katallison (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
katallison) wrote2005-09-04 09:39 am
katallison) wrote2005-09-04 09:39 am
(no subject)
[crossposted to MetaFilter] As part of its coverage of the hurricane disaster, the New Yorker has posted on-line John McPhee's excellent and lengthy 1987 essay on the Atchafalaya basin and the Army Corps of Engineers' long-running efforts to control the Mississippi. The piece is available in print in McPhee's book The Control of Nature, but I'm delighted that TNY decided to make it available electronically--it's fascinating, and rereading it reminds me of what a stellar writer McPhee is.
It's a great read for anyone, but especially those of us who need a break from the ongoing disaster news and are interested in learning more about the larger-scale historical background of political/economic/engineering decisions that led us to try to thwart Nature in the Mississippi delta.
It's a great read for anyone, but especially those of us who need a break from the ongoing disaster news and are interested in learning more about the larger-scale historical background of political/economic/engineering decisions that led us to try to thwart Nature in the Mississippi delta.