Thanks to “Ol’ Man River,” the Broadway show tune made famous by Paul Robeson, many of us grew up thinking of the Mississippi River not merely as a piece of geography but a giant personality. That ...

"The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi" by Boyce Upholt, W.W. Norton, 352 pages When we look out at the Mississippi River, beyond the levee we usually see the always-swirling, ...

In an often-excerpted passage from his memoir, Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain describes how his perceptions of the Mississippi River changed after he spent months piloting a steamboat up and down ...

The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi by Boyce Upholt. W.W. Norton, 2024 ($29.99) Blast. Carve. Dredge. Smash. Such powerful verbs fill a single paragraph midstream in Boyce ...

OXFORD – The early days of America are often told from the perspective of the East Coast, where George Washington and company forged a new country. But much of what made America actually originated on ...

For centuries, America’s relationship with the Mississippi has been fraught. The river’s central location and impressive length make it a crucial shipping route, but its channel is naturally shallow ...

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"When The Stars Came Out: The Story of the Mississippi River Festival," by Mike Pierce, of Glen Carbon, came out March 24. To buy the book, visit https ...