The End of the River
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Narrated by:
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Simon Winchester
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By:
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Simon Winchester
About this listen
When it comes to climate-change-inspired threats, it is rising sea levels we hear most about. But if the oceans are, as Herman Melville put it, “the tide-beating heart of the Earth”, rivers are its circulatory system. In the United States, there is no river more storied, symbolic, and vital than the Mississippi, and none, to use Mark Twain’s word, more lawless. The struggle to control it has been going on nearly as long as there has been human civilization on its banks, and the attendant drama and dangers have been memorialized by many writers, among them Twain and, in his seminal 1987 New Yorker account, John McPhee. Now Simon Winchester, the consummate, critically acclaimed storyteller and best-selling author of Atlantic and The Professor and the Madman, turns his eye to what could well be the height of the battle, one increasingly doomed by man’s interference.
The most fateful instance of this interference was accomplished by an inventor and steamboat captain, Henry Miller Shreve, in the 19th century. In vivid detail, Winchester recreates the smashing and digging and the great man- and steam power that Shreve wielded to clear the river of snags and logjams and, in order to shorten the passage to New Orleans, carve an entirely new channel for it. What no one foresaw was that his celebrated shortcut, Shreve’s Cut, would form a sloping chute to an adjacent river, the Atchafalaya, and, aided by gravity and shifting weather patterns, increasingly tempt the waters of the Mississippi in its direction. Resisting this trend with ever more ingenious methods (and ever more expense) began just after, first with a system of levees, then with added spillways, and, finally, with the conception and construction of a floodgate system, the Old River Control Structure, still in place today. And the stakes are high: If - many say when - the Atchafalaya captures the Mississippi’s stream, it will be the end of life as it’s currently known in the American South. The great cities of Louisiana - New Orleans and Baton Rouge - would be rendered fetid swamps; entire sections of the American infrastructure, from pipelines to electricity and water supply, would collapse. Homes would be displaced and livelihoods, if not lives, would be lost.
Deftly combining the hydrological and the historical, Winchester tours the challenges that upped the ante on the Mississippi River Commission’s duty to protect the watershed and its inhabitants: the upheavals that came in the form of the Great Flood of 1927, one of the most destructive natural disasters of all time, displacing more people than almost any event in American history, and the record-breaking inundations of 1937 and 1973. He pays tribute to the Army Corps of Engineers, for their Herculean efforts to keep the river on its current track, and to one civilian, Albert Einstein’s son Hans Albert Einstein, a hydraulic engineer and one of the main architects of the mighty control structure that continues to divide the Mississippi from the Atchafalaya. But how long can it hold in a time when extremes of weather are the norm, when storms come faster and more furiously, sending sediment-loaded water pounding against the floodgates - events that not only pit man against nature but, given that we cannot always agree which causes and correctives to pursue, man against man?
In this elegant synthesis of past and present, the exigencies of the natural world and the human, Winchester offers an engrossing cautionary tale that listeners cannot afford to ignore. It is a call to arms that asks whether accepting defeat - letting nature take its course - may be the only way to win.
©2020 Scribd Originals (P)2020 Scribd OriginalsListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
As breathtaking today as when it was completed, Hoover Dam ranks among America's greatest achievements. The story of its conception, design, and construction is the story of the United States at a unique moment in history: when facing both a global economic crisis and the implacable elements of nature, we prevailed.
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A Political Biography of the Dam
- By Roy on 02-20-11
By: Michael Hiltzik
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Hoover Dam
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- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the spring of 1931, in a rugged desert canyon on the Arizona-Nevada border, an army of workmen began one of the most difficult and daring building projects ever undertaken: the construction of Hoover Dam. Through the worst years of the Great Depression as many as five thousand laborers toiled twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, to erect the huge structure that would harness the Colorado River and transform the American West.
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Enjoyed this book
- By Nancy Ann on 02-18-20
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The Dream of the Iron Dragon
- An Alternate History Viking Epic (Saga of the Iron Dragon, Book 1)
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- Length: 14 hrs and 56 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the 23rd century, humanity has been hunted to the verge of extinction by an alien race. When an exploratory ship accidentally travels back in time to Viking-age Scandinavia, the human race is given a second chance. Pursued by the power-hungry King Harald, the four surviving crew members join a ragtag band of Vikings as they pillage their way across Europe. To save humanity, they must somehow return to the stars. Thus begins a decades-long effort to teach the Vikings to build a craft capable of reaching space - a ship that will come to be known as the Iron Dragon.
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bumbling fools. with incomplete Tech.
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By: Robert Kroese
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Under Pressure
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Story
On Monday, August 30, 1920, the S-Five, the newest member of the U.S. Navy's fleet of submarines, departs Boston on her first cruise. Two days later, as part of a routine test of the submarine's ability to crash dive, her crew's failure to close a faulty valve sends 75 tons of seawater blasting in. Before the valve can be jury-rigged shut, the S-Five sits precariously on the ocean floor under 180 feet of water. They have little air, no water, and only the dimmest of light by which to plan their escape.
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Riveting Tale -- Thumbs up if your a submarine fan
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By: A.J. Hill
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Breaking Rockefeller
- The Incredible Story of the Ambitious Rivals Who Toppled an Oil Empire
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Marcus Samuel, Jr., is an unorthodox Jewish merchant trader. Henri Deterding is a take-no-prisoners oilman. In 1889 John D. Rockefeller is at the peak of his power. Having annihilated all competition and possessing near-total domination of the market, even the US government is wary of challenging the great "anaconda" of Standard Oil. The Standard never loses - that is, until Samuel and Deterding team up to form Royal Dutch Shell.
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Tale of business, cultures, dances as it teaches
- By Philo on 05-25-16
By: Peter B. Doran
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Assembling California
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At various times in a span of fifteen years, John McPhee made geological field surveys in the company of Eldridge Moores, a tectonicist at the University of California at Davis. The result of these trips is Assembling California, a cross-section in human and geologic time, from Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada through the golden foothills of the Mother Lode and across the Great Central Valley to the wine country of the Coast Ranges, the rock of San Francisco, and the San Andreas family of faults.
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Subduction leads to orogeny zones in California
- By Darwin8u on 11-30-13
By: John McPhee
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Life on the Mississippi
- An Epic American Adventure
- By: Rinker Buck
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
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Overall
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Seven years ago, readers and listeners 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.
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Too Political and Divisive
- By Bill on 08-29-22
By: Rinker Buck
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Ruthless Tide
- The Heroes and Villains of the Johnstown Flood, America’s Astonishing Gilded Age Disaster
- By: Al Roker
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
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Overall
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A gripping narrative history of the 1889 Johnstown Flood - the deadliest flood in US history - from New York Times best-selling author, NBC host, and legendary weather authority Al Roker. May 1889: After a deluge of rainfall swelled the Little Conemaugh River, panicked engineers watched helplessly as swiftly rising waters threatened to breach the South Fork Dam in central Pennsylvania. Though they telegraphed neighboring towns, warning of the impending danger, residents, used to false alarms, remained in their homes. At 3:10 p.m., the dam gave way....
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Mispronunciation bothers me
- By Tracy on 09-08-18
By: Al Roker
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Coal
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Performance
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The fascinating, often surprising story of how a simple black rock altered the course of history. Yet the mundane mineral that built our global economy, and even today powers our electrical plants, has also caused death, disease, and environmental destruction. In this remarkable book, Barbara Freese takes us on a rich historical journey that begins three hundred million years ago and spans the globe.
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Uses Coal to push her Political Agenda
- By Kismet on 08-22-06
By: Barbara Freese
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The Dawn of Innovation
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- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
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Overall
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In the 30 years after the Civil War, the United States blew by Great Britain to become the greatest economic power in world history. That is a well-known period in history, when titans like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and J. P. Morgan walked the earth. But as Charles R. Morris shows us, the platform for that spectacular growth spurt was built in the first half of the century. By the 1820s, America was already the world's most productive manufacturer and the most intensely commercialized society in history.
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How our industries started
- By Jean on 02-22-13
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The Great Quake
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A riveting narrative about the biggest earthquake in North American recorded history - the 1964 Alaska earthquake that demolished the city of Valdez and swept away the island village of Chenega - and the geologist who hunted for clues to explain how and why it took place.
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Fascinating to hear the full story
- By Debby A Davis on 08-18-17
By: Henry Fountain
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The Road Taken
- The History and Future of America's Infrastructure
- By: Henry Petroski
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Performance
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Physical infrastructure in the United States is crumbling. The American Society of Civil Engineers has, in its latest report, given American roads and bridges a grade of D and C+, respectively, and has described roughly 65,000 bridges in the United States as 'structurally deficient'. This crisis - and one need look no further than the I-35W bridge collapse in Minnesota to see that it is indeed a crisis - shows little sign of abating short of a massive change in attitude amongst politicians and the American public.
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Well put
- By Lawrence on 08-10-17
By: Henry Petroski
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Queen of the Lakes (Great Lakes Books Series)
- By: Mark L. Thompson
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Overall
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Performance
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This book is an account of ships that have borne the name Queen of the Lakes, an honorary title indicating that, at the time of its launching, a ship is the longest on the Great Lakes. In one of the most comprehensive books ever written on the maritime history of the lakes, Mark Thompson presents a vignette of each of the dozens of ships that have held the title, chronicling the dates the ship sailed, its dimensions, the derivation of its name, its role in the economic development of the region, and its sailing history.
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Another masterful job by Mark Thompson
- By Dave T. on 07-05-23
By: Mark L. Thompson
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Full Steam Ahead
- How the Railways Made Britain
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The Age of Railways was an era of extraordinary change which utterly transformed every aspect of British life - from trade and transportation to health and recreation. Full Steam Ahead reveals how the world we live in today was entirely shaped by the rail network, charting the glorious evolution of rail transportation and how it left its mark on every aspect of life, landscape and culture. Peter Ginn and Ruth Goodman brilliantly bring this revolution to life in their trademark style, which engages and captivates.
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,,,,Hi,,,, Research,,
- By Richard Jones on 10-10-24
By: Peter Ginn, and others
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a great summation of the Great River
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This book does not succeed
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Aftermath
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How does a nation recover from fascism and turn toward a free society once more? This internationally acclaimed revelatory history of the transformational decade that followed World War II illustrates how Germany raised itself out of the ashes of defeat and reckoned with the corruption of its soul and the horrors of the Holocaust - and features over 40 eye-opening black-and-white photographs and posters from the period.
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Where are the photos?
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What listeners say about The End of the River
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- Anonymous User
- 10-05-24
Absolutely Essential Listening
Hurricane Katrina put New Orleans in peril from the sea, but future storms like the recent Hurricane Helene will put it at great risk of being abandoned by the Mississippi. Learn how and why by listening to this excellent piece of reporting.
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- Pablo M
- 10-18-21
Winchester is, as always, amazing
The only thing better than reading these myself is listening to Winchester read his own work. The inflection is absolutely delightful, and I'm ever so pleased to get to hear him read more of his writing.
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- Dorn Cranert
- 05-06-22
Stunning Informative and Scarry as Hell
Only Simon Winchester could do this incredible information justice! This little bedtime story raised both my heartbeat and blood pressure ten points during the listen! Fun information to know and gut wrenching in its terrible possibilities.
Because I love information like this my wife has recently nicknamed me “Mayday “! This is a “Mayday tale!
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- rattyaddy
- 03-30-23
Excellent
More information I knew nothing about. Recommend it on Audible. Walk about. Go to beach, woods, etc and listen. ✅👍💕🎈
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- Sam Robertson
- 12-27-21
Another fine work, flawed only by its brevity.
The Master once again has produced a masterful work -- his erudition enhanced by his own immensely satisfying narration. I regret only that S.W. saw fit, probably out of necessity, to limit the spoken book to less than two hours. But, I'll take what I can get and be thankful for it. Thanks, Simon!
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- Robin
- 05-27-24
Splendid
Structurally and narratively. (one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten more words)
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- mr jimi
- 09-07-22
Very short recording
I am a big fan of Simon Winchester, and am an even bigger fan of the Mississippi River. But, was very disappointed to learn that this recording was under 1 1/2 hours long. Way too short to use up 1 whole credit. If you are really interested in the learning more about the river, stick to Mark Twain.
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- Something 2018
- 12-16-21
too short
I thought it would be a long book like his others. otherwise a great book
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- JohnDoe
- 03-09-22
very mediocre
yes, I am a great fan of Simon Winchester. This one just didn't measure up.
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