Jacob McMahon
Literature Review
In 1927 the residents of the Mississippi River Valley were subjected to the
greatest natural disaster in American history. As a result of unrelenting rains
beginning late in the summer of 1926, by the spring of 1927 a vast part of the
central United States began to flood.1 As the crisis mounted and relief efforts began,
President Calvin Coolidge appointed the Secretary of Commerce and rising
republican star, Herbert Hoover, as chairman of the Special Mississippi Flood
Committee. Hoover used his bureaucratic experience to direct resources to regions
in need, all the while making his name well known throughout affected regions.
With newfound name recognition and a polished reputation, Hoover ran for and
won the presidency in 1928. This made his unsatisfactory leadership during the
Great Depression all the more disappointing to a nation originally seduced by his
competence during crisis. Why did the “Great Humanitarian” fail to lead during the
America’s greatest social and economic crisis when a reading of his resume would
have predicted otherwise.
Two sets of closely related literature have been researched to answer this
question. These are the studies of the 1927 Mississippi flood and writings on
Herbert Hoover’s political philosophy and his actions during crisis. These two
bodies of work have evolved in tandem over the last eighty years as Hoover’s
1
John Barry, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America
(New York: Touchstone, 1997), 172-176.
1
political career was advanced to a great degree by his role during the flood of ’27.
Two broad trends can be seen in these collections of work. Hoover will never be
remembered as a great president, most still consider him inflexible and ineffectual.
However, there are those who now recognize that his idea of “associative
government” was a logical stepping-stone on the way to expanded state
involvement in the economic and social spheres of the country.2 Writings concerned
solely with the flood of 1927 are easily divided into literature published before John
Barry’s Rising Tide, published in 1997, and items published after it. After its release,
Rising Tide became the authority on the subject, with almost all writing on the
subject using the book as a main source.
The collective historical memory of the Hoover Presidency will most likely
not improve much in the foreseeable future. However, scholars, excepting those
with strong ideological ties, left or right, have painted a more nuanced picture of the
31st president. Roger Lambert’s 1970 article, Hoover and the Red Cross in the
Arkansas Drought of 1930, provides a good depiction of the public’s view of Hoover
in the years after the stock market crash of 1929, with hands tied by strict ideology
and generally unsympathetic to the plight of the suffering. Though Lambert
recognizes the complexity of Hoover’s misgivings about direct governmental
intervention, he nonetheless provides several examples of Hoover at his most
callous. Hoover’s choice to quote Grover Cleveland during a drought of unusual
2
Bruce A. Lohof, “Herbert Hoover, Spokesman of Humane Efficiency: The Mississippi Flood of
1927,” American Quarterly 22 (Autumn 1970): 698-700.
2
severity is a particularly good example, “though the people support the government,
the government should not support the people.”3
Some scholars have sought to temper the notion of a coldhearted Hoover
with an understanding of his own deep political convictions and successes as a
humanitarian. Lohof’s Herbert Hoover: Spokesman of Humane Efficiency is a good
example of this view. Bruce Lohof describes Hoover as a committed individualist
and competent bureaucrat, terms that are now considered antithetical, but not by
Hoover. Lohof argued that Hoover viewed bureaucracy and the individual as
“necessary partners in a society of increasing industrial and urban complexity.”4
This philosophy of individualism enabled by bureaucratic organization was called
the “Associative State,” a system in which the government would be able to direct
resources between private and local groups to maximize voluntary action without
direct government intervention.5 Gerald Nash’s Herbert Hoover and the Origins of
the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, published in 1959, adds to the argument for
a more sympathetic, “hands on” Hoover. The article makes Hoover’s reluctance to
utilize government as a vehicle for extending credit obvious.6 However, his effort is
admirable, even if not quite adequate in the end. This concept of “good, but not good
enough” would be a recurring criticism of many of Hoover’s actions, one that John
3
Roger Lambert, “Hoover and the Red Cross in the Arkansas Drought of 1930,” The Arkansas
Historical Quarterly 29 (Spring 1970): 19.
4
Lohof, Herbert Hoover, 699.
5
For a detailed explanation of the development of this concept during the 1920’s see, Ellis W.
Hawley, “Herbert Hoover Commerce Secretariat, and the Vision of an “Associative State,” 19211928,” The Journal of American History 61 (June 1974): 116-140.
6
Gerald D. Nash, “Herbert Hoover and the Origins of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation,”
The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 46 (Dec. 1959):455-468.
3
Barry would pick up on with Rising Tide, when writing an account of his actions
during flood relief efforts.
John Barry’s Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it
Changed America has become the definitive account of the ’27 flood. Articles were
published in the decades before Rising Tide’s publication in 1997, but in the wake of
Hurricane Katrina much was published on the flood, and Barry’s text is an
ubiquitous source.7 As far as books are concerned Rising Tide was preceded by the
1978 work Deep’n as It Come, by Pete Daniels. This relatively short work focused
less on the national impact of the ’27 flood in favor of anecdotal information relating
to the experience of the average Mississippi Valley resident.8 Much of the scholarly
works found concerning the flood published before Rising Tide are mainly
concerned with the experiences of localities effected by flood waters.9 These works
provide good anecdotal evidence, but little analysis of national issues connected to
the incident. The development of engineering policy and flood control along the
Mississippi has also been discussed thoroughly both in Rising Tide and other works,
the general consensus being that A.A. Humphreys’ scientific recommendations and
the bureaucratic nonsense of the Mississippi River Commission resulted in a “levees
only” policy which doomed the region to inevitable flooding.10
7
Nicolaus Mills, “Herbert Hoover and Hurricane Katrina” Dissent 53 (Winter 2006): 12-13.
James R. Chumney, “Review: Deep’n as It Come: The 1927 Mississippi River Flood” The
Journal of Southern History 44 (Feb. 1978): 137-138.
9
Russell Bearden, “Jefferson County’s Worst Disaster: The Flood of 1927” The Arkansas
Historical Quarterly 43 (Winter 1984): 324-338.
Edythe Simpson, “Twenty –Seven Days on the Levee” The Arkansas Historical Quarterly 39
(Autumn 1980): 210-229.
10
Barry, Rising Tide.
8
4
Since its release, Barry’s Rising Tide has dominated literature on the
Mississippi flood of 1927 and has played a major role in the debate on the political
rise of Herbert Hoover to the presidency. In a post-Katrina era it has become a
favorite source of those who are apt to make comparisons between George Bush’s
handling of the disaster and Hoover’s relief efforts, spawning plenty of editorial
writing on the subject of disaster management in a still stratified South. However, it
is curious that there was not more literature produced after another Southern water
crisis, namely the Mississippi flood of 1993. A few works have been found, but not in
the volume one might expect. There will undoubtedly be another flood though,
providing reason to revisit this chapter in American history. Perhaps the pending
flood will be of a magnitude great enough to settle the ongoing flood control debate,
a debate still dictated to a large extent by the Army Corps of Engineers, whose
Project Flood disaster plan remains to a great degree untested.
Bibliography
Barry,John M. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed
America 1 ed. New York, NY: Touchstone, 1997.
Martin Reuss, “The Army Corps of Engineers and Flood-Control Politics on the Lower
Mississippi” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association 23 (Spring 1982):
131-148.
George S. Pabis, “Delaying the Deluge: The Engineering Debate over Flood Control on the Lower
Mississippi River, 1846-1861” The Journal of Southern History 64 (Aug 1998): 421-454.
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Bearden, Russell. "Jefferson County's Worst Disaster: The Flood of 1927." The Arkansas
Historical Quarterly 43, no. 4 (1984): 324-338.
Chumney, James R. “Review: Deep’n as it Come: The 1927 Mississippi River Flood.”
The Journal of Southern History 44, no.1 (1978): 137-138
Cobb, James C. ""Somebody Done Nailed Us on the Cross": Federal Farm and Welfare
Policy and the Civil Rights Movement in the Mississippi Delta." The Journal of
American History 77, no. 3 (1990): 912-936.
Dawes, Richard and Ethel C. Simpson. "Letters from the Flood." The Arkansas Historical
Quarterly 55, no. 3 (1996): 251-285.
Destler, Chester M. "The Opposition of American Businessmen to Social Control During
the "Gilded Age"." The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 39, no. 4 (1953):
641-672.
Fusfeld, Daniel R. "The Source of New Deal Reformism: A Note." Ethics 65, no. 3
(1955): 218- 219.
Haas, William H. "The Mississippi River-Asset or Liability." Economic Geography 7, no.
3 (1931): 252-262.
Hawley, Ellis W. "Herbert Hoover, the Commerce Secretariat, and the Vision of an
"Associative State," 1921- 1928." The Journal of American History 61, no. 1
(1974): 116-140.
Heiberg III, E.R. "A corps chief looks at Rising Tide." Civil Engineering (08857024) 68,
no. 2 (February 1998): 54-56. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost
(accessed September 11, 2010).
Hobson, Edythe S. "Twenty-Seven Days on the Levee: 1927." The Arkansas Historical
Quarterly 39, no. 3 (1980): 210-229.
Hoover, Herbert and Bruce A. Lohof. “Herbert Hoover's Mississippi Valley Land Reform
Memorandum: A Document.” The Arkansas Historical Quarterly 29, no. 2
(1970): 112-118.
Keller, Robert R. "The Role of the State in the U.S. Economy during the 1920s." Journal
of Economic Issues 21, no. 2 (1987): 877-884.
Lambert, Roger. "Hoover and the Red Cross in the Arkansas Drought of 1930." The
Arkansas Historical Quarterly 29, no. 1 (1970): 3-19.
Lohof, Bruce A. "Herbert Hoover, Spokesman of Humane Efficiency: The Mississippi
Flood of 1927." American Quarterly 22, no. 3 (1970): 690-700.
McBride, Mary G. and Ann M. McLaurin. "The Origin of the Mississippi River
Commission." Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical
Association 36, no. 4 (1995): 389-411.
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McMillen, Niel R. "Perry W. Howard, Boss of Black-and-Tan Republicanism in
Mississippi, 1924-1960." The Journal of Southern History 48, no. 2 (1982):
205-224.
Means, Gay G. "Louisianians and Natural Disasters: A Glimpse into the Years, 19271934." Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association
30, no. 3 (1989): 317-321.
Mills, Nicolaus. "Herbert Hoover and Hurricane Katrina." Dissent 53, no. 1 (2006): 1213.
Nash, Gerald D. "Herbert Hoover and the Origins of the Reconstruction Finance
Corporation." The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 46, no. 3 (1959): 455468.
Pabis, George S. "Delaying the Deluge: The Engineering Debate over Flood Control on t
he
Lower Mississippi River, 1846-1861." The Journal of Southern History
64, no. 3 (1998): 421-454.
Payne, John Barton. "Review of Red Cross Relief Activities in Mississippi Flood Area."
Congressional Digest 7, no. 2 (February 1928): 42-43. Academic Search
Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed September 11, 2010).
Pearcy, Matthew T. "A History of the Ransdell-Humphreys Flood Control Act of 1917."
Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association 41, no. 2
(2000): 133-159.
Reuss, Martin. "The Army Corps of Engineers and Flood-Control Politics on the Lower
Mississippi." Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical
Association 23, no. 2 (1982): 131-148.
Spencer, Robyn. "Contested Terrain: The Mississippi Flood of 1927 and the Struggle to
Control Black Labor." The Journal of Negro History 79, no. 2 (1994): 170-181.
Wernet, Mary L. "The United States Senator Overton Collection and the History It Holds
Relating to the Control of Floods in the Alluvial Valley of the Mississippi, 19361948." Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association
46, no. 4 (2005): 449-464.
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