Just finished reading a wonderful book, and as I closed its cover, this warm, satisfied feeling came over me. It’s just one of the many benefits that the venerable medium still offers here in this modern age.
As other forms of entertainment vie for the public’s consumption and rabid anti-woke nutcases try to ban books and denude the shelves of school and public libraries of worthy works they deem “dangerous” to youths, book publishing still remains robust, even if sales are expected to decline by some 2% annually in the coming years. Last year more than 788 million printed books were sold in the US, with fiction being the largest segment of the market. That’s whole lot of people continuing to read offline.
The book that so enraptured me is one that I touted earlier in the Populist Picks that close all of these columns: “Life on the Mississippi” by Rinker Buck, which follows his #1 New York Times list bestseller, “The Oregon Trail.” I have to give Buck props for his audacity in titling his tome the same as a Mark Twain classic. Yet it measures up admirably, with a very different yet similarly worthy tale of river travel, life and culture, plus much more.
Buck’s previous book, mentioned above, recounts a modern journey by covered wagon along the famed frontier route to the West Coast. “Life on the Mississippi” uncovers a far lesser-known, yet pivotal form of travel in the early years of this nation: by flatboat, which were hand-built, square-hulled craft that were the primary mode of transport for people and goods in the era from, roughly, about 1800 up to the Civil War.
As Americans of the day moved over the Appalachian range and into the west, flatboats along rivers that flow into the Mississippi offered an efficient alternative to wooden wagons on rough and rutted dirt trails. A family could construct a boat and load up the brood, family possessions plus farm implements and even animals and set out to find a place to stake a land claim. Then disassemble the boat and use the wood to build a homestead. Flatboats were also how farm produce, furs and other products from settlers, trappers and such moved their wares to markets downriver, often all the way to the bustling port of New Orleans.
Rinker had a flatboat built, named it Patience, and launched it into the Monongahela upriver from Pittsburgh, to journey all the way to the Crescent City at the mouth of the Mississippi. The book’s subtitle is “An Epic American Adventure.” Though aspects of it are epic – a potent sales pitch – the book is really more of a human adventure, accent on American.
As he makes his way along the river flow into the Ohio and then the mighty Mississippi, Buck interweaves deep dives into the history and culture of our nation’s flatboat past and the waterways and river towns and cities that sprouted up along them, with keen observations on the modern state of the watery byways, ranging from industrial blight to still-remaining pockets of unspoiled beauty.
Commerce still courses the waterways in barge strings driven by tugboats, which present navigational challenges to match the daunting natural hazards of the ever-shifting and constantly-changing river ecosystems. The book is also a compelling account of how Brink takes on the personal task he set for himself of traveling old-school style on the rivers of our nation today.
Along the way – contrary to the title, more of the tome flows down the Ohio than Mississippi, but no matter – Buck interacts with a broad swath of folks intrigued by and helpful to his quest that offers a vivid and encouraging slide show of Americans. At its end, he offers a telling overview of how the migration and trade by river affected indigenous people and the slavery trade. Such honest history could fire up the anti-woke zealots to try to ban a masterful work like this, which would be a shame. Its mixture of river life then and now spotlights our nation’s rich human tapestry, not glossing over the stains and tattered edges of our history. Like Twain in his book of the same title, Buck offers up the real America and its people that informs and enriches our understanding out national character by taking us on captivating journey.
Populist Picks
Book: “The Last Castle” by Denise Kiernan – Next up in my reading is this picturesque account of how George Vanderbilt constructed one of Anerica’s most artfully crafted and sumptuous grand homes, Biltmore, and the edenic parklands that surround it in North Carolina mountains during the Gilded Age – a time with parallels to today. Like the book above, it delves into our heritage, and in this case a glorious remnant, to enhance our sense of national character.
Album: “The Chicago Sessions” by Rodney Crowell – The poet laureate of contemporary country roots songwriting teams up with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy as producer in a set that brings Crowell back around to the spirit and sensibility of his magnificent and literate 1978 debut, a link denoted by the similar cover designs. His gift for making timelessly enduring musical and lyrical Americana continues shining light brightly.
Rob Patterson is a music and entertainment writer in Austin, Texas. Email robpatterson054@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, August 1, 2023
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