Life on the Mississippi : an epic American adventure
(Book)

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Published
New York, NY : Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2022.
Format
Book
Edition
First Avid Reader Press hardcover edition.
ISBN
9781501106378, 1501106376
Status

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LocationCall NumberStatus
Ilsley Public Library - New Materials Area977 BuckOn Shelf

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Published
New York, NY : Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2022.
Edition
First Avid Reader Press hardcover edition.
Physical Desc
397 pages : illustrations (some color), maps ; 25 cm
Language
English
ISBN
9781501106378, 1501106376

Notes

Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description
"A modern-day Huck Finn, Rinker 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."--,Amazon.com

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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Buck, R. (2022). Life on the Mississippi: an epic American adventure (First Avid Reader Press hardcover edition.). Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc..

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Buck, Rinker, 1950-. 2022. Life On the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure. Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Buck, Rinker, 1950-. Life On the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc, 2022.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Buck, Rinker. Life On the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure First Avid Reader Press hardcover edition., Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2022.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

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