The Christian Science Monitor
The eagerly awaited return of master American storyteller Rinker Buck, Life on the Mississippi is an epic, enchanting blend of history and adventure in which Buck builds a wooden flatboat from the grand “flatboat era” of the 1800s and sails it down the Mississippi River, illuminating the forgotten past of America’s first western frontier.
Seven years ago, readers around the country fell in love with a singular American voice: Rinker Buck, whose infectious curiosity about history launched him across the West in a covered wagon pulled by mules and propelled his book about the trip, The Oregon Trail, to ten weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Now, Buck returns to chronicle his latest incredible adventure: building a wooden flatboat from the bygone era of the early 1800s and journeying down the Mississippi River to New Orleans.
A modern-day Huck Finn, Buck casts off down the river on the flatboat Patience accompanied by an eccentric crew of daring shipmates. Over the course of his voyage, Buck steers his fragile wooden craft through narrow channels dominated by massive cargo barges, rescues his first mate gone overboard, sails blindly through fog, breaks his ribs not once but twice, and camps every night on sandbars, remote islands, and steep levees. As he charts his own journey, he also delivers a richly satisfying work of history that brings to life a lost era.
The role of the flatboat in our country’s evolution is far more significant than most Americans realize. Between 1800 and 1840, millions of farmers, merchants, and teenage adventurers embarked from states like Pennsylvania and Virginia on flatboats headed beyond the Appalachians to Kentucky, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Settler families repurposed the wood from their boats to build their first cabins in the wilderness; cargo boats were broken apart and sold to build the boomtowns along the water route. Joining the river traffic were floating brothels, called “gun boats”; “smithy boats” for blacksmiths; even “whiskey boats” for alcohol. In the present day, America’s inland rivers are a superhighway dominated by leviathan barges—carrying $80 billion of cargo annually—all descended from flatboats like the ramshackle Patience.
As a historian, Buck resurrects the era’s adventurous spirit, but he also challenges familiar myths about American expansion, confronting the bloody truth behind settlers’ push for land and wealth. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 forced more than 125,000 members of the Cherokee, Choctaw, and several other tribes to travel the Mississippi on a brutal journey en route to the barrens of Oklahoma. Simultaneously, almost a million enslaved African Americans were carried in flatboats and marched by foot 1,000 miles over the Appalachians to the cotton and cane fields of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, birthing the term “sold down the river.” Buck portrays this watershed era of American expansion as it was really lived.
With a rare narrative power that blends stirring adventure with absorbing untold history, Life on the Mississippi is a muscular and majestic feat of storytelling from a writer who may be the closest that we have today to Mark Twain.
The eagerly awaited return of master American storyteller Rinker Buck, Life on the Mississippi is an epic, enchanting blend of history and adventure in which Buck builds a wooden flatboat from the grand “flatboat era” of the 1800s and sails it down the Mississippi River, illuminating the forgotten past of America’s first western frontier.
Seven years ago, readers around the country fell in love with a singular American voice: Rinker Buck, whose infectious curiosity about history launched him across the West in a covered wagon pulled by mules and propelled his book about the trip, The Oregon Trail, to ten weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Now, Buck returns to chronicle his latest incredible adventure: building a wooden flatboat from the bygone era of the early 1800s and journeying down the Mississippi River to New Orleans.
A modern-day Huck Finn, Buck casts off down the river on the flatboat Patience accompanied by an eccentric crew of daring shipmates. Over the course of his voyage, Buck steers his fragile wooden craft through narrow channels dominated by massive cargo barges, rescues his first mate gone overboard, sails blindly through fog, breaks his ribs not once but twice, and camps every night on sandbars, remote islands, and steep levees. As he charts his own journey, he also delivers a richly satisfying work of history that brings to life a lost era.
The role of the flatboat in our country’s evolution is far more significant than most Americans realize. Between 1800 and 1840, millions of farmers, merchants, and teenage adventurers embarked from states like Pennsylvania and Virginia on flatboats headed beyond the Appalachians to Kentucky, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Settler families repurposed the wood from their boats to build their first cabins in the wilderness; cargo boats were broken apart and sold to build the boomtowns along the water route. Joining the river traffic were floating brothels, called “gun boats”; “smithy boats” for blacksmiths; even “whiskey boats” for alcohol. In the present day, America’s inland rivers are a superhighway dominated by leviathan barges—carrying $80 billion of cargo annually—all descended from flatboats like the ramshackle Patience.
As a historian, Buck resurrects the era’s adventurous spirit, but he also challenges familiar myths about American expansion, confronting the bloody truth behind settlers’ push for land and wealth. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 forced more than 125,000 members of the Cherokee, Choctaw, and several other tribes to travel the Mississippi on a brutal journey en route to the barrens of Oklahoma. Simultaneously, almost a million enslaved African Americans were carried in flatboats and marched by foot 1,000 miles over the Appalachians to the cotton and cane fields of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, birthing the term “sold down the river.” Buck portrays this watershed era of American expansion as it was really lived.
With a rare narrative power that blends stirring adventure with absorbing untold history, Life on the Mississippi is a muscular and majestic feat of storytelling from a writer who may be the closest that we have today to Mark Twain.
More Details
Contributors:
ISBN:
9781501106378
9781501106392
9798885782197
9781797141374
9781797141367
9781501106392
9798885782197
9781797141374
9781797141367
Staff View
Grouping Information
Grouped Work ID | 38efdeb4-e96b-cfed-8ef6-7b0a695fff6b |
---|---|
Grouping Title | life on the mississippi an epic american adventure |
Grouping Author | rinker buck |
Grouping Category | book |
Grouping Language | English (eng) |
Last Grouping Update | 2024-04-24 04:39:11AM |
Last Indexed | 2024-04-24 04:55:03AM |
Solr Fields
accelerated_reader_point_value
0
accelerated_reader_reading_level
0
auth_author2
Culp, Jason
author
Buck, Rinker, 1950-
author2-role
Culp, Jason,narrator
author_display
Buck, Rinker
available_at_ashland
Ashland Vaughn Public Library
detailed_location_ashland
Ashland Adult Nonfiction
Online OverDrive Collection
Online OverDrive Collection
display_description
A modern-day Huck Finn, Buck casts off down the river accompanied by an eccentric crew of daring shipmates. Over the course of his voyage, Buck steers his fragile wooden craft through narrow channels dominated by massive cargo barges, rescues his first mate gone overboard, sails blindly through fog, clashes with overzealous period reenactors, and much more. In addition, he charts his own geographical and emotional journey while also delivering a richly satisfying work of history that brings to life a lost era. The role of the flatboat in our country's evolution is far more significant than most Americans realize. Decades before we struck out for the Western territories, we migrated Southwest en masse. Between 1800 and 1840, millions of farmers, merchants, and hopeful pioneers embarked from states like Pennsylvania and Virginia on wooden flatboats headed beyond the Appalachians to places like Kentucky, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The mighty river currents carried waves of settlers and tons of cargo from farms to ports, populating new territories and revolutionizing the American landscape. As Buck points out, the inland rivers of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys were in fact America's first western frontier. With a rare and captivating narrative power that blends armchair adventure with absorbing untold history, Life on the Mississippi is a muscular and majestic feat of storytelling from a writer who may be the closest to Twain that we have today.
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Large Print
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9781501106392
9781797141367
9781797141374
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9781501106392
9781797141367
9781797141374
9798885782197
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AUDIOBOOK ON CD UNABRIDGED
BOOK - HARDCOVER
LARGE PRINT BOOK
BOOK - HARDCOVER
LARGE PRINT BOOK
last_indexed
2024-04-24T09:55:03.840Z
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literary_form
Non Fiction
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Non Fiction
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Online OverDrive
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Ashland Vaughn Public Library
Ashland Vaughn Public Library Online
Ashland Vaughn Public Library Online
owning_location_ashland
Ashland Vaughn Public Library
Online OverDrive Collection
Online OverDrive Collection
primary_isbn
9781501106378
publishDate
2022
publisher
Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster Audio
Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, a Cengage Company
Simon & Schuster Audio
Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, a Cengage Company
recordtype
grouped_work
series
Thorndike Press large print nonfiction
series_with_volume
Thorndike Press large print nonfiction|
subject_facet
Audiobooks
Buck, Rinker, -- 1950- -- Travel -- Mississippi River
Flatboats -- Mississippi River -- History
Large print books
Mississippi River -- History
Mississippi River -- Travel
Patience (Flatboat)
Travel writing
Buck, Rinker, -- 1950- -- Travel -- Mississippi River
Flatboats -- Mississippi River -- History
Large print books
Mississippi River -- History
Mississippi River -- Travel
Patience (Flatboat)
Travel writing
title_display
Life on the Mississippi : an epic American adventure
title_full
Life on the Mississippi : an epic American adventure / Rinker Buck
Life on the Mississippi An Epic American Adventure
Life on the Mississippi: an Epic American Adventure
Life on the Mississippi An Epic American Adventure
Life on the Mississippi: an Epic American Adventure
title_short
Life on the Mississippi
title_sub
an epic American adventure
topic_facet
Buck, Rinker
Flatboats
History
Nonfiction
Travel
Flatboats
History
Nonfiction
Travel
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