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Library Journal Review

While exploring the Mississippi by towboat, flying over its mouth, and hiking its levees, Mathur (landscape architecture, Univ. of Pennsylvania) and da Cunha (fine arts, Univ. of Pennsylvania and Parsons School of Design) encountered a range of opinions on how the river should be handled. In this beautiful working document, they seek common ground among the conflicting interests of flood control, navigation, ecology, and environmental protection. Through essays and original works of art, the lower Mississippi is portrayed as a dynamic, living phenomenon, especially in a landscape of flood. The gorgeous prints, drawings, paintings, and collages make this a book to treasure, while the hydrographs, models, maps, photographs, and enlargements of design elements will interest engineers, policy makers, and residents, as well as historians and armchair travelers. The authors hope that the book will lead to a public project to rethink the present ideological constructions of the lower Mississippi. Despite the need for a magnifying glass to appreciate many of the images, this book is highly recommended for academic and public libraries. Margaret Aycock, Gulf Coast Environmental Lib., Beaumont, TX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Mathur and da Cunha's beautifully produced book introduces the human and natural history of the Mississippi River. Richly illustrated with full color images throughout, the book travels through the various environments of the River in five chapters. The images include maps, drawings, paintings, and photographs. Although technical material is included throughout, it is really neither textbook nor monograph. Rather, it is a general introduction, which leaves one with a feeling for the history and workings of this stream and its landscape. The index is useful for reference after having read the book, but the table of contents is not very useful for guiding a reader to specific information. The book seems best suited as leisure reading for an educated audience, as opposed to serving as a text or resource tool. Very reasonable price for the quality. General readers. I. D. Sasowsky University of Akron